1. Delek, Noble executives: We commit to developing Leviathan – Jeruslaem Post
2. Economy Minister Deri calls for changes to proposed natural gas plan – YNET
3. Energy Minister Steinitz announces terms of gas compromise deal – Jerusalem Post
4. What’s at stake in the gas deal – Jerusalem Post
5. Knesset vote on Monday will confirm or deny attempt by the government to claim responsibility for impending deal to break up Israel’s gas duopoly. YNET
6 Lapid calls for transparent natural gas deal – YNET
7. Thousands protest natural gas deal – YNET

Delek, Noble executives: We commit to developing Leviathan – Jeruslaem Post

By SHARON UDASIN
07/02/2015
Economy Minister Deri calls for changes in current gas outline.
In their first addresses following the release of the natural gas compromise outline, executives from the Delek Group and Noble Energy pledged their commitment to developing the Leviathan reservoir, while criticizing the harsh terms of the outline itself.

“We, with Delek and our partners, have invested already more than $1 billion in the development and explorations of Leviathan,” said Bini Zomer, Noble Energy Israel country manager, noting that the partners had invested more than $20 million each month toward readying Leviathan. “We want to develop it, we are obliged to develop it.”

Zomer was speaking at the 24th annual conference of the Israeli Association of Publicly Traded Companies, just two days after National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz released the terms of a compromise outline formulated among government officials and the natural gas companies to solve six months of disputes in the sector.

The ongoing disagreements, which have largely frozen new gas development, are the result of Antitrust Commissioner David Gilo’s December announcement that he would review whether the market dominance of the Delek Group and Noble Energy constituted an illegal “restrictive agreement.” Since then, members of an interministerial team have formulated several drafts of a compromise outline to settle the issue, the final version of which was released on Tuesday.

“This outline from our perspective is a stringent outline, that imposed upon us arrangements that are abnormal in the Western world,” said Gideon Tadmor, chairman of Delek Driling and CEO of Avner Oil Exploration, both subsidiaries of the Delek Group.

While acknowledging that public discussion and transparency is critical, Tadmor criticized the country’s vying parties for “politicizing an economic issue” and accused them of using the issue as “a political taunting tool.”

“There is an obsession here that is completely disconnected from the facts, the economics,” Tadmor said.

Pointing out that the companies invested enormous resources in the gas reservoirs, Tadmor stressed that the moment they began to benefit from the gas development, they learned that their assets were being called into question.

Expanding upon the issue of Leviathan’s development, Zomer explained that as soon as the necessary regulations were in place, the companies would continue as planned.

“All of our intention and all of our ambition is to develop [Leviathan] as quickly as possible, by the date that was determined in the outline,” he said.

Tadmor corroborated this statement, reminding the conference participants that the outline takes Delek out of three of its four reservoirs – Tamar, Karish and Tanin.

“Our entire world is Leviathan,” he said.

On Tuesday, the same day that Steinitz released compromise outline, the Finance Ministry also published online the protocols of the interministerial discussions that have taken place in the past six months.

Among the protocols published by the Finance Ministry were two opinions presented by Noble Energy – the first of which was a speech delivered to the committee by Zomer on January 21.

“Let’s be clear,” Zomer said. “Noble Energy did not violate the law, we did not enter into an agreement in restraint of trade, we have not prevented competition. What we have done is to succeed beyond the expectations of the government of Israel which invited us to invest in Israel and which was happy to have us risk our shareholders’ money, apparently, so long as we did not succeed.”

Although acknowledging that a monopoly does exist in the gas sector, Zomer explained that this situation “is not a crime.” Noble and its partners, he said, risked their capital to explore after other less qualified companies failed in their exploration attempts.

In his January speech, Zomer blamed the ongoing disagreements not on the antitrust commissioner’s announcement but on the idea that “the regulatory system in Israel is broken.” He emphasized that the circumstances have caused Noble Energy’s shareholders to “lose faith and trust in the word of the government of Israel.”

