Israel Strikes Natural Gas, Leaving Lots of Environmental Questions

January 23, 2009 - 9:35 AM by Karin Kloosterman

noble-energyAmidst all its struggles to develop clean and cleaner technologies (and a war with Gaza), it seem that Israelis got a huge gift this week: Israelis were celebrating this week over the discovery of a massive 3 trillion cubic feet natural gas pocket found buried 1.5 km below the sea floor, some 90 km off the coastal city Haifa.

I’d spoke this week with a rep from one of the major stakeholders, Shaya Segal from Delek Drilling, who confirms the find, but who, like the local analysts were saying, says that it will take about 2.5 weeks to know what the discovery can mean. (Here’s the story on ISRAEL21c).

I’ve read reports that taking the natural gas stock from the pocket called Tamar, after the granddaughter of a geologist working at the site, will cost somewhere around $1 billion. But that the value of it amounts to about $15 billion.

If Israelis can pull the gas from the seafloor, with the help of a major Houston-based stockholder Noble Energy, then they could, say reports, be energy dependent for 15 years. That means buying less fuel resources, a dream for Israelis.

But natural gas, a fossil fuel, is not exactly a clean fuel.

The find does question however, the direction of Israel’s future and the development of clean technologies. I imagine the discovery is exciting for Shay Agassi at Better Place, who I’ve personally criticized. His plan to use electric cars in Israel was a good idea on paper, but up until now, it looked as though Israel’s power plants would continue to be fueled by very polluting coal sources.

Meanwhile, according to the Jerusalem Post, just when Israelis and Gazans were hoping for quiet, after a ceasefire earlier in the week, we learn that Lebanon is claiming that part of the Tamar natural gas reserve is in Lebanese territorial waters:

“The Lebanese government might warn Noble Energy Inc., a US corporation which is part of the consortium that discovered the Tamar 1 gas reserve off the shores of Haifa, that the reserve may be in part in Lebanese territorial waters, according to Al Liwaa, a Lebanese paper.

“In a meeting of the Energy, Infrastructure and Public Works Committee in the Lebanese Parliament, Chairman Muhammad Kabbani said Israeli media reports on the recently discovered natural gas reserve raise the possibility that the reserve extends to Lebanon’s territorial waters. “We should take every legal measure possible in order to preserve Lebanon’s right,” the paper quoted Kabbani as saying.”

What’s certain, is that it’s never boring over in these parts of the world.

For more on the story unfolding in Israel, read an earlier piece by Green Prophet’s Maurice on the natural gas found off the coast of Gaza. Or Daniel’s post: Israel’s Natural Gas May Lead To Cleaner Air, But Not Energy Independence.

::Green Prophet

Tags: , , , , • Category: Environment 

Comments

2 Comments on Israel Strikes Natural Gas, Leaving Lots of Environmental Questions

  1. Safed coffee factory runs on coffee | ISRAELITY on Tue, Feb 3rd 2009 8:28 PM

    2. [...] itself? The concept of using coffee to obtain energy is hardly a new one, and here in Israel, where new energy sources are always an especially welcome discovery, coffee – especially the iconic Elite-brand instant – is [...]

  2. Daniel Pedersen on Wed, Feb 4th 2009 2:41 PM

    3. While I agree with (almost) everything that Karin says, I think that she’s slightly too critical of both electric cars and of natural gas as a fuel/
    Electric cars: everything I’ve read indicates that driving an internal combustion vehicle will never be cleaner than an electric vehicle, regardless of the fuel burned to make the electricity. So any move to electric cars will improve local air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
    Natural gas: Any move to natural gas for generating electricity or for industry is a vast improvement over the current situation where 75% of electricity comes from coal and most of the industrial energy comes from diesel fuel (or worse). Natural gas emits far less air pollution (the stuff that makes us sick) and far fewer greenhouse gases than either coal or fuel, so any shift in that direction is a better environmental choice.
    Renewable (biogas) and non-fossil (solar, wind) fuels contribute a negligible amount to the current energy market, and even if we were to increase them 20-fold or more, we will still need reliable baseline power. Getting that from “clean” energy is still a LONG way off, but we have to start with it now in order to develop the technology to a point where we will be able to rely on it exclusively.
    So this new gas deposit is still very good news for the environment – so don;t knock it!
    -Daniel

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