Israel faces upstream reform challenge

A government committee has failed to tackle the root causes of a slump in upstream expansion, argues energy analyst Gina Cohen

In 2013, the Israeli government decided to determine how much of the country's 33 trillion cubic feet of gas would have to remain for local consumption versus the volumes allowed for export. In addition, the decision specified that all export facilities would have to be located in Israeli waters and all fields, regardless of whether the gas was for local consumption or exports, would have to be connected first to the local market. An inter-ministerial committee (the Zemach committee), which had submitted its analysis to the government in a 130-page document, was confident that its recommendations, which were endorsed by the cabinet, would stimulate gas exploration. The 2013 report stipulated