The recent Israeli natural gas finds could facilitate better ties between the Jewish state and “with energy-hungry Egypt, Jordan and even the Palestinian Authority,” according to a report Monday in The New York Times:
While Israel’s gas consumption is growing fast, the domestic market is not large enough to fully tap Tamar’s potential, much less develop a much larger field called Leviathan. So Noble and its Israeli partners have focused on Egypt and Jordan as the nearest, cheapest-to-reach places to export.
“As we learned more about the regional market and the need for gas of Israel’s neighbors, that became the more attractive approach,” said Binyamin A. Zomer, an Oklahoman who heads Noble’s operation here.
The Obama administration has quietly pushed the strategy. As United States officials see it, the energy ties could further cement the fragile peace bet ween Israel and its neighbors, and perhaps offer Europe another gas source to lessen its dependence on Russia.
The Times reports that when negotiations between Israel and Jordan hit difficulties the Obama administration helped the negotiations forward.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talked to King Abdullah of Jordan about Israeli gas in 2011. Amos J. Hochstein, a top energy diplomat at the State Department, approached Noble Energy in early 2012 about making a deal with the Jordanians, according to American officials with knowledge of the meeting. Formal negotiations, involving company executives as well as Israeli, Jordanian and American officials, began that year at the Royal Court in Amman. …
United States officials tried to smooth the process. They provided funding to train Jordanians in gas regulation. The American ambassador to Jordan, Stuart E. Jones, invited negotiators to continue talks in the relaxed atmosphere of his Amman residence when talks got tense elsewhere.
The role Noble Energy played in successfully concluding the negotiations is noted as it provides “cover to leaders who could otherwise face political blowback for buying gas supplies in deals directly with the Israeli government.”
Israel’s 15 year deal with Jordan is expected to save the monarchy $1.5 billion a year as opposed to what it would have to spend if it bought its gas from other countries.
[Photo: JewishNewsOne / YouTube ]