Leviathan Gas Field A Real Game Changer For Israel

First of all, just getting companies to look for gas to begin with was difficult:

Oil and gas exploration that might benefit Israel has long been stymied by political fears. Because of worries about antagonizing current relationships with Arab partners, Big Oil had till now avoided the possibility of any political blow-back from finding any potential oil and gas in Israel.

So it took a relatively minor company, Noble Energy, to make the Leviathan gas discovery off the shores of Israel.

But once the the resource is actually available, the playing field that Israel has had to work off of for decades will be significantly changed:

But whatever the government does, the Leviathan gas find has already changed Israel’s relationships with other regions, and not just the great oil and gas powers of the Arab world.

Obviously its own natural gas fired electricity is a natural to power the electric vehicles being developed by local entrepreneur Shah Agassi, to replace the gasoline-powered vehicles that enrich its Arab neighbors.

But currently, electricity fueled by imported Russian coal supplies 71% of Israel’s electricity.

Not only could the nation now substitute for these risky foreign coal supplies by switching to natural gas, (since coal plants are fairly easily converted to burn natural gas, as US utilities have found) but by doing so, Israel can now easily and economically swap almost three quarters of its current electricity portfolio to one with less than half the carbon cost.

So this changes Israel’s relationship with a Northern nation which has been unafraid to bully Europe – when it was in dire need of Russian energy supplies – using its energy hegemony. Now Israel no longer needs Russian coal. With this find, it is not just energy independent, itself.

But customers from throughout Asia are now wooing the formerly friendless nation, desperate for the last drops of fossil fuels.

And that means that Israel may become the sudden beneficiary of new friends--also an important resource in today's Middle East.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Leviathan.