It was not about the deaths of 3 kids, it is about stealing natural resources

[Bob]

Stealing resources of another, Russia does it with Ukraine, Saddam tried it with Kuwait, Iran wanted Iraq's energy (although they have so much of their own).. but that's not exactly the subject of this thread talking about those other countries, however, pointing out what is really happening in Israel and Palestine's territories..

Reasons why.. it is about getting the money, the resources that can be stolen - who wants to talk about billions of dollars in resources when the PRESS will show bombs going off, when people hear psyops spin about 80% of countries being bombed... when kids are dying in hospitals - great press (sigh), but what is being pushed UNDER the carpet, out of sight is ENERGY and RESOURCES are being stolen..

Have folks connected these dots though? Folks are watching the smoke from the bombs, seeing the faces of the death, media is having a field day with another glamorous story of who can capture the most hits, the most tweets, listening to their smartphones while sitting in their lawn-chairs watching the rockets red glare..

The potential of extracting 4 billion dollars worth of Energy right in Palestinian hands has scared the crap out of Israel and they intend to take away from the Palestinian people their rights, their wealth.

The data below is extracted from numerous articles as referenced.

Here is the background:

Let us not forget that Israel captured by de facto all water resources in West Bank during its long occupation. This time, the precious target is not water but gas.

The story of Palestinian gas resources started in 1999 when British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC), were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25-year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian National Authority.

Michel Chossudovsky, professor (emeritus) of economics at the University of Ottawa, and other writers explain Israeli efforts to control these gas fields and prevent Palestinian government and Hamas from gaining any income from the fields by all means. (Global Research Centre for Research on Globalisation website,8 January 2009).

Chossudovsky stated that “from a legal standpoint, the gas reserves belong to Palestine” adding that “the death of Yasser Arafat, the election of the Hamas government and the ruin of the Palestinian [National Authority have enabled Israel to establish de facto control over Gaza’s offshore gas reserves”.

Think about that really - this "war" is really about, Israel wants the energy, the resources that if they can bomb Palestine into submission, they will surrender, and Israel will have the energy for a very small cost of some weapons, a few Israeli citizens being "sacrificed" for the good of the motherland.. a couple kids being sacrificed for the good of the motherland.. And they can take it by force, using sleight of hand to distract the world from what they are doing, showing how much of "80%" of their country to quote BeeBee today on Face the Nation in a one on one interview.. (more continued media psyops spin designed to elicit sympathy), all while the whole maneuver is designed to get the Palestine gas reserves that which Israel has no legitimate right to.

The importance of these fields lies in the huge reserves which were estimated by BG up to 1.4 trillion cubic feet, worth up to an estimated $4 billion, while Chossudovsky says that the size of Palestine’s gas reserves could be much larger.

The importance of such Palestinian government is not political or sentimental but an indispensable necessity because it’s the legitimate and exclusive owner of all natural resources in the Palestinian territorial soil and waters by virtue of international laws.

Remembering that the story of the three colonists started in less than two weeks following the reconciliation and the formation of the Palestinian transitional government last June, explains the rush by Israel to wage this aggression.

In reviewing these past events, the "war", to recap:

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched his aggression on Gaza using a cover story that lacks evidence and was managed through the media only. Israel didn’t reveal a single evidence in the story of “kidnapping” three colonists in an area fully controlled by the Israeli army in the West Bank, except for few seconds of an audio recording that Israel claims an SOS phone call made by one of the kidnapped colonists a few moments after the “kidnaping”. In those seconds, we hear a whispering distress and a voice of someone shouting in Hebrew and telling someone to put their heads down. After a horrifying and repressive campaign in the West Bank, Israel announced that it had found the bodies of the three colonists, but did not conduct any autopsy and announce its results to identify the real reasons of their deaths.

No evidence more than a possible manipulated few seconds of an audio recording. Instead, Israel rushed to accuse Hamas of the “kidnapping” and US rushed — as usual — to provide the cover and green light for the aggression when Secretary of State John Kerry stated that “there are indications of Hamas involvement in the kidnapping”.

But does the revenge for the three Israelis requires mobilising the elite brigades in the Israeli army and more than 60,000 soldiers?

If Israel has decided that trillions of cubic feet of natural gas resource off the shores of Palestine territories can be stolen, using a cover story, and some people and resources "expended" to create energy wealth for the "motherland", a plausible reason to mobilize the sentiments of a psyops programmed country locally and abroad could be manufactured very easily.

And they know how to play the world and push the buttons of the Palestinians to do stupid. Psyops at its finest and Israel gets the energy they so desperately desire.

ref: http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columni...-gas-1.1364615

ref: http://www.globalresearch.ca/is-isra...al-gas/5393103

ref: http://www.theguardian.com/environme...-energy-crisis

And furthermore:

Ya'alon's comments in 2007 illustrate that the Israeli cabinet is not just concerned about Hamas – but concerned that if Palestinians develop their own gas resources, the resulting economic transformation could in turn fundamentally increase Palestinian clout.

