[copious.abundance]

(Fairly) large natural gas field found offshore Israel. Some geopolitical trivia.
Press Release

Noble Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NBL) announced today a natural gas discovery at the Tamar prospect in the Matan license, offshore Israel. The Tamar #1 well, located in approximately 5,500 feet of water, was drilled to a total depth of 16,076 feet to test a subsalt, lower-Miocene structure in the Levantine basin. Formation logs identified more than 460 feet of net pay in three high-quality reservoirs. The thickness and quality of the reservoirs encountered were greater than anticipated at the well location. [...]

Early indications are that the resources identified are very substantial, at least equal to our pre-drill estimated gross mean resources of over three trillion cubic feet. Subject to the collection of additional data, the resource estimate for Tamar could further increase. [...]

[dorlomin]

Its about a 1/4 increase on there current stated reserves of 11tcf and about 4 years worth of there consumption of around 0.7 tcf. Itll take pressure of there currency in terms of exports and buy them a small amount of breathing space but it does not look like a game changer in terms of there long term position.

[bratticus]

GAZA Resource War!

[jamest]

Interesting! Another subsalt deepwater discovery - like Brazil. I wonder how many more there are of these in the world.

[dorlomin]

GAZA Resource War!

Water and land are far more valuable than oil and gas.


It always was a resource war.

[copious.abundance]

Another article. Could be more there.

--> Reuters <--

[...]

"This is one of the most significant prospects that we have ever tested and appears to be the largest discovery in the company's history," Charles Davidson, Noble's chief executive, said in a statement.

"Early indications are that the resources identified are very substantial, at least equal to our pre-drill estimated gross mean resources of over three trillion cubic feet. Subject to the collection of additional data, the resource estimate for Tamar could further increase," he said.

[...]

Petroleum Commissioner Yaakov Mimran said if early findings are validated the site would meet Israel's demand for 15 years.

"I have no doubt this discovery will boost investments and exploration" in Israeli waters, Mimran said.

Analysts estimated the natural gas was worth about $26 billion and will be sold starting in 2013.

[...]

[dorlomin]

link

Apparently the whole attack on Gaza was a ruse to confiscate the princely sum of 1.4tcf of natural gas.

Or perhaps not. Global Research: most creative journalists on the web.

[rockdoc123]

Israel's petroleum commissioner is hoping beyond hope if he thinks this will stimulate activity offshore Israel. If this is a big gas discovery it will supply all of the domestic gas needs for the foreseeable future. Any additional gas would need an export market which means it would have to be big enough to warrant LNG. Pipelines from Israel anywhere around there that stay in relatively shallow water would have to go through somewhat hostile territory so unlikely to happen. I guess there is the possibility of floating LNG but that is relatively new technology and the Meditteranean storms might limit it's use.

[copious.abundance]

It's now up to 5 trillion cubic feet.
>>> Houston Chronicle <<<

[LateGreatPlanetEarth]

"why did Moses shlep us for 40 years"? http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/israe ... i_oil_rush

[Cog]

From the article:

Christian Zionist groups have been citing biblical verses that they say refer to vast oil reserves beneath the Promised Land, adding that Israel’s energy independence and success is a prelude to Ezekiel’s scenario for the final Redemption, among other prophecies.

Does BP and Shell know of this unique way to develop oil reserves?

[LateGreatPlanetEarth]

The largest reserve of natural gas, over 16 trillion cubic feet, discovered off the coast of Israel,

http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/201 ... ast-april/

[Vogelzang]

We need to make the practice of Islam a crime punishable by death and then invade Islamic countries to liberate them and make he practice of Islam a crime punishable by death in those countries.

[Jenab]

I'm not convinced that a new major deposit of oil or natural gas has been found in or near Israel. I think that geologists have known their scientific profession well enough to have found those deposits long ago, if they really had ever existed. This alleged discovery is, I believe, only a reintroduction of supplies of oil and/or natural gas originally native to Iraq, courtesy of the US-Iraq war and the occupation of Iraq by American forces. Iraq's oil has been diverted to Israel via pipeline. So that Israel isn't accused of stealing other people's vital energy resources, it is creating a charade about a long-overlooked deposit native to Israel. Like it says in the Protocols of Zion: force and make-believe.

