Oil delegation heads to NY in search of investors

Gas industry seeks knowledge and capital from international companies in New York and Houston.

By SHARON UDASIN
Oil drilling platform 370 (photo credit: Lee Celano/Reuters)
Oil drilling platform 370
(photo credit: Lee Celano/Reuters)
As Israel enters a new era in petroleum exploration and discoveries, a delegation of oil and gas firms is headed to the United States for roundtable meetings with potential investors, the Economy Ministry announced on Sunday.
The delegation members will fly to Houston on Monday to take part in the Offshore Technology Conference, where they will participate in a seminar on promoting investment and participation in Israeli exploration with leading energy companies such as Chevron, Baker Hughes, FMC and Global Maritime, the ministry said.
Among the Israeli delegates are representatives from Globe Exploration, Delek Drilling, Israeli Opportunity, Avner Oil Exploration and Isramco, who are also joined by officials from American firm Noble Energy, the largest stakeholder in the Tamar and Leviathan offshore explorations.
Assembling the delegation was the initiative of the Economy Ministry’s Foreign Trade Administration and its Investment Promotion Center, as well as the Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Israel Association of Oil and Gas Exploration Industries and the commercial attaches of the Economy Ministry in Houston and New York.
After two days in Houston, the delegation will continue on to New York, where the representatives will take part in an investment seminar with Barclays investment bank, private investment funds, hedge funds, analysts and other investors interested in oil and gas.
“The Israeli energy revolution has already begun, but in order to complete it, it needs investment and partnership with international energy companies, such as those in the US,” said Oded Distel, director of the Investment Promotion Center. “After hearing about the Israeli companies’ need for investment and due to the potential for finding additional discoveries, which aroused great interest among international investors, we decided for the first time to host an event on investing in the field of oil and gas.”
There has been a great demand to attend the meetings both in Houston and New York, on the part of potential investors and partners, Distel said.
Uri Aldubi, chairman of the Association of Oil and Gas Exploration Industries, stressed that the hope is to reach new audiences, increasing the awareness of Israel’s oil and gas business potential among the international companies.
“The Israeli energy industry broke boundaries in recent years, but in order to realize the full potential of the energy latent in Israel and in the Levant basin in general, we must recruit the knowledge, experience and capital that is currently found in international companies,” Aldubi said.