Meanwhile, Israel has made successive major discoveries in recent years - such as the Leviathan field estimated to hold 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – which could transform the country from energy importer into aspiring energy exporter with ambitions to supply Europe, Jordan and Egypt. A potential obstacle is that much of the 122 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.6 billion barrels of oil in the Levant Basin Province lies in territorial waters where borders are hotly disputed between Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Cyprus.

And we wonder why are these people fighting?

Amidst this regional jockeying for gas, though, Israel faces its own little-understood energy challenges. It could, for instance, take until 2020 for much of these domestic resources to be properly mobilised.

But this is the tip of the iceberg. A 2012 letter by two Israeli government chief scientists – which the Israeli government chose not to disclose – warned the government that Israel still had insufficient gas resources to sustain exports despite all the stupendous discoveries. The letter, according to Ha'aretz, stated that Israel's domestic resources were 50% less than needed to support meaningful exports, and could be depleted in decades:

"We believe Israel should increase its [domestic] use of natural gas by 2020 and should not export gas. The Natural Gas Authority's estimates are lacking. There's a gap of 100 to 150 billion cubic meters between the demand projections that were presented to the committee and the most recent projections. The gas reserves are likely to last even less than 40 years!"

As Dr Gary Luft - an advisor to the US Energy Security Council - wrote in the Journal of Energy Security, "with the depletion of Israel's domestic gas supplies accelerating, and without an imminent rise in Egyptian gas imports, Israel could face a power crisis in the next few years… If Israel is to continue to pursue its natural gas plans it must diversify its supply sources."

Israel's new domestic discoveries do not, as yet, offer an immediate solution as electricity prices reach record levels, heightening the imperative to diversify supply. This appears to be behind Prime Minister Netanyahu's announcement in February 2011 that it was now time to seal the Gaza gas deal. But even after a new round of negotiations was kick-started between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and Israel in September 2012, Hamas was excluded from these talks, and thus rejected the legitimacy of any deal.

Earlier this year, Hamas condemned a PA deal to purchase $1.2 billion worth of gas from Israel Leviathan field over a 20 year period once the field starts producing. Simultaneously, the PA has held several meetings with the British Gas Group to develop the Gaza gas field, albeit with a view to exclude Hamas – and thus Gazans – from access to the proceeds. That plan had been the brainchild of Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair.

But the PA was also courting Russia's Gazprom to develop the Gaza marine gas field, and talks have been going on between Russia, Israel and Cyprus, though so far it is unclear what the outcome of these have been. Also missing was any clarification on how the PA would exert control over Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.

According to Anais Antreasyan in the University of California's Journal of Palestine Studies, the most respected English language journal devoted to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israel's stranglehold over Gaza has been designed to make "Palestinian access to the Marine-1 and Marine-2 gas wells impossible." Israel's long-term goal "besides preventing the Palestinians from exploiting their own resources, is to integrate the gas fields off Gaza into the adjacent Israeli offshore installations."

This is part of a wider strategy of:
"…. separating the Palestinians from their land and natural resources in order to exploit them, and, as a consequence, blocking Palestinian economic development. Despite all formal agreements to the contrary, Israel continues to manage all the natural resources nominally under the jurisdiction of the PA, from land and water to maritime and hydrocarbon resources."

For the Israeli government, Hamas continues to be the main obstacle to the finalisation of the gas deal. In the incumbent defence minister's words: "Israel's experience during the Oslo years indicates Palestinian gas profits would likely end up funding terrorism against Israel. The threat is not limited to Hamas… It is impossible to prevent at least some of the gas proceeds from reaching Palestinian terror groups."

Summarizing - it's can Israel steal the energy, sure seems like if the world ignores what they are doing, following the psyops, believing the spin, Israel will get away with it.

ref: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/p...-gaza-marine-o

[spiritguide]

Time for folks to watch the movie "Shoes of the Fisherman", this movie depicts the world in it's present state and the steps needed to get it straight again. A movie that lives eternal in the hearts of good people. IMO

[Bob]

The Ecologist had an interesting article on the 24th of July a few days ago..

http://www.theecologist.org/News/new...tolen_gas.html

Israel desperately covets Gaza's gas as a 'cheap stop-gap' yielding revenues of $6-7 billion a year, writes Nafeez Ahmed. The UK's BG and the US's Noble Energy are lined up to do the dirty work - but first Hamas must be 'uprooted' from Gaza, and Fatah bullied into cutting off its talks with Russia's Gazprom.

"Cheap" in terms of Israeli values of lives expended, or bombs dropped. Stealing resources means Israel has a more secure energy future.

"Israel's current offensive in the Gaza Strip is by no means an energy war", writes Allison Good in The National Interest in a response to my Ecologist / Guardian article exposing the role of natural gas in Israel's invasion of Gaza.

This "has not stopped conspiracy theorists from alleging that the IDF's Operation Protective Edge aims to assert control over Palestinians gas and avert an Israeli energy crisis."

Allison is Israel's supporter clearly.

But why was Kerry really in Israel?

"Hamas retains de facto jurisdiction over the Gaza Strip and, consequently, over Gaza Marine. The PA cannot negotiate on behalf of Hamas, and any agreement that Israel could make with Ramallah would certainly be declared null and void in Gaza. Israel also still refuses to negotiate with Hamas."

