Natural Gas Deposits Changes Geopolitical Situation in the Middle East

Natural Gas Changes Geopolitical Situation

An old joke says that Moses made a wrong turn when he led the Israelites out of Egypt. Instead of going to the oil-rich Persian Gulf he wound up in the Holy Land with few natural resources. But times have changed.

TheTamar field, located 54miles (90km)west of Haifa, has begun pumping natural gas. Four years after its discovery, Tamar, which holds an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet (238 billion cubic meters) of gas, is transferring the natural resource to a new facility in Ashdod through pipelines laid on the ocean floor, 90 miles (150 km) long and 16 inches (40 cm) wide. The gas will replace supplies from Egypt which were cut off after Islamist terrorists blew up the pipelines from the Sinai Peninsula following the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. “The Tamar discovery will be able to supply all the needs of the Israeli markets for tens of years to come,” says gas exploration executive Gideon Tadmor.

And this is just the beginning.

Future plans include the development of the much larger Leviathan deposit discovered in 2010, which combined with Tamar will turn Israel from a buyer of energy into a seller. “Israel is going to enter the export phase of natural gas that will enable us to elevate our geopolitical position,” Tadmor said. The gas exports could strengthen Israel’s ties with strategic partners likeTurkey and Europe.

So it seems that Moses got it right, and Israel is the Promised Land after all.