Israel - Europe natural gas deal

An Israel-Europe gas pipeline which would turn Israel into a major energy exporter in the Mediterranean was signed on 24^th April 2017 after the discovery of the Leviathan Natural Gas fields in 2010. Israel will pump natural gas to Greece, Cyprus and Italy under a planned project of $7 billion. It will be the world’s longest and deepest subsea pipeline which will run for 2,200 km and will be approximately 3 km deep in areas. Miguel Canete, the EU’s Climate and Energy Commissioner said that the EU highly values gas supply from Israel as it would ‘contribute to the strategy of diversification of the EU’s gas sources and suppliers’.

Impact on Palestine

As the Leviathan field is estimated to hold around 20 trillion cubic feet of gas, Israel will emerge as a major energy power in the region. This would mean that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories would be further financed.

With growing relations between Egypt and Israel, Egypt has cut off its supply of fuel for energy generation in Palestine.

Analysis

The Leviathan field would be supplying natural gas mainly to Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Greece, Cyprus and Italy. However, there is still an ongoing dispute over the Leviathan fields as Lebanon claims the land to be there’s.

At present the EU depends on Russia for about half of their annual energy needs. With Israel supplying energy to the EU, their dependency on Russia will be eliminated. Due to this, the EU will be able to uphold its sanctions against Russia over its perceived role in the Ukrainian conflict.

However, seeing that Russia has the ability to influence more power than Israel, for the construction of the Leviathan field to take place, Israel might have to make Russia a stakeholder in the production of natural gas.

Assessment

The EU, Egypt, Turkey and Jordan do not have the reserves of natural gas to ever be self-sufficient, thus they may have to succumb to Israel’s demands. This may worsen the situation in Palestine as there would be less aid provided by these countries to Palestine. Although Israel supports Turkey’s desire to aid Palestine, the situation may backfire for Turkey in future.

Russia’s influence and power in the region will reduce and this will have a positive impact on Ukraine. However, seeing Russia’s aggressiveness towards gaining commercial benefits and their increased military abilities, Israel may not be able to implement the project.

By supporting the construction of the Leviathan fields, the countries are indirectly financing Israel’s quest to leave Palestine completely dependent on foreign aid with 80% of Palestine’s population already living below the poverty line.

Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel and increased usage of the fuel would reduce the harm caused to the environment in the European countries. However, being the world’s longest gas pipeline, the harm caused to the aquatic life and ecosystem would be much more severe.

Nevertheless, the construction of the Leviathan fields and the project being completed by 2025 still remains a question as the territory remains disputed between Israel and Lebanon.