While arguing that no restraint of trade had occurred, Zomer pointed out that Noble did agree “to a fire sale of the Tanin and Karish assets” regardless, and reached an agreement with the antitrust commissioner in March 2014 – a consent decree that was supposed to be ratified in the Antitrust Tribunal.

Zomer also brought up the government’s decision to adopt export limitations the year prior, a step he said was part of “long list of examples in which the rules of the game were changed following our investments, our marketing efforts were at quite an advanced stage.”

“We can no longer expect our shareholders and those of the international investment community to continue to invest their money simply based on promises given by the government of Israel,” Zomer said. “We cannot do it because that trust has been violated too many times.”

Although the government and the companies have largely agreed to the terms of the outline, the document’s cabinet approval still faces a hurdle that the government had expected to overcome on Monday. That evening, the coalition chose to postpone a Knesset vote on a legal matter that would have allowed the government to circumvent Antitrust Commissioner Gilo’s objections to the compromise deal. Gilo has made clear that he would not support the outline and went so far as to announce on May 26 his resignation, effective in August.

To sidestep the antitrust commissioner’s authority, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other proponents of the compromise deal promoted invoking Article 52 of the 1988 Restrictive Trade Practices Law (the Antitrust Law), through which an antitrust commissioner can be prevented from interfering in a “restrictive agreement” due to reasons of foreign policy or national security.

Because Economy Ministry Arye Deri declined to exercise his authority to invoke the article, transferring his powers to the government required both cabinet and Knesset authorization. While the transfer received cabinet approval on Sunday, the Knesset vote was eventually postponed, after too many coalition MKs refused to participate, leaving the opposition with a majority.

It remains unclear when a new vote on the matter will take place.

On Thursday, during a tour of the south in his role as Negev and Galilee development minister, Deri addressed the situation, calling the gas topic “very complex.”

“I thought and I still do today that this is a topic subject that the public should be exposed to,” he said. “Both the government and the Knesset should be exposed to it. This is not a subject that is completed by the cabinet.”

One minister alone, he explained, cannot bear the future of the gas deal on his or her shoulders.

“I’m not running away from responsibility,” Deri said. “But this is a subject that the gas companies should know. They need to be exposed to all the government bodies, and hear their comments.”

Regarding the outline specifically, Deri maintained the opinion that “no one says that the outline is good” and that “even those who defend it say that it is bad, but the least bad possible.”

“This outline can be a draft for a discussion,” he continued. “This is how I see it. I don’t see it as the final thing. There are changes need to be made in it.”

Some such changes include pricing issues as well as matters of supervision, according to Deri.

“This is my opinion,” he said. “I know it wasn’t easy, I know it was not pleasant, but I believe that in the end, people would thank me and tell me it is the right way. “

http://www.jpost.com/landedpages/printarticle.aspx?id=407859
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Economy Minister Deri calls for changes to proposed natural gas plan – YNET

State Comptroller delivers report on Israel’s natural gas market to PM, several others involved in proposed plan ahead of official release later this month.

Matan Tzuri, Naama Cohen-Friedman
Latest Update: 07.02.15

Economy Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) on Thursday became the first of the government’s ministers to publicly oppose the proposed natural gas plan.

“This isn’t the end of it, there are changes that need to be made,” Deri said during a tour of the Gaza border communities.

Deri decided not to use his authority as economy minister to bypass the antitrust regulator and approve the proposed plan, which led to the need to seek both government and Knesset approval of the plan, and as a result also to releasing the plan to the public.

“The gas issue is very complex and the public had to be exposed to it, and the Knesset needs to be exposed to it, this is not an issue that is resolved in the cabinet,” Deri said. “It’s not an issue for one minister, no matter how senior, to take on alone. Everyone needs to share that burden. I am also a part of this, I’m not escaping responsibility. The gas companies should also be exposed to all government bodies and listen to their comments.”