And despite negotiations to exploit Gaza's gas speeding ahead between Israeli government and BG Group officials, Netanyahu "quashed" a $4 billion economic stimulus initiative proposed by US Secretary of State John Kerry which "included a proposal for the exploitation of Gaza Marine."

Is it really about inside energy deals going on between the majors, who will "develop" energy for Israel? Who will ensure that Israel will have the energy it desperately needs?

http://www.haaretz.com/business/isra...ports-1.451838 - Ha'aretz says Israel doesn't have enough energy.

"Israel's will face a natural gas shortage from 2015."

UK Foreign Office - 'Israel won't pay the full whack'

Official British Foreign Office (FCO) documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Palestinian think-tank Al-Shabaka based in Washington DC shine new light on this.

According to email correspondence between the FCO's Near East Group and the British Consulate General in Jerusalem in November 2009, Israel had refused to pay market price for Gaza's gas. One Foreign Office official said:

"Israel won't (i) pay the full whack [for the gas] (ii) guarantee to give a certain cut direct to the PA. So BG aren't getting the gas out of the sea-bed. They are content to exploit other reserves and come back to this one when the price is right."

Another email dated 29th June 2010 noted that despite large reserves of gas discovered between Israel and Cyprus giving Israel the opportunity to become a net gas exporter, Israeli officials saw potential for the Gaza Marine to function as "a stop-gap measure before the new finds come fully on stream." - Obtaining by hook or crook, the Gaza energy resources is what Israel needs to ensure its energy needs. It is a quick "painless" stop-gap measure which serves two key goals. Removing ANY ability for the Palestinian Authority to obtain revenues from resources (and their meet their own energy needs), and a conflict can be created to "emphasize" why Gaza MUST be occupied (and thereby de facto control of the resources off-shore).

British Gas and Israel collude to exclude Hamas

The biggest obstacle as far as Israel is concerned is Hamas, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the prospect of a strong independent Palestinian state.

An April 2014 policy paper for the European Parliament's directorate-general of external policies points out that "distrust" between all these parties, particularly "political divisions on the Palestine side" have "hindered the negotiations."

After Hamas was elected to power in the Gaza Strip in 2006, the group declared from the outset that Israel's agreements with the PA were illegitimate, and that Hamas was the rightful owner of the Gaza Marine resources.

But BG Group and Israeli officials had come up with a strategy to bypass Hamas. A BG official told the Jerusalem Post in August 2007 that

"BG and Israel have arrived at an 'understanding' that will transfer funds intended for the PA's Palestinian Investment Fund into an international bank account, where they will be held until the PA can retake control of the Gaza Strip."

Under this plan, "Both Israel and BG intend that until the PA is able to remove Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip, the money will be held in an international bank account. Neither side wants the money to go to fund terror-related activities."

Hamas must be uprooted from Gaza

The plan was, according to an Infrastructures Ministry official cited by the Jerusalem Post, about "circumventing the possibility that Israeli money will end up in the wrong hands" by arranging "a payment plan" that would "completely exclude Hamas".

In the same year, incumbent Israeli defence minister Moshe Ya'alon - then former IDF chief of staff - explicitly advocated that the only way in which Gaza's gas could be developed was through an Israeli military incursion to eliminate Hamas.

Ya'alon's concern was that "Palestinian gas profits would likely end up funding terrorism against Israel", a threat which "is not limited to Hamas" and includes the Fatah-run PA.

As preventing gas proceeds from "reaching Palestinian terror groups" is "impossible", Ya'alon concluded:

"It is clear that without an overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic movement."

Ya'alon's concerns voiced in 2007 - and the prospect of using military force to begin gas production in Gaza - remain relevant today. As the man in charge of Israel's current war on Gaza, Ya'alon is now in a position to execute the vision he had outlined a year before Operation Cast Lead.

Extending Israeli sovereignty over Gaza

Thus, the exclusion of Palestinian representatives - whether Fatah or Hamas - from the latest negotiations between Israel and BG Gas is no accident.

While PA president Mahmoud Abbas was independently seeking to reach a deal with Russia's Gazprom to develop the Gaza Marine, Netanyahu had already "made explicitly clear that he could never, ever, countenance a fully sovereign Palestinian state" - which is why he deliberately torpedoed the peace process, according to US officials.

The other factor in this equation is the legal challenge to the Gaza gas proposals from Yam Thetis, a consortium of three Israeli firms and Samedan Oil.

Samedan is a subsidiary of the same US oil company, Noble Energy, that employs National Interest contributor Allison Good, and which has been operating in the Noa South field that overlaps Gaza.

Yam Thetis' principal argument was that "BG had no right to drill in Palestinian waters as the Palestinian Authority is not a state and cannot grant such a right to drill in offshore Gaza."

The upshot is that Noble Energy's consortium should have the right to extend its drilling into the Gaza Marine on behalf of Israel - and at the expense of the Palestinians.

