As Israel’s presence in the natural- gas market grows, the country should
continue to strengthen its growing ties with the State of Texas, a capital of
development for the industry, according to Energy and Water Minister Uzi
Landau.
Landau is spending the week in Houston, where he will visit the
development site for Noble Energy’s Tamar rig and meet with representatives of
many companies potentially interested in participating in Israel’s natural-gas
industry.
He was to speak at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) on
Thursday and deliver a public lecture at the Baker Institute and the World
Affairs Council, addressing the geopolitics of gas discoveries in the Middle
East.
“We are here just because we need to learn,” Landau told The
Jerusalem Post in a phone interview from Houston on Tuesday.
“We are here
also to make our case that Israel is a place that is attractive for exploration
and production. We would like see large operators coming in.”
Due to the
strong presence of the natural-gas industry in Texas, it is critical to continue
enhancing Israel’s direct connection with the state, he said. To this effect,
approximately 70,000 people were expected to attend the OTC conference this
week, a Texan venue that is hosting professional natural- gas producers and
people associated with the industry from all over the world, he said.
In
a Middle East, filled “with all of its turmoil,” Israel is essentially the “only
economically and democratically stable place that one can do business with and
rely on doing business with,” Landau said.
Noble Energy has been
operating in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel for more than a
decade. It currently has a 47-percent interest in Israel’s offshore natural-gas
production and sales, according to the Consulate General of Israel in
Houston.
While its site at Tamar is certainly large, at about 250 billion
cubic meters, the adjacent Leviathan site – 450 b.cu.m. – represents Noble
Energy’s largest exploration success in the company’s history.
Noble
Energy was also one of the first companies to independently explore the Gulf of
Mexico, the Israeli Consulate said.
On Wednesday, Landau was scheduled to
visit the development site in Corpus Christi, where Noble Energy is constructing
the rig that will be used to extract gas from the Tamar exploration site, about
80 kilometers west of Haifa’s coast.
“I wish to get a firsthand
impression,” he said.
Noble Energy’s current estimated target date to
begin gas production at Tamar is April 2013.
While it would be ideal to
accelerate the start date even more, in light of the gaps in natural-gas supply
that will likely occur between the end of Israel’s Yam Tethys source and the
beginning of Tamar, Landau said he was not sure if Noble Energy would be able to
expedite the process further.
“Regardless, we are following closely what
is taking place because we would like to see this project being finished as
quickly as possible,” he said.
With Egypt’s decision to end natural- gas
exports to Israel, Cairo will not be filling in any of these gaps at the moment.
But Landau expressed hope that the Egyptian gas flow to Israel would eventually
recommence.
“We will do whatever we can to see that it continues in [the]
future,” he said. “We see this agreement as an anchor, as the most important
derivative we have within the peace agreement. We will do whatever possible. But
again, the Egyptians have their own responsibility to this
agreement.”
After landing in Houston on Tuesday, Landau met with
representatives from one energy firm.
He was slated to meet with leaders
from ConocoPhillips, Baker Hughes, Caterpillar, FMC Corporation and Kiewit
Offshore Services.
Many companies have already shown interest in Israel’s
naturalgas future, but Landau said he would need to provide them with whatever
information is necessary to persuade them into getting involved.
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