According to the proposed plan, Israel’s Delek and Texas-based Noble Energy will continue to own Israel’s largest natural gas field, Leviathan. However, Delek, through its units Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration, will have six years to sell its entire 31.3 percent stake in a second large field, Tamar, and Noble will have to trim its stake in Tamar to 25 percent from 36 percent. The companies will also be forced to sell two smaller fields, Tanin and Karish, within 14 months. The government will set a price ceiling and the deal will remain unchanged for 10 years.

“The deal is good for Israel and its citizens,” Steinitz said on Tuesday while presenting the plan. “It is reasonable, but difficult for the energy companies.”

The minister added that as a result of the agreement, Israel will earn “around $100 billion, which will go to education, security, and welfare in the upcoming decades.”

Deri, meanwhile, said that “no one said the plan was good, even those who defend it say it’s the lesser of evils. This plan could be a starting point for discussion, changes need to be made: The issues of the prices, the supervision and inspection.”

On Wednesday, State Comptroller Yosef Shapira said he planned to publish a report he has written on the government’s conduct on the natural gas issue within three weeks – before the government’s vote on the approval of a proposed natural gas plan.

Shapira delivered the draft report to those under examination on Tuesday, among them Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Energy and Water Infrastructure Minister Yuval Steinitz, and Steinitz’s predecessors Interior Minister Silvan Shalom and Uzi Landau.

The draft was also delivered to National Economic Council head Eugene Kandel, and former Antitrust Commissioner David Gilo, who resigned from his position over his objection to the proposed gas plan made public on Tuesday.

Shapira asked those under examination to turn in their answers and responses to the report within a week, although normally a longer amount of time is given for this. The State Comptroller’s office stated Wednesday evening that the shortened schedule is designed to help the government make their decision as soon as possible.

In the event that the names of those under examination are sullied in the wake of the report’s conclusion, they are likely to request a hearing to prevent the report’s rejection. In such a case, Shapira will publish his report after one-to-two weeks.

The comptroller’s announcement comes just one day after he demanded that the government’s decision on the plan be given only after the publication of his report on the subject.

“Given that I intend to give you and others under examination an updated draft report on the issue of the development of the natural gas sector later this week, I would be grateful if you would ensure that the government’s decision on the plan will be taken after the report’s publication. It should be noted that I intend to act so that the report will be published, to the extent that it is in our control, as soon as possible,” Shapira wrote in a letter to Steinitz.

First Published: 07.02.15, 10:23

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4675385,00.html
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Energy Minister Steinitz announces terms of gas compromise deal – Jerusalem Post

by SHARON UDASIN
06/30/2015
After six months of disagreements among government officials , Steinitz released the final terms of ongoing negotiations for public commentary.
Stressing the urgency of moving forward on natural gas, National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz presented the terms of a highly disputed compromise development outline on Tuesday.

“The outline that we reached is not just good; it is the best. It is the best possible in reality,” Steinitz said during a press conference at his Jerusalem office.

“The outline is good for the State of Israel and its citizens,” he continued. “It is reasonable but stringent from the perspective of the energy companies. They are forced to take upon themselves harsh conditions, the harshest conditions among energy companies in all Western countries, in all OECD countries.”

After six months of disagreements among government officials and natural gas companies that have largely frozen the sector’s development, Steinitz released the final terms of negotiations for public commentary, prior to cabinet discussions on the subject. On Monday, the government postponed a Knesset vote on a measure that would have enabled the cabinet to move forward with such discussions, due to the coalition’s inability to rally a majority.

The disputes in the natural gas sector are the result of Antitrust Commissioner David Gilo’s December announcement that he would review whether the market dominance of the Delek Group and Noble Energy constituted an illegal “restrictive agreement.” Since then, members of an interministerial team – including representatives from the Energy Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the National Economic Council of the Prime Minister’s Office – have formulated several drafts of a compromise outline to settle the issue, the final version of which was released on Tuesday.

At the press conference, Steinitz emphasized that while the 621-billion cubic meter Leviathan gas reservoir had been discovered in 2010, development of the basin had not even begun.

