This is interesting.
The British natural gas company BG Group Plc pulled out of negotiations on the controversial plans to drill for natural gas in the Gaza Marine field, a British Gas spokesman told The Jerusalem Post Thursday.
According to the plan, BG was meant to drill for natural gas 36 kilometers off of the Gaza coast, in an area that was designated as PA territory following the Oslo Accords. The gas was meant to then flow four km underwater in a pipeline 850 meters below the surface to an Ashkelon refinery. The field, which BG purchased in 2000 and to which Hamas now claims rightful ownership, contains 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas worth an estimated $4 billion.
This is very interesting. A British company gave up a gas field worth billions? Why? Was it terrorism? The Hamas takeover of Gaza? Pressure from Israel to stifle the Hamas government economically?
Any way you look at it, this one makes you go “Hmmm.”
How about the near-certainty that about six months after the infrastructure was set up and running the operation would be “nationalized.”
Eric, you are absolutely right. Look at what just happened in Russia and Venezuela.
chsw
How about the certainty that Hamas would blame the British for the destruction of the equipment after the nationalization theft. Plus the British would probably be billed for all the gas that would be lost as it leaks out of the broken pipes and for the environmental damage
From The man who swallowed Gaza
The fuel sector is an excellent example of a particularly profitable monopoly. Residents of the territories consumer 40 million liters of fuel per month. Under Israel’s administration, by far the largest share of the market was dominated by Pedasco, jointly owned by Israel’s large fuel companies (Paz, Delek, and Sonol). The company sold gasoline and oil to 65 private stations throughout the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The stations’ Palestinian owners leased their equipment from Pedasco.
Pedasco had contracts for supply with the station owners through beyond the year 2000. Under the economic agreement between the Authority and Israel, the Authority pledged not to interfere with contracts between Israeli suppliers and Palestinian customers that had been signed before the signing of the Paris protocol. Promises are promises, and reality is reality. On October 18, 1994, the underlings of Jibril Rajoub, chief of the Authority’s preventive security forces, informed all service station owners that they may not accept fuel from anyone except Dor Energy. Two days later, armed emissaries of Rajoub blocked the entry of Pedasco tankers into the territories of the Authority.
The service station owners sent a letter to the Authority requesting that they be permitted to continue working with Pedasco. Rajoub turned down the request. Eli Halahmi, former CEO of Pedasco: “After the Authority consolidated power in the territories, Rajoub took over and announced that henceforth service station owners would be required to pay an additional tax, at a rate based on their daily sales. Preventive security’s `fuel patrol’ takes daily measurements at the service stations and checks the differences in the balances of the black gold between the morning and the evening.”
This tax enables Rajoub to expand his organization’s power. There are approximately 20 different security apparatuses operating in the territories today; they compete with one another, and the extent of their influence is naturally derived from their economic prowess. Avraham Biger, CEO of Paz up until two months ago, wrings his hands in chagrin: “Pedasco was simply too serious; we believed the Palestinians would live up to their obligations under the Paris agreement and would honor previous agreements. We never received any formal tender announcement from the Palestinians, and this fell on us like a bolt out of the blue.”
Overnight, Pedasco found itself without contracts, without customers, and without the equipment it had leased to the gas stations. After the fact, it turned out that the Authority had even had an exclusive contract for supply with the German-French company Marimpex, signed by Yasser Arafat, when suddenly Dor showed up and snatched all the marbles. The agreement was signed between Joseph Antverg, then the CEO of Dor, and Muhammad Rashid, representing the Palestinians, as “senior economic advisor” to Arafat.
The gas station owners have no business relationship with Dor Energy. Dor sells the fuel to the Palestinian monopoly at a certain price, and the monopoly sells it to the station owners at a much higher price. The monopoly keeps the difference. The station owners have no alternative, because Rajoub’s outfit in the West Bank and Muhammad Dahlan’s in the Gaza Strip prevent any other, competing importation and assign armed guards to escort Dor’s tankers right up to the stations themselves.
I think that the first two commenters pretty much have it right.
The way this story is being reported elsewhere (including elsewhere at the JP), BG didn’t give up anything. They’re backing out of a deal to sell gas to Israel because they couldn’t agree on the price. Now BG is talking about selling the gas to Egypt.
Anyway, there’s speculation that this is just a bargaining ploy to get Israel to raise the ante.