Removing the obstacles - Hamas and the PA

Since the Oslo Accords, although the PA's maritime jurisdiction extends up to 20 nautical miles from the coast, Israel has incrementally reduced Gaza's maritime jurisdiction by 85% from 20 to 3 nautical miles - effectively reversing Palestinian sovereignty over the Gaza Marine. (read THEFT)

But with Israel's determination to access Gaza's gas accelerating in the context of the risk of a 2015 energy crunch, the fundamental obstacle to doing so remained not just the intransigent Hamas, but an insufficiently pliant PA seeking to engage the west's arch-geopolitical rival, Russia.

Israel's own commitment to blocking a two-state solution and bypassing Hamas meant that its only option to bring Gaza's gas into production was to do so directly - with, it seems, the competing collusion of American and British energy companies.

The IDF's Gaza operation, launched fraudulently in the name of self-defence, is certainly though not exclusively about permanently altering the facts on the ground in Gaza to head-off the PA's ambitions for autonomously developing the Marine gas reserves, and to eliminate Hamas' declared sovereignty over them.

And this is where the world is currently. And one can watch in the mainstream MEDIA how all the above is being kept from sight.

Israel is enacting Ya'alon's plans.

[Bob]

What does Noble Energy stand to make on the Israeli side of a natural gas exploitation project?

http://www.nobleenergyinc.com/operat...anean-128.html

From their own website:

Noble Energy has been operating in the Mediterranean Sea, offshore Israel, since 1998.

We have a 47 percent interest in the Mari-B field, the first offshore natural gas production facility in Israel. Production from Mari-B began in 2004 and sales volumes increased as Israel's power demand and pipeline infrastructure have expanded tremendously. A string of successful exploration wells offshore Israel and Cyprus has resulted in the discovery of approximately 40 Tcf of new gas resources for this region. Sales from Tamar began in March 2013, just over four years from discovery.

We have a 36 percent operated working interest at Tamar, with gross mean resources of 10 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas. Tamar was the largest deepwater natural gas discovery in the world in 2009. Deliverability of natural gas into Israel is being expanded to meet growing Israeli demand through an onshore compression project and the tie-in of the recent Tamar Southwest discovery.

Leviathan represents the largest exploration success in Noble Energy's history, with gross mean resources of 19 Tcf of natural gas.

We are actively progressing multiple export options, including both LNG and pipeline scenarios, as well as a potential domestic development solution. The farm-in of Woodside in early 2014 to Leviathan brings advanced LNG and marketing experience to future development. Noble Energy will hold 30 percent of Leviathan following farm-in and anticipates an initial phase investment decision in 2014.

In late 2011, we announced a discovery offshore Cyprus with estimated gross mean resources of 5 Tcf, and are currently studying options for development. In 2015, we anticipate drilling additional Cyprus gas potential on Block 12 and a deep oil test in the Levant Basin, with multiple similar prospects identified on our acreage.

Bottom line from their investor page:

"With a strong balance sheet, a disciplined capital investment philosophy and growth-oriented, long-term planning process, we have the resources, foresight and expertise to deliver value year after year."

From Ha'aretz, bless their hearts they remind us what Leviathan field is worth..

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition...llion-1.334143

Leviathan natural gas reserve said worth $90 billion.

Assuming a 38% average "ownership" proportion to Noble, that would be 34 billion $. Do you think that is something to be an incentive to kick out the Palestinians from the region?

It is all about the money isn't it.

[panopticon]

Just a quick question.

Israel's NG fields include the Leviathan (19Tcf) and Tamar (10Tcf), Sarah & Myra (6Tcf) and the small Tanin field (1.1Tcf) while Gaza Marine (1Tcf) is only small by comparison to the overall capacity.

The only field operating is Leviathan and it didn't came on-line until last year. Leviathan has a long life ahead of it and Tamar isn't expect to start until 2017 at the earliest. The others I don't know.

I'm not really understanding that Gaza Marine is the reason for the assault on Gaza by Israel.

Contributing factor maybe but dominant reason?

Israel is about to become one of the major gas exporters in the world (source) and the trouble that they did have with Egypt has now gone along with Morsi. On the 30th a letter of intent was signed to examine transporting LNG through Egypt (source).

So we've got al-Sisi sitting there with all the power in Egypt now. The same al-Sisi who received the following glowing commendation from the Israeli Ambassador last year: 'Al-Sisi is not a national hero for Egypt, but for all Jews in Israel and around the globe' (source).

So they've got gas pipe lines heading South but what about Turkey? There's great doubts that they will fall into line given the latest rhetoric (source).

Got any more background on why that is so important about Gaza Marine?

-- Pan

[sigma6]

Why doesn't Palestine phone up Russia and China, and ask for a line of credit and start building it? They will have all the technology and labour they will need, Just start pumping out a few million a year and establish a basic wellhead. What are they going to say? It's against the law?

[Bob]

BG, or British Gas is a subsidiary of Centrica, the British oil giant, the "state company" in simplistic terms of the British Government to exploit oil and gas for the UK.

Centrica has been behind the failed efforts at the BlackPool wells exploration project for instance (Lancashire), the fracking fiasco of trying to maximize profits out of funding Cuadrilla (who has licenses in the area.) Fracking as we know is a very very conflicted and highly charged issue around the world UK especially.