[Outcast_Searcher]

We need to make the practice of Islam a crime punishable by death and then invade Islamic countries to liberate them and make he practice of Islam a crime punishable by death in those countries.

I love the sarcasm. (Please tell me this is sarcasm). I can picture some droll English type in a $5,000 suit saying this on a CSPAN interview with nary a hint of a smile...

Given how we deal with each other over any such issue of fundamental disagreement though, a thought occurs...

If you will change "Islamic countries" to "all countries" and change "practice of Islam" to "practice of any irrational belief system that espouses force or violence against others who don't agree with you" THEN you have an idea. Problem is, where does it stop? There are so many irrational people practicing irrational belief systems (including, IMO, economics) and trying through violence or financial or political coercion to force everyone else to see the world THEIR way - that you'd basically have to kill everybody, IMO.

Mother nature would love it, but I think your progeny would be less than impressed. If massive nuking enters the picture as part of the resolution, the entire biosphere would most likely be miffed as well.

[Jenab]

I'm not convinced that a new major deposit of oil or natural gas has been found in or near Israel. I think that geologists have known their scientific profession well enough to have found those deposits long ago, if they really had ever existed. This alleged discovery is, I believe, only a reintroduction of supplies of oil and/or natural gas originally native to Iraq, courtesy of the US-Iraq war and the occupation of Iraq by American forces. Iraq's oil has been diverted to Israel via pipeline. So that Israel isn't accused of stealing other people's vital energy resources, it is creating a charade about a long-overlooked deposit native to Israel. Like it says in the Protocols of Zion: force and make-believe.

So the old jews dug a secret pipeline across Jordan? oy! dats nuts

It isn't a "secret" pipeline. It's merely an under-acknowledged pipeline. It's been around since British Mandate days. It has been maintained, renovated and upgraded over the years.


Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil
US discusses plan to pump fuel to its regional ally and solve energy headache at a stroke
(guardian.co.uk | TheObserver)

Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and potential future government figures in Baghdad.

The plan envisages the reconstruction of an old pipeline, inactive since the end of the British mandate in Palestine in 1948, when the flow from Iraq's northern oilfields to Palestine was re-directed to Syria.

Now, its resurrection would transform economic power in the region, bringing revenue to the new US-dominated Iraq, cutting out Syria and solving Israel's energy crisis at a stroke.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/ap ... inians.oil


An old Israel-Iraq oil line ... reopening?
By John K. Cooley / April 23, 2003
(Christian Science Monitor)

Nothing could be better designed to undermine the coalition's promise that Iraq's oil should benefit its own people than Israel's proclaimed wish to "reopen" a long-unused pipeline from Iraq's Kirkuk oil fields to Israel's Mediterranean port of Haifa.

Israel's National Infrastructure Minister Joseph Paritzky was quoted in a March 31 Ha'aretz article saying that Israeli and Jordanian officials would soon meet to discuss reviving the line. Built by the British in the 1940s, the line crossed west from Iraq through Jordan to British-ruled Palestine (today's Israel). Upon the 1948 birth of Israel and the immediate eruption of war with Iraq, Jordan and other Arab neighbors forced its shutdown and the diversion of Iraqi oil through a branch line to Syria.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0423/p11s01-coop.html


In this matter, I would not believe the claims of "spokesmen" and "experts" to the effect that "It was planned, but it was never done," or "Iraq hasn't the equipment to meet optimistic goals for production." It was done, and the equipment is there. If Iraqi oil isn't on the market, then one of the reasons is probably that it is being hoarded in Israel. To cover up Israel's theft (and the US government complicity), Israel is floating a myth about a huge native reserve of oil and natural gas that had eluded discovery until very recently.

[LateGreatPlanetEarth]

Last month, Texas-based Noble Energy and its Israeli partners discovered the world's largest natural gas deposit in 10 years that is roughly 80 miles off the shores of Haifa, Israel. Leviathan, as it is known and which is said to 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas,

http://www.energybiz.com/article/11/01/ ... -discovery