“If we continue to be delayed, the damages will be huge,” he said. “I decided immediately upon my entrance to this position [as minister], despite the fact that there are other important issues, first and foremost to invest my efforts during my first weeks in office to reach a breakthrough and an outline that would bring an end to years of delays that have hurt the State of Israel and its citizens gravely.”

Among the goals of the outline, Steinitz explained, was the swift development of Leviathan, requiring the companies to do so by the end of July 2019.

In addition, the outline aims to foster an environment of competition with the entrance of a new operator into the Israeli offshore market, the reduction of cross-ownership among reservoirs and encouragement of new investment. Lastly, the outline emphasizes the need to ensure reasonable prices during the intermediate period, until competition is established.

Under the outline, Delek subsidiaries Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration will have to exit the 282-b.cu.m. Tamar reservoir, whose gas began flowing to Israel in March 2013, selling their assets there within six years. Houston-based Noble Energy could remain the basin’s operator, needing to dilute its ownership from the current 36 percent share to 25%.

The Delek subsidiaries and Noble Energy would need to sell their holdings in two much smaller offshore reservoirs, Karish and Tanin, within 14 months. Because the buyer would be required to sell gas only to Israel, export allocations intended for these reservoirs would be transferred to Leviathan, according to the outline.

In 2013, the cabinet decided to cap exports at 40% of production.

The outline says the Karish and Tanin buyer would be required to provide “skin in the game,” a phrase meaning that buyers must demonstrate that they have undertaken serious monetary risk through their investment. As an incentive for a quick transaction, the government would allow for Delek and Noble to receive up to 9% of royalties from Karish and Tanin gas sales if they sold the reservoirs within eight months, and up to 7% if they sold within 14.

The negotiations involving Karish and Tanin almost broke down, Steinitz said, emphasizing how Delek and Noble had discovered those reservoirs and the government had authorized them to invest their resources there.

“Here we are taking a draconian step,” the minister added.

With regard to the Leviathan reservoir, the companies will be able to remain without any change in ownership, the outline explains. The government reserves the right, however, to require separate marketing of gas after 10 years of operation, or fewer if necessary.

“Of course we would be happier if there was competition, but if there isn’t competition, then we reserve for ourselves the right to take this drastic step,” Steinitz said.

As far as gas prices are concerned, the minister pledged that the terms of the outline would enable profits to benefit the citizens of Israel.

“We are ensuring that the prices in Israel will be reasonable in comparison to the rest of the world,” Steinitz said.

When negotiating prices with Israeli firms, gas companies will have two options, according to the terms of the outline. The first will involve a formula that takes into account revenues from gas sales made during the previous quarter, divided by the cumulative amount of natural gas in million British Thermal Units (mmBtu). At the beginning of each quarter, the base price will be updated.

The second option is to calculate sales prices based on the best existing consumer contracts in the market, taking into account current prices for benchmark Brent crude oil. If a company exports gas at a price that is lower than the price on the domestic market, it will need to sell its gas in Israel at the lower price, Steinitz stressed.

Until a competitive market is achieved, a price ceiling with linkage to market changes – at this point, $5.40 per mmBtu – would be enforced, Prof. Eugene Kandel, head of the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister’s Office, explained.

“If prices of export go up, the prices here cannot go up because they have a ceiling,” Kandel told The Jerusalem Post following the press conference. “If the prices of export go down, the prices here go down.”

The idea of transforming today’s average price into the maximum hard-price ceiling is important, Kandel explained. While today there is a range of prices, the outline takes the average of these prices and makes this average – the $5.40 per mmBtu – the maximum, he said.

With regard to infrastructure, pipelines designated for export will not be entitled to tax benefits guaranteed to local pipelines, as mandated by the Sheshinski Committee, whose recommendations on hydrocarbon taxation became law in 2013. In addition, the government will publish a memorandum to the Petroleum Profit Taxation Law – the law passed as a result of the Sheshinski Committee proposals – to regulate aspects of transactions among interested parties and to correct loopholes discovered in the law, according to the outline.