Their About us says: "We are active in every stage in the energy chain from sourcing energy to saving it. Our aim is to meet our customers’ energy needs and deliver long-term value to our shareholders."

Centrica was formed in February 1997 following a demerger from British Gas plc.

In 2003 Ariel Sharon nixed a deal for Israel and British Gas. And where is Sharon now?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-and...s-fields/11680

This is the Leviathan potential basin marked in this picture:



Notice how much Palestine Authority territory it encompasses.

British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon’s Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority.

The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21, 2007).

So BG gets 60% of that 90 billion in worth... hmmmm

Is it about the money? What do you think?

The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine.

British Gas (BG Group) has been dealing with the Tel Aviv government. In turn, the Hamas government has been bypassed in regards to exploration and development rights over the gas fields.

The election of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001 was a major turning point. Palestine’s sovereignty over the offshore gas fields was challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court. Sharon stated unequivocally that “Israel would never buy gas from Palestine” intimating that Gaza’s offshore gas reserves belong to Israel.

In 2003, Ariel Sharon, vetoed an initial deal, which would allow British Gas to supply Israel with natural gas from Gaza’s offshore wells. (The Independent, August 19, 2003)

The election victory of Hamas in 2006 was conducive to the demise of the Palestinian Authority, which became confined to the West Bank, under the proxy regime of Mahmoud Abbas.

In 2006, British Gas “was close to signing a deal to pump the gas to Egypt.” (Times, May, 23, 2007). According to reports, British Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened on behalf of Israel with a view to shunting the agreement with Egypt.

The following year, in May 2007, the Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “to buy gas from the Palestinian Authority.” The proposed contract was for $4 billion, with profits of the order of $2 billion of which one billion was to go the Palestinians.

Tel Aviv, however, had no intention on sharing the revenues with Palestine. An Israeli team of negotiators was set up by the Israeli Cabinet to thrash out a deal with the BG Group, bypassing both the Hamas government and the Palestinian Authority:

“Israeli defence authorities want the Palestinians to be paid in goods and services and insist that no money go to the Hamas-controlled Government.”

The objective was essentially to nullify the contract signed in 1999 between the BG Group and the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat.

Under the proposed 2007 agreement with BG, Palestinian gas from Gaza’s offshore wells was to be channeled by an undersea pipeline to the Israeli seaport of Ashkelon, thereby transferring control over the sale of the natural gas to Israel.

[Bob]

Posted by panopticon (here)
Just a quick question.

Israel's NG fields include the Leviathan (19Tcf) and Tamar (10Tcf), Sarah & Myra (6Tcf) and the small Tanin field (1.1Tcf) while Gaza Marine (1Tcf) is only small by comparison to the overall capacity.

[..]

Contributing factor maybe but dominant reason?

[..]
Got any more background on why that is so important about Gaza Marine?

-- Pan

Hi Pan - yes, see the map http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-cont...1-felicity.jpg

the LEVANT energy field, which does include OIL (most likely off-shore as well as what has been found on-shore) is the upcoming energy producer for the region. The leviathan field is small compared as is the exploratory wells, but at 90 billion $ US for Leviathan's production the whole LEVANT field is off the chart in energy worth.

Meaning that seems to me, that everyone within that region is potentially subject to being attacked by those who want to control the energy.



Notice how much of Lebanon falls within the Levant field. On-shore in that region is VAST and a highly kept industrial/military need-to-know status. Lebanon would be next if these expansion plans are in the offing. WestBank and Gaza are only stepping stones it seems.

[panopticon]

Posted by Bob (here)
What does Noble Energy stand to make on the Israeli side of a natural gas exploitation project?

http://www.nobleenergyinc.com/operat...anean-128.html

From their own website:

Noble Energy has been operating in the Mediterranean Sea, offshore Israel, since 1998.

We have a 47 percent interest in the Mari-B field, the first offshore natural gas production facility in Israel. Production from Mari-B began in 2004 and sales volumes increased as Israel's power demand and pipeline infrastructure have expanded tremendously. A string of successful exploration wells offshore Israel and Cyprus has resulted in the discovery of approximately 40 Tcf of new gas resources for this region. Sales from Tamar began in March 2013, just over four years from discovery.

We have a 36 percent operated working interest at Tamar, with gross mean resources of 10 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas. Tamar was the largest deepwater natural gas discovery in the world in 2009. Deliverability of natural gas into Israel is being expanded to meet growing Israeli demand through an onshore compression project and the tie-in of the recent Tamar Southwest discovery.

Leviathan represents the largest exploration success in Noble Energy's history, with gross mean resources of 19 Tcf of natural gas.

We are actively progressing multiple export options, including both LNG and pipeline scenarios, as well as a potential domestic development solution. The farm-in of Woodside in early 2014 to Leviathan brings advanced LNG and marketing experience to future development. Noble Energy will hold 30 percent of Leviathan following farm-in and anticipates an initial phase investment decision in 2014.

In late 2011, we announced a discovery offshore Cyprus with estimated gross mean resources of 5 Tcf, and are currently studying options for development. In 2015, we anticipate drilling additional Cyprus gas potential on Block 12 and a deep oil test in the Levant Basin, with multiple similar prospects identified on our acreage.

