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WarandNaturalGas:TheIsraeliInvasionandGazas
OffshoreGasFields
ByProfMichelChossudovsky
GlobalResearch,July10,2014
Urlofthisarticle:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/warandnaturalgastheisraeliinvasionandgazasoffshoregasfields/11680
Fiveyearsago,IsraelinvadedGazaunderOperationCastLead.
ThefollowingarticlewasfirstpublishedbyGlobalResearchinJanuary2009atthe
heightoftheIsraelibombingandinvasionunderOperationCastLead.
Inthewakeoftheinvasion,PalestiniangasfieldsweredefactoconfiscatedbyIsrael
inderogationofinternationallaw
AyearfollowingOperationCastLead,TelAvivannouncedthediscoveryofthe
LeviathannaturalgasfieldintheEasternMediterraneanoffthecoastofIsrael.
Atthetimethegasfieldwas:themostprominentfieldeverfoundinthesub
explored area of the Levantine Basin, which covers about 83,000 square
kilometresoftheeasternMediterraneanregion.(i)
Coupled with Tamar field, in the same location, discovered in 2009, the
prospectsareforanenergybonanzaforIsrael,forHouston,TexasbasedNoble
Energy and partners Delek Drilling, Avner Oil Exploration and Ratio Oil
Exploration.(SeeFelicityArbuthnot,Israel:Gas,OilandTroubleintheLevant,
GlobalResearch,December30,2013
TheGazangasfieldsarepartofthebroaderLevantassessmentarea.
Whatisnowunfoldingistheintegrationoftheseadjoininggasfieldsincludingthose
belongingtoPalestineintotheorbitofIsrael.(seemapbelow).
It should be noted that the entire Eastern Mediterranean coastline extending from
Egypts Sinai to Syria constitutes an area encompassing large gas as well as oil
reserves.
MichelChossudovsky,January3,2014
War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and
GazasOffshoreGasFields
byMichelChossudovsky
January8,2009
The December 2008 military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a
directrelationtothecontrolandownershipofstrategicoffshoregasreserves.
Thisisawarofconquest.Discoveredin2000,thereareextensivegasreservesoff
theGazacoastline.
BritishGas(BGGroup)anditspartner,theAthensbasedConsolidatedContractors
International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanons Sabbagh and Koury families,
were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in
November1999withthePalestinianAuthority.
The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent)
Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent) and the Investment Fund of the
PalestinianAuthority(10percent).(Haaretz,October21,2007).
The PABGCCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a
gaspipeline.(MiddleEastEconomicDigest,Jan5,2001).
TheBGlicencecoverstheentireGazanoffshoremarinearea,whichiscontiguous
toseveralIsraelioffshoregasfacilities.(SeeMapbelow).Itshouldbenotedthat60
percentofthegasreservesalongtheGazaIsraelcoastlinebelongtoPalestine.
The BG Group drilled two wells in 2000: Gaza Marine1 and Gaza Marine2.
Reserves are estimated by British Gas to be of the order of 1.4 trillion cubic feet,
valued at approximately 4 billion dollars. These are the figures made public by
BritishGas.ThesizeofPalestinesgasreservescouldbemuchlarger.
Map1
Map2
WhoOwnstheGasFields
TheissueofsovereigntyoverGazasgasfieldsiscrucial.Fromalegalstandpoint,
thegasreservesbelongtoPalestine.
ThedeathofYasserArafat,theelectionoftheHamasgovernmentandtheruinofthe
PalestinianAuthorityhaveenabledIsraeltoestablishdefacto control over Gazas
offshoregasreserves.
BritishGas(BGGroup)hasbeendealingwiththeTelAvivgovernment.Inturn,the
Hamasgovernmenthasbeenbypassedinregardstoexplorationanddevelopment
rightsoverthegasfields.
The election of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001 was a major turning point.
Palestines sovereignty over the offshore gas fields was challenged in the Israeli
SupremeCourt.SharonstatedunequivocallythatIsraelwouldneverbuygasfrom
PalestineintimatingthatGazasoffshoregasreservesbelongtoIsrael.
In2003,ArielSharon,vetoedaninitialdeal,whichwouldallowBritishGastosupply
Israel with natural gas from Gazas 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
regimeofMahmoudAbbas.
In2006,BritishGaswasclosetosigningadealtopumpthegastoEgypt.(Times,
May,23,2007).Accordingtoreports,BritishPrimeMinisterTonyBlairintervenedon
behalfofIsraelwithaviewtoshuntingtheagreementwithEgypt.
Thefollowingyear,inMay2007,theIsraeliCabinetapprovedaproposalbyPrime
Minister Ehud Olmert to buy gas from the Palestinian Authority. The proposed
contractwasfor$4billion,withprofitsoftheorderof$2billionofwhichonebillion
wastogothePalestinians.
Tel Aviv, however, had no intention on sharing the revenues with Palestine. An
IsraeliteamofnegotiatorswassetupbytheIsraeliCabinettothrashoutadealwith
theBGGroup,bypassingboththeHamasgovernmentandthePalestinianAuthority:
Israeli defence authorities want the Palestinians to be paid in goods and
services and insist that no money go to the Hamascontrolled Government.
(Ibid,emphasisadded)
Theobjectivewasessentiallytonullifythecontractsignedin1999betweentheBG
GroupandthePalestinianAuthorityunderYasserArafat.
