Haaretz: Israel's gas reserves insufficient for exports

Israel will need 50% more natural gas than has been forecast until now and its offshore reserves will be empty in less than 40 years, two of the government's chief scientists said in a letter that the government chose not to publicize.

Three months ago, when the Tzemach Committee appointed to draft a natural gas policy published its interim reports, quite a few eyebrows were raised. This wasn't because the committee backed the proposal to export half the natural gas in the offshore reserves; it had been considering this from the beginning.

What was surprising was a letter that followed the report's publication, written by the Environmental Protection Ministry's director general, Alona Sheffer-Caro, a member of the committee.

In the letter, she said she objected to the committee's conclusions, and noted that she hadn't been the only one.

The Environmental Protection Ministry's stance had been publicized in advance, but Sheffer-Caro stated in her letter: "Remember the letter from the chief scientists from the Energy and Water Ministry and the Environmental Protection Ministry stated that there had been multiple errors in the Natural Gas Authority's projections of natural gas demand, which is going to be significantly higher than even the authority's maximum projection."

In other words, the quantity of gas that the regulator stated Israel needs to keep for itself rather than export is way too low. MORE