Bottom line from their investor page:

"With a strong balance sheet, a disciplined capital investment philosophy and growth-oriented, long-term planning process, we have the resources, foresight and expertise to deliver value year after year."

From Ha'aretz, bless their hearts they remind us what Leviathan field is worth..

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition...llion-1.334143

Leviathan natural gas reserve said worth $90 billion.

Assuming a 38% average "ownership" proportion to Noble, that would be 34 billion $. Do you think that is something to be an incentive to kick out the Palestinians from the region?

It is all about the money isn't it.

Woodside dropped out of the field and that means it's pipelines not shipping (source). This restricts Israel's market to pipelines which is why I was saying about Egypt and Turkey.

Also in my previous post I said that Leviathan was online and Tamar was expected to become operational in 2017. Of course that was backwards as Tamar went online in 2013.

BTW, one of the Haaretz articles valuing Leviathan is from 2010 and well out of date now. The July 14th press release from Delek has the updates here and a Haaretz article from January talks about some of the fields challenges here. Remember that the Haaretz article still includes the Woodside tech for shipping which isn't available any more.

-- Pan

[Bob]

This is the regional hydrocarbon prospect map overlain on the Levant Basin. Westbank, Gaza, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan all fall well within pretty good prospectivity.

Gaza especially on-shore and off-shore.. By the looks of the distribution (red being gas concentrations, green being oil), Lebanon would be next in the takeover-list.

The point is Leviathan is miniscule, but that was enough to bring in two MAJORS, BG from UK and Noble from Texas to start exploitation efforts.

Tho, getting the land and moving any resistance out of the way, and changing world opinion about who is the oppressor in the region seems to be what is important for the exploitation of oil in the region to become effective it seems to me.

The one's drilling verses the ones controlling is clearly a deciding factor. If energy is an issue, oil or gas, since they don't seem to be going "free energy", taking over this region would be the game plan it seems to me.

[Tesseract]

Posted by sigma6 (here)
Why doesn't Palestine phone up Russia and China, and ask for a line of credit and start building it? They will have all the technology and labour they will need, Just start pumping out a few million a year and establish a basic wellhead. What are they going to say? It's against the law?

A number of issues: firstly, there is a goods embargo on the Gaza strip, so the materials required to build the infrastructure would not be allowed in, and gas would not be allowed out. Further, the waters are not safe, as Israel routinely shoots fisherman in this area. And, of course, Israel would consider this a money-winner for the Palestinian resistance, so even if they did build it, Israel would likely destroy it, with full approval from US etc.

[Bob]

Posted by Tesseract (here)

Posted by sigma6 (here)
Why doesn't Palestine phone up Russia and China, and ask for a line of credit and start building it? They will have all the technology and labour they will need, Just start pumping out a few million a year and establish a basic wellhead. What are they going to say? It's against the law?

A number of issues: firstly, there is a goods embargo on the Gaza strip, so the materials required to build the infrastructure would not be allowed in, and gas would not be allowed out. Further, the waters are not safe, as Israel routinely shoots fisherman in this area. And, of course, Israel would consider this a money-winner for the Palestinian resistance, so even if they did build it, Israel would likely destroy it, with full approval from US etc.

Hi Tesseract and Sigma6 -

see this link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Ene...0211390508361/

Back in January, this year 2014, Abbas was trying (the Palestinian Authority) to get in bed with Russia's Gazprom (the same energy company wanting to put the squeeze on UK and other parts of Europe about jacking up energy prices or create winter shortages)..

"RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is in Moscow on a four-day visit seeking to secure a $1 billion deal with Russia to develop a natural gas field off the Gaza Strip..

"The move would expand what appears to be a determined Russian push into the energy-rich Eastern Mediterranean, Russian media reports indicated."

As Tesseract pointed out folks trying to access the sea off Gaza get shot at, folks trying to build infra-structure to develop energy in the Strip are prohibited. A strangle-hold exists with a statement made by officials Hamas will NOT GET any way to further have tools to terrorize Israel..

Russia signed a 25-year agreement with Syria's embattled regime Dec. 25 that gives Russia's state-controlled Soyuzneftegaz exclusive exploration, development and production rights over 850 square miles of Syrian waters, Moscow's first real foothold in the booming Levant Basin.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported in 2010 that the basin, which covers Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus and the Gaza Strip, contains at least 123 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil.

(See my map here of the prospect locations, the "where to drill" map..)

As pointed out above, the driller/explorers/exploiters get a chance to sell their spoils to those of choice (or as established in their production sharing agreement "License").

Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency says Gazprom hopes to secure the Gaza contract, but it's not clear how far negotiations have gone.

Nor was there clarification on what control Abbas' Palestinian Authority might have over Gaza.

The Palestinian movement split in June 2007, when the fundamentalist Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, leaving Abbas' Fatah movement, founded in the 1960's by the late Yasser Arafat, holding the West Bank.

