That is what Norway does:Originally Posted by tea drinker
http://www.slate.com/id/2108873/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm..._norway20.html
It have nothing to do with corruption really.Look explanation above.
I suspect that with Israel's relatively tiny land area, this type of plan would actually be very practical and could set the stage for advancement in green technology. I'm also thinking about gas power plants sustaining an electric mass transit system. Not to mention the economic and industrial possibilities.
In Russia gas conversion kits for cars are good business. Not rampant, but steady and well-known.
Same here, but gas engines have less power and are not as reliable as diesel or benzin engines, plus, the converaion kit fits only specific cars, tjat is cars with large engines (IIRC 2L+).
Better Place electric cars suck too, not gonna explain about that cause I'm on a cellphone.
Anywho, I hope everyone will get its fair share of the gas and oil.
Somewhat related: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4162385,00.html
(found it only in Hebrew)
The Tamar gas field share-holders just singed an 8 billion dollar contract with the Israeli electrical company to provide it with 3 TBU (billion square meters) of natural gas with an option to increase it to 5 TBU. The contract means that Israel is on the way to become energy independent, at least gas wise.
I think that when Levitan starts streaming gas, we'll become almost energy independent (still gotta haz dem oilz).
Gas wise, the reserve at Tamar and Leviathan should last for half a century, more or less depending on how much, Israel is going to export. I can already see Jordan, for practical reason, purchasing Israeli gas. The big unknown remains whether large oil deposits exist beneath the gas layers at Leviathan and at other offshore sites. The answer for that question is expected in 2012 when Nobles publishes the results of its oil drilling at Leviathan. Chances are slim, between 8-15% to find 3 to 4 billions barrels. There is also the oil shale issue, huge reserve of the size of Saudi Arabia's proven reserve has been prospected in the valley of Elah, south eastern of Tel Aviv. It remains to be seen how much is recoverable, at what cost and what are the environmental fall-out.
Well, it's the holy grail for any country, being energy independent for any length of time is a goal to strive for, but even if we get our own gas for a "mere" 50 years should drop the electricity prices around here (they are expected to rise by 30%), not to mention the export possibilities which could stream billions of dollars to the economy. If the shale oil proves to be recoverable, it could boost the economy within a few years by several hundereds of billions of dollars since domestic use is quite low when compared to other countries.
Israel's oil shale, if recoverable, will take off very slowly and take decades to reach its full potential. The oil-rich rocks sit just (a few hundred of meters) above Israel's main coastal aquifer and the rocks need to be heated for years before the extraction can began. The best case scenario according to the private company in charge of developing the field is to extract 50 000 barrels/day by 2020. With Israel bureaucracy and green activists, it could be a wishful thinking. The symbolic behind the 50,000 bbd/day number is that it's the quantity of oil the IDF needs to burn on average each day to work. To reach full energy independence, you need to produce > 238,000 bbl/day, oil that Israel consumes each day.
With the arrival of good electric cars and maybe also natural-gas powered vehicles, the oil consumption should fall which would save Israel billions of dollars each years. There is also the possibility to build a gas-to-liquid facility like in Qatar.
I heard that Tshuva's company signed a deal with a Italian company to build a large LNG station in either Haifa or offshore.
Maybe things will go well enough for us to be able to produce those 238k barrels a day by 2040?
I think you are talking about the LNG Regasification Terminal off the coast of Hadera whose tender was won by an Italian company . The purposes of the Regasification Terminal is to import (not to export) natural gas from LNG producers such as Norway or the US, in order to avoid gas shortage and to serve as a back-up of Tamar in case of problems.
As for the oil and Israel's energy independence, if no substantial oil deposits are found beneath Leviathan and elsewhere and if oil prices are skyrocketing to insane level, Israel could turn to synthetic fuel using technology such as the GTL process, transforming natural gas into gasoline or diesel. Qatar is using the process at commercial scale. Oil shale in Israel is in its infancy, it's difficult to predict the outcome of the venture for the next years let alone 2040.
Interesting information, didn't know about the synthetic fuel conversion. But Qatar has much larger gas deposits then Israel, will the gas fields be able to sustain a 248k bbl/day conversion rate plus natural gas output?
I read abit more on shale oil in Israel, it seems that it is relativley low quality, specialy when it's compared to Jordan's deposits.
1 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas is equivalent to 165 million barrels of crude oil in energy content. With Tamar and Leviathan gas field, Israel has around 25 Tcf of proven or near proven natural gas reserve. That translates into 4.125 billions of barrel of oil equivalent. Israel's daily oil consumption of 238,000 bbl/day in 2010 translates into 0.53 Tcf of natural gas per year in energy content. And an annual consumption of natural gas of around 5 billion cubic meter (~0.18 Tcf) which is supposed to double in the coming years to replace coal-fired power plants meaning an additional 0.4 Tcf of natural gas per year.
If I didn't miscalculate, Leviathan and Tamar gas output can sustain Israel's energy (oil & gas) independence for more than 25 years. Less if you factor the wish to export part of the gas reserve. But the issue is purely theorical as Israel will probably continue to import its oil unless it find substantial reserve of its own, nevermind the energy independence.
As for the poor quality of Israel's oil shale compared to Jordan, it's true for the Negev deposit. However the quality of the major oil shale deposit in the Elah valley has yet to be assessed AFAIK.
Well, on paper 25 years isn't much, I'd assume the gov would want to maximize the output so it'll meet the basic needs, but would last as long as possible.
Hopefully the gov/greens and the company responsible for the new Shale Oil exploration will be able to reach an understanding to minimize environmental damage while outputing enough to meet the basic needs.
It seems like the Indians are interested in buying the gas from Israel given that the deal with Iran fell apart. Times of India is reporting Israel has apparently offered to sell.
Co-operation on another level - hope the deal gets finalised and sealed. Israel gets a good customer and India get another source for her massive energy needs.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/11161922.cms
NEW DELHI: Israel, which suddenly finds itself flush with natural gas, has offered to export it to India. The offer was made by Israeli finance minister Yuval Steinitz to the Indian government during his visit here last week. In his conversations with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Steinitz is believed to have said that Israel was looking to export gas to India.
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