“There will be competition between the fields, as well as competition between the export and the local market,” Kandel said. “If the companies find that the prices around us for gas dropped and they can only sell at lower prices, then we will have lower prices in Israel as well.”

Now that the terms of the compromise outline have been unveiled, government officials said there would be a period for public commentary, followed by an eventual discussion of the document by the full cabinet.

Conveying the outline to the cabinet still faces the hurdle that the government had expected to overcome on Monday. On that evening, the coalition chose to postpone a Knesset vote on a legal matter that would have allowed the government to bypass Antitrust Commissioner Gilo’s objections to the compromise deal. Gilo has made clear that he would not support the outline and went so far as to announce on May 26 his resignation, effective in August.

To sidestep the antitrust commissioner’s authority, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other proponents of the compromise deal promoted invoking Article 52 of the 1988 Restrictive Trade Practices Law (the Antitrust Law), through which an antitrust commissioner can be prevented from interfering in a “restrictive agreement” due to reasons of foreign policy or national security.

Although Article 52 enables an economy minister to directly exercise his authority to invoke the clause, Economy Minister Arye Deri transferred his powers on the issue to the government in Thursday’s security cabinet meeting. The day before, he had warned Netanyahu that he would not act as a “rubber stamp” on the approval of what has become a divisive issue among politicians and industry stakeholders.

With one vote against and three abstentions, the government on Sunday approved the transfer of authority from Deri to the full cabinet. However, because the economy minister waived his authority on the issue, Article 31a. and b. of Basic Law: The Government mandates that the issue receive Knesset approval as well.

The Knesset vote to transfer Deri’s authority to the general cabinet was supposed to take place Monday evening, but was pushed to the end of day’s agenda – meaning after midnight – when too many coalition MKs refused to participate, leaving the opposition with a majority.

It remains unclear when a new vote on the transfer via Article 52 will take place.

On Tuesday afternoon, State Comptroller Joseph Shapira wrote a letter to Steinitz, notifying him that the State Comptroller’s Office would soon issue an updated report about development of the country’s gas sector. Shapira asked that the government hold off approving the compromise outline until ministers receive the report.

The Knesset Economics Committee, meanwhile, plans to hold a meeting to discuss the gas plan next Monday. Committee chairman Eitan Cabel (Zionist Union) invited the prime minister, Steinitz and Delek Group owner Yitzhak Tshuva to present their stands.

Nonetheless, Steinitz remained confident on Tuesday that the compromise deal was strong and would advance.

“I have no doubt that in the real world, not in the fantasy world, this outline is good for the State of Israel, it is good for its citizens,” he said.

Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Environment/Energy-Minister-Steinitz-announces-terms-of-gas-compromise-deal-407582
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What’s at stake in the gas deal – Jerusalem Post

By NIV ELIS
06/30/2015
Economists and analysts differ in their assessment of the situation.
The gas hiding 7 kilometers below the surface of the sea off Israel’s coast is worth an estimated $52 billion to Israel’s economy, according to Ernst and Young – around a fifth of Israel’s annual economic output – so the way the government goes about regulating it is, to put it mildly, a pretty big deal.

The government’s vote this week to bypass the Antitrust Authority with a compromise arrangement for how Noble Energy and the Delek Group can develop and sell gas from the Leviathan field will have repercussions on Israel’s economy for years to come.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the deal must go through as is if the gas is ever to be extracted somewhat strains credulity, as do accusations from the opposition that Netanyahu is acting to line corporate pockets.

Even Antitrust Commissioner David Gilo, who will resign in August in protest of the government sweeping aside his recommendations for increasing competition between the gas suppliers, believes the government is acting in order to expedite the process of getting gas online, in no small part because it hopes to bolster its geopolitical position by selling gas to neighboring countries.

How can we interpret the economic differences between Gilo’s plan, which pushed for creating more competition in the market, and that under consideration by the government, which is likely to regulate the price in some other way? Part of the problem is that economists and analysts differ in their assessment of the situation.