Undertheproposed2007agreementwithBG,PalestiniangasfromGazasoffshore
wells was to be channeled by an undersea pipeline to the Israeli seaport of
Ashkelon,therebytransferringcontroloverthesaleofthenaturalgastoIsrael.
Thedealfellthrough.Thenegotiationsweresuspended:
Mossad Chief Meir Dagan opposed the transaction on security grounds, that the
proceeds would fund terror. (Member of Knesset Gilad Erdan, Address to the
KnessetonTheIntentionofDeputyPrimeMinisterEhudOlmerttoPurchaseGas
fromthePalestiniansWhenPaymentWillServeHamas,March1,2006,quotedin
Lt. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon, Does the Prospective Purchase of British Gas from
Gazas Coastal Waters Threaten Israels National Security? Jerusalem Center for
PublicAffairs,October2007)
Israels intent was to foreclose the possibility that royalties be paid to the
Palestinians.InDecember2007,TheBGGroupwithdrewfromthenegotiationswith
IsraelandinJanuary2008theyclosedtheirofficeinIsrael.(BGwebsite).
InvasionPlanonTheDrawingBoard
TheinvasionplanoftheGazaStripunderOperationCastLeadwassetinmotion
inJune2008,accordingtoIsraelimilitarysources:
SourcesinthedefenseestablishmentsaidDefenseMinisterEhudBarakinstructed
theIsraelDefenseForcestopreparefortheoperationoversixmonthsago[Juneor
beforeJune],evenasIsraelwasbeginningtonegotiateaceasefireagreementwith
Hamas.(Barak Ravid, Operation Cast Lead: Israeli Air Force strike followed
monthsofplanning,Haaretz,December27,2008)
That very same month, the Israeli authorities contacted British Gas, with a view to
resumingcrucialnegotiationspertainingtothepurchaseofGazasnaturalgas:
Both Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav and Ministry of National
InfrastructuresdirectorgeneralHeziKugleragreedtoinformBGofIsraelswishto
renewthetalks.
ThesourcesaddedthatBGhasnotyetofficiallyrespondedtoIsraelsrequest,but
thatcompanyexecutiveswouldprobablycometoIsraelinafewweekstoholdtalks
withgovernmentofficials.(GlobesonlineIsraelsBusinessArena,June23,2008)
The decision to speed up negotiations with British Gas (BG Group) coincided,
chronologically,withtheplanningoftheinvasionofGazainitiatedinJune.Itwould
appearthatIsraelwasanxioustoreachanagreementwiththeBGGrouppriortothe
invasion,whichwasalreadyinanadvancedplanningstage.
Moreover,thesenegotiationswithBritishGaswereconductedbytheEhudOlmert
governmentwiththeknowledgethatamilitaryinvasionwasonthedrawingboard.In
alllikelihood,anewpostwarpoliticalterritorialarrangementfortheGazastripwas
alsobeingcontemplatedbytheIsraeligovernment.
In fact, negotiations between British Gas and Israeli officials were ongoing in
October2008,23monthspriortothecommencementofthebombingsonDecember
27th.
In November 2008, the Israeli Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National
InfrastructuresinstructedIsraelElectricCorporation(IEC)toenterintonegotiations
withBritishGas,onthepurchaseofnaturalgasfromtheBGsoffshoreconcessionin
Gaza.(Globes,November13,2008)
Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav and Ministry of National
InfrastructuresdirectorgeneralHeziKuglerwrotetoIECCEOAmosLaskerrecently,
informing him of the governments decision to allow negotiations to go forward, in
linewiththeframeworkproposalitapprovedearlierthisyear.
TheIECboard,headedbychairmanMotiFriedman,approvedtheprinciplesofthe
frameworkproposalafewweeksago.ThetalkswithBGGroupwillbeginoncethe
boardapprovestheexemptionfromatender.(GlobesNov.13,2008)
GazaandEnergyGeopolitics
ThemilitaryoccupationofGazaisintentupontransferringthesovereigntyofthegas
fieldstoIsraelinviolationofinternationallaw.
Whatcanweexpectinthewakeoftheinvasion?
WhatistheintentofIsraelwithregardtoPalestinesNaturalGasreserves?
A new territorial arrangement, with the stationing of Israeli and/or peacekeeping
troops?
ThemilitarizationoftheentireGazacoastline,whichisstrategicforIsrael?
The outright confiscation of Palestinian gas fields and the unilateral declaration of
IsraelisovereigntyoverGazasmaritimeareas?
If this were to occur, the Gaza gas fields would be integrated into Israels offshore
installations,whicharecontiguoustothoseoftheGazaStrip.(SeeMap1above).
These various offshore installations are also linked up to Israels energy transport
corridor,extendingfromtheportofEilat,whichisanoilpipelineterminal,ontheRed
Sea to the seaport pipeline terminal at Ashkelon, and northwards to Haifa, and
eventually linking up through a proposed IsraeliTurkish pipeline with the Turkish
portofCeyhan.
CeyhanistheterminaloftheBaku,TblisiCeyhanTransCaspianpipeline.Whatis
envisaged is to link the BTC pipeline to the TransIsrael EilatAshkelon pipeline,
also known as Israels Tipline. (See Michel Chossudovsky, The War on Lebanon
andtheBattleforOil,GlobalResearch,July23,2006)
Map3
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