Working in Qatar has clearly given the academic Mari Luomi access to lots of information about the climate change rhetoric and reality of the Gulf. It also puts her in a rather awkward position in terms of being able to voice her criticism. After interviewing Luomi for Green Prophet around a year ago, however, I [...]
Improvement of Turkish and Israeli ties could make Istanbul a hub for Israeli natural gas deliveries to Europe The discovery and development of large natural gas deposits by Israel in the eastern Mediterranean by local and foreign energy companies such as Delek Energy and Noble Energy has become a game changer for Israel. Up to now, [...]
The Zorlu Group, one of Turkey’s biggest business conglomerates, has its eyes on another behemoth: Israel’s largest gas field, the Leviathan. Under a new plan proposed by Zorlu, an undersea pipeline would deliver 8-10 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year from the Leviathan, 130 kilometers west of Haifa, to Turkey’s southern coast, reports [...]
An absurd situation where one ministry approves the marine reserve and and another gives a license for oil drilling. Nothing new for Israel. If Greenpeace has won the battle against Zara and its use of toxic chemicals, this new potential environmental threat should have the Greenpeace Mediterranean headquarters on full alert: the Israeli government eager [...]
With air pollution 100x worse than NYC the news doesn’t look good for 2013 even though Cairo taxis were offered free natural gas tanks. Two years ago when the Egyptian government began fully implementing taxis run on natural gas, there was much praise and fanfare. Air pollution was at monumental levels in the Egyptian capital [...]
Cheaper flights for all? If Qatar’s “Pearl project” can develop the natural gas industry for planes, it could translate into reducing overall costs for US carriers. Qatar Airways ambitious new plan to erect a $19 billion Pearl project that will be the largest gas-to-liquids plant in the world, is receiving massive praise and optimism over its future [...]
A woman fills up car in Haifa with methanol and gasoline fuel mixture. More bang for her buck? Photo: Haaretz/David Bachar Alternative car fuel mixtures have been talked about for years. Many gas stations in the US incorporate ethanol into their blends, all the way to fuel made from human and animal “poop”. More recently, [...]
The United States is poised to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2020 thanks to increased output of new exploration technologies such as fracking. But what does this mean for politics? The World Energy Outlook 2012 released by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that America will surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia as [...]
Qatar Airways’ natural gas push could help combat climate change, reduce costs for passengers. Photo: Qatar Airways With massive natural gas reserves, it is a wonder that Qatar has not pushed natural gas for the aviation industry. Granted, no country, or airline, has made the move to gas, but Qatar and its flagship Qatar Airways hopes [...]
Satellite view of Deepwater Horizen oil spill slick, April 30, 2010: Photo by US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Noble Energy, the Houston based energy company, has been working with both Israel and Cyprus to find commercial quantities of natural gas under the eastern Mediterranean seabed . Noble Energy’s Mediterranean undersea energy exploration has [...]
Drilling for natural gas is one thing, but getting it safely ashore with terror elements in the region is another. Ever since the news broke a few years back that natural gas exploration companies, headed by entrepreneurs like Yitzhak Tshuva had located large deposits of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean, the race has been [...]
As Israeli rigs start drilling for natural gas, a new disaster prevention agency is proposed to avert another BP-Florida Gulf disaster. Environmentalists have proposed a new government body that might head off ecological catastrophes on Israel’s Mediterranean coast. The new agency could set policy more efficiently by streamlining the powers currently shared by several different [...]
Meged oil field, in Israel. Last week two environmental representatives were added to Israel’s Petroleum Council, according to the Jerusalem Post. The council has been restructured to include a total of 13 members, including seven members of the public. As Israel’s ongoing court dispute between government officials and national gas distributors proves, the industry has [...]
Turkey has started exploratory drilling for oil and gas in the town of Iskele in northern Cyprus (red arrow), angering the government of the Greek-controlled southern region. The Turkish Petroleum Corporation began onshore drilling operations on April 26 at a 3,000-meter-deep well, named “Türkyurdu-1″ (“Turkish Homeland”), which Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız called a “force for [...]
Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company announced on Sunday that they have cancelled their agreement to sell natural gas to Israel following at least one dozen attacks on the pipeline linking the two countries. Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said the move was of “great concern,” but Egypt insists that the decision was motivated purely by commercial [...]
The last international climate change negotiation (COP17) took place in Durban in 2011 and the outcomes were pretty disappointing given the urgency of the matter in hand. Unsatisfactory outcomes aside, climate change negotiations have been providing momentous opportunities for NGOs, individuals and the private sector to engage and exchange ideas on solutions to climate change mitigation. [...]
