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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel Approves Drilling For Oil In Golan Heights
2013-02-24
The times, they are a-changing.
Israel awarded the first license to drill for oil on the Golan Heights, local media reported Thursday. A New Jersey-based company was awarded the license, covering half the area of the Golan from the latitude of Katzrin in the north to Tzemach in the south.
Israel considers it Israel proper no matter what the Syrians think.
Sources informed ''Globes'' that, a few days ago, the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources' Petroleum Council recommended awarding the license to Genie Energy Ltd., headed by former minister Effie Eitam. Shareholders include chairman Howard Jonas, Lord Jacob Rothschild, and Rupert Murdoch. Former US Vice President Dick Cheney is an adviser.
The JPost has to work in Cheney, Murdoch and the Rothschilds so that you'll know whose side you're supposed to be on...
The process of granting the license began following geological tests, which indicated a large potential oil discovery in the southern Golan Heights.
Seems like there is oil just about everywhere there. Plenty of oil and NG in the eastern Med basin between Israel, Lebanon and Cyprus, so it shouldn't be a surprise that there is oil in the Golan. What about in northern Israel? Find oil there and the Israelis could really have something.
On the basis of the findings, last summer, Minister of Energy and Water Resources Uzi Landau declared the Golan as open for oil and gas exploration and production activity. Following the announcement, two license applications were filed with the Petroleum Commissioner for the southern Golan, an area of thousands of hectares.
Posted by:trailing wife

#8  Good work, good timing.
Posted by: newc   2013-02-24 22:33  

#7  "Due to all our accumulated advantages we can afford inefficiency and gridlock"

Not anymore, we can't. :-(
Posted by: Barbara   2013-02-24 19:38  

#6  Israel does have regulatory bodies that, correctly, regard environmental protection as important. However, energy is even more of a national security issue for Israel than it is for the US and, as a smaller nation, they have to look at the trade-offs more intelligently than we do. Due to all our accumulated advantages we can afford inefficiency and gridlock, but we'd be better off if we came to our senses.
Posted by: Odysseus   2013-02-24 16:46  

#5  Israel seems to have streamlined the drilling permitting process. Bibi and his administration must not be unfriendly towards business and Israel must not have an EPA, a BLM, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Interior. There must be some other agencies that I have missed that have to sign off on drilling in the U.S. as the process is so bottlenecked by politics and bureaucracy.
Posted by: JohnQC   2013-02-24 15:47  

#4  The Israelis "really have something" just with the E. Med basin alone. They also played it smart by cutting in the Russians to buy a little protection and by R&D in underwater threat sensing. Benefits are not only financial but diplomatic as Europeans will continue to need to buy natural gas. Most economic means of export would probably be by building a pipeline through Turkey, but with Turkey governed by Moslem extremists that seems unwise (and unlikely).
Posted by: Odysseus   2013-02-24 15:22  

#3  Victori spolia. Drill baby drill!
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-02-24 06:47  

#2  And maybe a neighborly directional drilling into Syria would take the cake.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2013-02-24 04:05  

#1  That ought to get quite a few turbans in a knot.

More, please. :-D
Posted by: Barbara   2013-02-24 00:33  

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