Each of these countries shown in that hydrocarbon map can theoretically develop explore and produce from their own energy resources provided that they are not in conflict with the other countries in the region. It could be possible that this region developed properly would be a rival to the Persian Gulf, or maybe even Saudi Arabia (considering Saudi's dwindling oil fields).

[superconsciousness]

I don't see this conflict in the Middle East ending well...

[Bob]

Posted by superconsciousness (here)
I don't see this conflict in the Middle East ending well...

I am disappointed in BeeBee..

He had a chance to not only secure energy for Israel, he had a chance to be a champion for Peace.. Instead he chose the dark side.

Why was that?

Arafat assured me in 1987 that he was willing to give peace a chance, the help with developing Israel's infrastructure, in short, supporting Israel to become a major Mid-East power, in energy and security... But he told me, the hard liners will buck this.. I said, please try.. Instead he was killed... by the hard liners who insist financial gain is tantamount to human life... funny isn't it.. the shekel is more important than human life... now who i ask you, set the precedent for that?

[Bob]

We will publish other maps of resources in Ukraine, UK, Mideast and in the Mediterranean.. This will become a free-for-all who wants the FREE Energy..

[panopticon]

G'day Bob,

I respect your research into the Levant Basin and the prospects for its development.
Very interesting overlay map which shows how the entire Gaza assault could be partially influenced by the Israeli Governments need for more reserves. I've read varying reports (that don't include the undiscovered/developed regions) saying Israel is now "energy independent" well into the next Century.

Now, my mind is a bit confusing (or that's what I've been told periodically lol) so this may all come out a bit random. I'll try to clear it up with an edit after I've finished but I'm not promising anything...

Now onwards and ever upwards.

Just some images to help with orientation:


Source

Source

Source

###

Money. Control. Power.

• Israel controls all movement (people/goods) through Gaza.
  
• Gaza has only Palestinian run power plant (hit during conflict - minor damage).
  
• PA unity government formed May/June 2014. Reduces Hamas influence (money removed sanctions), increases Abbas power/control (money increases). Israel potentially loses some of its power/control that it has over Palestinians through their division.
  
• Quartet proposed development plan builds 2 or 3 new power plants + infrastructure to pipe from Gaza Marine into West Bank by-passing Israeli money, control & power over "their territory".
  
• Woodside pulls out of Noble agreement. Limits export opportunity NG for Israel. Now pipelines only -- through Egypt transfer shipping station?
  
• Pipelines undersea to Ashdod refinery/transfer station within range of Hamas & co rockets.
  
• Ashkelon NG/oil pipeline within range of Hamas & co rockets.
  
• Russia started shipping oil to Asia through Ashkelon pipeline 2003.
  
• Egypt Government (el-Sisi) now Israeli Governments friend. Pipe gas to Egypt for export.
  
• Gas not through Turkey (Erdogan) until Gaza/West Bank situation sorted.
  
• No money transfers into Gaza for municipal workers (US backing sanctions -- terror organisation rhetoric). Power/control in hands of Israel.
  
• New economic opportunity within Quartets proposed development of West Bank. Need gas to power development & provide cheap electricity generation.
  
• Israeli economy historically boosted by conflict/War.
  
• US backing Israel while also part of Quartet.
  
• Capitalists view disaster = economic opportunity.
  
• Israel is US middle east proxy. US wants access/control of energy reserves.
  
• Conflict good for Israeli economy. Increases Israeli control. Increases Israel's power and ability to negotiate on a number of level.
  
• None of this bad for Israel if conflict confined to 4 week period and no occupation in ceasefire. World opinion/condemnation will wander within 2 months to somewhere else. Rebuild will show Israel as compassionate to civilians. Israeli economy will be boosted (on 2006 estimate 8%). Palestinian economy will contract (on 2006 estimate 10%). MCP = Israel.

Process:

Create situation (or wait for one to present itself) for media blitz in lead up to conflict.
Create need for conflict (ie Israeli population support & international support or neutrality -- US leads).
Execute conflict "humanely" (ie use appropriate rhetorical devices).
Provide controlled escape route for opposition near end of conflict (ie negotiate on own terms).

###

Well that wasn't too bad.

There are sources for all that but I'd have to hunt them out.

Remember, some in the religious right support Israel because they want the world to end...

I've never understood that. Not at all.

Final image:


Source November 2013

Egypt wasn't even considered as a potential route until el-Sisi gained power/control in June 2014 (a week after the interim Palestinian Unity Government was signed in).

-- Pan

[panopticon]

Here's the image I was looking for of the Natural Gas System in Israel.

It's from the official Israel Natural Gas System (INGL) website.

In the image the subsea NG pipeline running from Tamar platform to Ashdod (refinery/transmission centre) can be clearly seen as can the Ashkelon - Arish (Egypt) pipeline.


Source (be aware if on slow connection original is 4.2 mb).

Took a bit for me to realise that INGL had redone their website which was why the link I had wasn't working

For more information on the pipeline and basin see:
Israeli Natural Gas Transmission System
Overview of the Oil & Gas Industry in Israel (March 2013 so predates Tamar coming on line)

Hope this is useful and furthers discussion.

-- Pan

[Bob]

--Very good data Pan thank you for that.