Take Gilo. He argues that as long as Noble Energy holds serious stakes in both the Leviathan (40 percent) and Tamar (the current plan will reduce it from 36% to 25%, which Gilo doesn’t think is enough) reservoirs, there will not be enough competition in the market. Why would Noble agree to lower prices at the demand of one buyer if the buyer’s only alternative is also largely owned by Noble? He also wants to ensure that the companies in Leviathan are competing against each other and not selling as a group – a proposal the companies rejected and which is absent from the current plan.

When there was competition from imported Egyptian gas, one expert indicated, the price of gas was 15-30% lower than it is today, when gas is flowing from only Tamar.

Without a change, Israel might be giving up that discount, and stick to the current $5.6 per unit.

That makes a big difference for Israelis.

According to the Israel Electric Corporation, which generates about 60% of its electricity from natural gas, every dollar reduction in the price of gas lops NIS 1.5b. off the national electric bill. That has implications not just to electricity consumers, but also to manufacturers, who could pass on some of that saving to their customers.

But what if imposing those ideal conditions delay when Leviathan’s gas comes online (the latest kerfuffle has already put off the goal date from 2018 to 2020).

According to Zvi Eckstein, the Dean of the IDC’s Arison School of Business and Tiomkin School of Economics, every year the introduction of new gas is postponed costs the government $3b. (about NIS 11b.).

From that point of view, it would seem that following Gilo’s recommendations would make the good the enemy of the perfect.

“I think one of the main confusions is that there was not a well-established economic analysis of what the price should be, which is probably $5-$6 per unit at the source,” Eckstein said.

Sure, it’s important where in the range it falls, but maybe not as important as getting the gas out of the ground quickly.

Eckstein also disagrees that Gilo’s plan would have increased competition.

“I think David Gilo was wrong, economically.” Eckstein said, arguing that going back and introducing competition ex-post would not help.

Other economists contend that Israel is too small an economy to foster much competition (an argument Gilo rejects), but Eckstein says that even with the highest levels of competition, the price will not go below the export price, which is not significantly different.

He also claims the high taxes on gas offer a buffer for Israelis’ welfare; with around 70% of the cost of gas being taxed, higher prices mean more government revenue, which could mean lower taxes or better services.

“It’s not clear at all that changing the cost by $1 is going to benefit the citizen, because the tax proceeds may be higher than any gain the citizen will get,” he said.

Not that Eckstein thinks the government has behaved admirably. Since the Sheshinsky committee agreed on taxation, “the government has behaved badly in every aspect,” he said.
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Whats-at-stake-in-the-gas-deal-407550

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Knesset vote on Monday will confirm or deny attempt by the government to claim responsibility for impending deal to break up Israel’s gas duopoly.

Moran Azulay, Omri Ephraim
Latest Update: 06.28.15, 17:46 / Israel Business

The government voted Sunday to pass responsibility from Economy Minister Ariyah Deri to themselves for signing a deal to break up the duopoly that controls Israel’s natural gas fields after Deri refused to sign the deal last week.

Details of the agreement have yet to be made public, but industry sources have said Noble and Delek will be allowed to keep control of Leviathan, the world’s largest offshore gas discovery of the past decade.

The government’s decision makes use of Article 52 of the Antitrust Law, allowing them to circumvent the antitrust regulator and approve the agreement with the gas companies.

The only member of the government to oppose the deal has been Minister of Environmental Protection Avi Gabay.

“The state must listen and understand the companies’ claims and demands and then utilize its authority and sovereignty on this matter in order to arrive at the plan that is best for the citizens of Israel,” said Gabay.

Regarding the strategic plan presented to the ministers, Minister Gabay said it was “an important move, but only clear, numerical indicators and targets can make it effective.”

“The deal we’ve formulated breaks the monopoly and will bring hundreds of millions of shekels in the next decade to education, culture, health and many more things for the benefit of all Israeli citizens,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The move to pass responsibility for the deal to the government is due to come before a Knesset vote on Monday afternoon and Netanyahu’s majority in the Knesset, already on thin ice, may fall into cold water in the vote tomorrow due to the withdrawal of three ministers from the vote, all of whom cited a conflict of interest.

Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid already announced his party’s opposition to the deal, and if all opposition parties decide to unite in a ‘no’ vote, Netanyahu could be defeated in a Knesset vote for the first time since his recently elected government took office.

Only Environment Minister Avi Gabai voiced opposition in the government vote on Sunday.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4673696,00.html
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Lapid calls for transparent natural gas deal – YNET

Netanyahu says hundreds of millions shekels Israel will make in gas deal in coming decades will go to education, welfare and health.

Moran Azulay, Reuters
Published: 06.27.15

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid said on Saturday that his party will not support a plan to let a American-Israeli energy group keep control of most of the country’s natural gas deposits.

The government approved the plan on Thursday in a decision set to end months of uncertainty and will likely to be welcomed by Texas-based Noble Energy and Israeli conglomerate Delek Group. Their control of two sizeable gas fields was put in doubt late last year when the anti-trust regulator branded them a monopoly.

“Yesh Atid will not support a plan that does not include a supervision mechanism for gas prices,” Lapid said at a cultural event in Holon.

“We need to study the formulating plan in a transparent and open manner at the Knesset’s Finance Committee, it cannot be done in the darkness, it has to be transparent,” he added.

The former finance minister said that “the gas issue is a complicated one, filled with interests and important for the State of Israel.”

He noted that Israel “should allow the development of the Leviathan gas field during a given timeframe. You cannot continue stalling on this issue. We lost billions from the delay on signing the agreement and will lose billions more if we are now asked to go back and start everything from the beginning.”

Details of the agreement have yet to be made public, but industry sources have said Noble and Delek will be allowed to keep control of Leviathan, the world’s largest offshore gas discovery of the past decade.

“We are establishing a significantly more competitive market and putting in place mechanisms that will prevent price gouging,” Eugene Kandel, a top economic adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who led negotiations with Noble and Delek, said on Army Radio.

On Friday, Netanyahu wrote on Facebook that his government was “promoting a realistic solution that would bring natural gas to the Israeli market, not a populist solution. I do not intend to surrender to pressures – I am determined to implement the gas plan, which is backed by the majority of professional and objective experts, in order to add many resources to the Treasury that would allow us to improve the quality of life for each and every Israeli citizen.”

“I do not work for any tycoons,” Netanyahu stressed. “I am the prime minister of Israel and I work for you, for the security of Israel and the welfare of all of its citizens.”

“During the elections campaign I committed to acting to cut the cost of living. I am determined to do so using the many resources we will gain thanks to the gas plan. This plan breaks the monopoly and will bring in hundreds of millions of shekels in the coming decades for education, welfare, and health to all of the citizens of Israel,” he continued.

The 10-member cabinet for security and diplomatic affairs was an unusual forum to handle a primarily economic issue, but it allowed Netanyahu greater control. After voting in favor of the proposal unanimously, the government is widely expected to approve it.

“It is of decisive importance to move quickly to develop and expand the natural gas fields that have been discovered off Israel’s shores out of concern for state security and the foreign relations of the State of Israel,” a cabinet statement said after the meeting ended.

On Sunday, the government is expected to approve transferring the authority to bypass the he anti-trust regulator’s decision from Economy Minister Aryeh Deri to the entire government, in order to approve the gas plan.

This will be done despite Deri’s refusal to participate in the cabinet meeting on Thursday about Article 52 of the 1988 Restrictive Trade Practices Law, which allows him to go around the anti-trust regular’s decision on security and diplomatic grounds – something that could hasten the approval of the controversial gas plan.

After consulting to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, it was decided that after the cabinet approves the transfers of authority from Deri to the entire government, the move will be brought to the Knesset’s approval on Monday.

While the opposition demanded that any natural gas plan is brought to the Knesset’s approval, at this point the MKs will only vote on the first stage – transferring the authority from the economy minister to the government.

