Israel Should Export Half Its Natural Gas

Israel will allow energy companies to export 57% of the country's natural gas while ensuring that reserves equivalent to 25 years of domestic use are set aside for the local economy, a draft report of the Tzemach committee obtained by The Marker recommends, Haaretz reported.

The inter-ministerial committee, tasked with establishing official policy on gas, proposes increasing the amount of gas available to the economy by 7%, to 450 billion cubic meters, compared with its own interim recommendation.

But the panel retreated from an earlier demand that the energy companies keep an operational capacity of 15% of the gas reserves, the newspaper said.

The committee said its proposals gave precedence to the needs of the Israeli economy in what it said is a "balanced" way and do nothing to "hurt in any unrestrained way" the value of the reserves.

Israel faces critical choices about the immense gas reserves that have been found off its Mediterranean coast, with pressure from the developers, led by the Texas company Noble Energy, to export energy, while others are urging the country to preserve its energy resources for domestic use.

Meanwhile, the economy faces a severe gas shortage as Egyptian supplies have been cut while Israel's biggest fields don't go on line until next year. The Tzemach committee said the current shortage would not be fully alleviated until 2016.

Source: Haaretz