Regionally the 2015 $ (US) estimates of the production comes out at a little over 15.4 trillion. More than enough to go to war for. Considering speculation and threat of war driving the prices up, double that. The gas quality varies in worth depending on the hydrocarbon verses CO2, helium, nitrogen, impurities. The oil though, that is pretty staggering and value wise it offsets the lower prices of natural gas immensely.

The question I suppose is which one will go after the spoils. UK and the US wanted to be the producers, to get their fingers in before Russia makes the move (LukOil and Gazprom). However China has been making inroads in Canada as well as Africa. Africa has learned to shun China with their slash and burn policy, both to the environment and the inhabitants.

If Israel takes the spoils through production sharing "controls" (within territorial licensing), they would have energy for about 150 years. Would they keep it under control, I doubt it, ergo, end of the world scenario as that much energy is way too tempting to let one small country have that much energy.

Each of the countries in the region has more than enough for local use provided proper drilling and subsequent exploitation is performed, but considering everyone over there is hell bent on killing each other, justifying why their clan is better than the others... the likelihood that such will be developed is slim. Only through peaceful cooperation could the deposits be extracted and developed.

Notice how much energy exists under Gaza, and the West Bank. And how much on-shore energy exists under Israel. These fields within the basins are what they call "multiple-horizon", meaning production is available from different depths.

The production off Lebanon by the Syrian border looks especially juicy (that's a jolly-ass slang term for "dig here"). As well as between Beruit and Tyre.

As you pointed out Pan in post #16 above in the bulleted points I agree, that appears to be the scenario's unfoldment.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/tpc/t...34566_g-4d.jpg <--- Full High res (14.5 megs apprx size)

The pattern appears to be similar to when the Mideast was being carved up for oil in the early years of exploration.

The below extract is from: The Oil Hunters: Exploration and Espionage in the Middle East (http://www.amazon.com/The-Oil-Hunter.../dp/184725232X)

The fascinating stories of the explorers, spies and entrepreneurs who led the hunt for oil in the Middle East from the 1880s to the outbreak of the Second World War

The Middle East had long been awash with rumors and legends of oil, rumors that gradually seeped into Western Europe. The Greek historian Herodotus had once described the existence of "oil-pits" in Mesopotamia, while Jebel Zeit, a mountain on the west coast of the Gulf of Suez, was known by the ancients as Mons Petroleus. However, the discovery that kerosene could be extracted from crude oil and used as fuel for light and heat in the late nineteenth century shifted the hunt for oil into high gear, particularly in the Middle East.

Against the backdrop of British and Russian—and increasingly American—maneuverings for dominance in the region, Roger Howard explores the history of oil exploration in anecdotal style and with a lively pace. He brings to life forgotten figures such as Frank Holmes, revered by the Arabs as Abu Naft (the "Father of Oil") and Harry St. John Philby, father of the famous British double agent Kim Philby, as well as figures from the world stage such as Julius de Reuter, founder of Reuters News Agency, the Armenian oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian and Chicago-born entrepreneur Charles R. Crane.

Throughout the twentieth century, the demand for petroleum increased and it eventually became one of the most valuable commodities traded in the world market. The Oil Hunters illustrates how today's oil giants emerged in Persia but also Iraq (Mesopotamia), Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. British Petroleum, for example, was originally the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Considered by many to be one of the most important events of twentieth century history, the discovery of Persian oil in 1908 is related here as a vivid adventure story of exploration and exploitation, peopled by eccentrics, adventurers and magnates.

[panopticon]

Posted by Bob (here)
However China has been making inroads in Canada as well as Africa. Africa has learned to shun China with their slash and burn policy, both to the environment and the inhabitants.

If Israel takes the spoils through production sharing "controls" (within territorial licensing), they would have energy for about 150 years. Would they keep it under control, I doubt it, ergo, end of the world scenario as that much energy is way too tempting to let one small country have that much energy.

G'day Bob,

Israel had the export amount capped at 40% by legislation. From memory it has to be court approved to be increased.

Can you explain what you're saying about China in Africa? I hadn't come across that and last I heard China was the ducks nuts in Africa.

As far as I know they use the same system as with the Pacific Islands & SE Asia. Spend up big, ask no questions, build with their own money, bring their own workers and then have their "private companies" as part owner. Basically they don't have any problems with graft and low workers conditions and lax OH&S. Was always a problem for AusAID because AusAID wanted to put conditions on where the money went to some extent so they stopped getting used. There ain't no "soft power" if no-one wants your help!

So, some info on the Sino-African relationship would be interesting (just a link or 2 cause I don't want to derail the thread with my curiosity).

-- Pan

[Bob]

Hi Pan - here is an interesting PDF that gets into Chinese human rights abuses in Zambia - (possibly a separate thread getting into what it means to have China supplied funds for oil, or minerals means to a developing Country..)

http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/fil...rWebUpload.pdf

Darfur, Sudan and China human rights abuse articles : https://www.google.com/search?q=chin...illages%22+oil

Also, in post #18 above, I substituted the large high-res pix to a small jpg, with a link to the high-res under. The post should load faster this way I think.