After the Knesset’s approval, a public hearing will be held on the topic, following which the government will have to make a final decision on the topic.

The deal gives Delek subsidiaries Avner Oil and Delek Drilling six years to sell their 15.625 percent stakes in another large field, Tamar, while Noble will have to lower its stake in that project to 25 percent from 36 percent, industry sources said.

Delek and Noble will also be forced to sell their stakes in two smaller fields, Tanin and Karish, in up to 18 months.

Tamar, with reserves of about 10 trillion cubic feet (tcf), began production in 2013 for the domestic market. Leviathan, which holds an estimated 22 tcf, is primarily earmarked for exports and is expected take three years to bring online. Tanin and Karish have a combined 3 tcf.

Israel’s energy sector was blindsided in December when the anti-trust regulator deemed Noble and Delek a monopoly and said they could be forced to sell their assets.

Noble in response halted investments in Israel, the companies threatened legal action and a number of long-term, multi-billion dollar export deals to Egypt and Jordan were thrown into jeopardy.

Netanyahu quickly set up a government committee to find a compromise and his intention to speed up development of the fields rather than demand a more sweeping divestment led to the resignation of the anti-trust regulator.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4673264,00.html
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Thousands protest natural gas deal – YNET

Crowd demonstrates in Tel Aviv against government’s plan to let a American-Israeli energy group keep control of most of the country’s natural gas deposits.

Shahar Chai
Published: 06.27.15, 23:35 / Israel News

Thousands of protestors demonstrated on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv against the government’s plan to let a American-Israeli energy group keep control of most of the country’s natural gas deposits.

Dr. Yossi Langotsky, who initiated the drilling, used sharp words. “The point we’ve gotten to is shameful,” he said. “The Israeli government is guiltiest of all. I understand the gas companies that want to profit, but it comes at the expense of the public. The antitrust regulator resigned for a reason. The Israeli government is robbing the public.”

MK Professor Yossi Yona of the Zionist Union added that the debate over the deal appeared to be taking place behind closed doors. “The current plan does not serve the public interest,” he said. “The current plan concentrates economic power in the hands of interested parties, among them foreign bodies, which means a strategic threat to Israel’s sovereignty.”

“There is a tremendous civil protest here,” said Mor Gilboa, director of the Green Course environmental organization and one of the protest’s organizers. “The apparent plan leaves us with exaggerated and outrageous natural gas prices that will not contribute to lowering the cost of living, to development of a strong local industry, to development of industry in the periphery, to reducing pollution. The gas robbery led by Netanyahu, with Kahlon’s silence, shall not pass.”

The government approved the plan on Thursday in a decision set to end months of uncertainty and will likely to be welcomed by Texas-based Noble Energy and Israeli conglomerate Delek Group. Their control of two sizeable gas fields was put in doubt late last year when the anti-trust regulator branded them a monopoly.

Details of the agreement have yet to be made public, but industry sources have said Noble and Delek will be allowed to keep control of Leviathan, the world’s largest offshore gas discovery of the past decade.

“We are establishing a significantly more competitive market and putting in place mechanisms that will prevent price gouging,” Eugene Kandel, a top economic adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who led negotiations with Noble and Delek, said on Army Radio.

On Friday, Netanyahu wrote on Facebook that his government was “promoting a realistic solution that would bring natural gas to the Israeli market, not a populist solution. I do not intend to surrender to pressures – I am determined to implement the gas plan, which is backed by the majority of professional and objective experts, in order to add many resources to the Treasury that would allow us to improve the quality of life for each and every Israeli citizen.”

“I do not work for any tycoons,” Netanyahu stressed. “I am the prime minister of Israel and I work for you, for the security of Israel and the welfare of all of its citizens.”

“During the elections campaign I committed to acting to cut the cost of living. I am determined to do so using the many resources we will gain thanks to the gas plan. This plan breaks the monopoly and will bring in hundreds of millions of shekels in the coming decades for education, welfare, and health to all of the citizens of Israel,” he continued.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4673365,00.html