Oil refinery in the Haifa Port. Though Israeli electricity prices rose nearly 9 percent at the end of last month due to reported natural gas shortages, Israel’s energy ministry has decided that Israel will export half of the natgas it pumps from its offshore reserves in the Mediterranean Sea. Called the Zemach Committee, and led [...]
Shaul Zemach (left) shakes hands with Zvi Rome of Petco (right) at the Asia House in Tel Aviv this Tuesday morning With Israeli electricity prices set to rise nearly 9%, government officials are trying to plan for the long-term, at least until the next energy crisis. At a breakfast event this Tuesday in Tel Aviv [...]
Israel tops the global clean tech charts once again! A recent report compiled by Cleantech Group and the World Wildlife Fund shows that Israel is only behind Denmark in terms of its clean tech prowess. The tiny country beat out Sweden, Finland, the United States and other leading national innovators. Called “Coming Clean: The Global Cleantech [...]
Tanin 1 gas field, in large yellow area north of the Tamar field, is too close for comfort to Lebanese shores. Lebanon is going to the UN to complain. Israel’s got natural gas. A lot of it. Cleaner burning than coal or bitumen, natural gas has a reputation for being more environmentally friendly. Countries like [...]
With an estimated 8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, Turkey wants some of this energy wealth too. The Republic of Cyprus has started surveying for natural gas, and recent estimates are that its undersea reserves are worth billions of dollars. Helped by Israel and America’s Noble Energy, the subterranean Cyprus discoveries could make the [...]
Israel’s natural gas wells could lead to an unsustainable shekel. Although the revolution in Egypt this past spring threatened Israel’s gas supply from the south, Israel took relief in its newly discovered Tamar and Leviathan gas fields deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea, estimated to produce tens of billions of cubic feet of natural gas. But even [...]
Is this a sign from the heavens that Iran has no excuse now to pursue nuclear proliferation? A new reserve of natural gas in the Caspian Sea suggests that Iran might be the world’s biggest owner of natural gas reserves, owning more even that Russia, some experts say. According to an Iranian Government website a [...]
Renewable Energy professionals from Europe and Egypt (and Green Prophet!) took a field trip to Egypt’s first solar-thermal plant 90km south of Cairo! Brimming with the kind of energy that infuses a school field trip, roughly 80 professionals from the renewable energy industry packed into two large buses outside the Semiramis International Hotel in Cairo [...]
Axes of power are changing in the Middle East and Israel and Cyprus as an alliance could shift energy focus away from some OPEC oil countries. The decision for Cyprus to explore its undersea natural gas wells has Turkish government officials crying foul. Turkey occupies the northern half of Cyprus and the southern half is [...]
Drilling for undersea gas in Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone may have serious impacts on marine life. Like 0ther-energy poor countries in the eastern Mediterranean basin, including Israel and Lebanon, who are now in a serious dispute over energy reserves located there, the Republic of Cyprus has shown interested in exploiting the undersea natural gas fields [...]
Iran, becoming more isolated appeals to Pakistan to move ahead with natural gas “peace pipeline.” Saboteurs have already had their say in the idea. Image via BSO-NA As Iran becomes more marginalized with US-backed sanctions, Iran seeks to conduct business with more hospitable partners, like Pakistan. Every year floods devastate Pakistan, this year with a [...]
Navies crowd into once placid waters as Turkey presses Cyprus on gas reserves Turkey has a corvette, frigate and helicopters escorting its exploration vessel, the Piri Reis, as it explores for gas and oil. The US has quietly dispatched an aircraft and Russian naval vessels have been seen patrolling. News reports say US reconnaissance planes [...]
Turkish PM Erdogan at the UN: His way or no way There’s a lot more for southern Cyprus to be alarmed about these days concerning its commitment to explore for natural gas offshore. First of all, there is the environmental factor dealing with undersea drilling off Cyprus, which could be damaging for an island so [...]
Turkish PM Erdogan on recent visit to Egypt; more energy influence at Israel’s expense. AP photo by Maggie Michael and Lee Keeth In a continuation of his anti-Israel and anti-Cyprus governmental and economic policies, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to persuade Egypt to ship its natural gas to Europe, via the Nabucco [...]
Egypt and Turkey entered into several new energy-sharing arrangements on a recent diplomatic visit to Cairo by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Energy Minister Taner Yıldız. Analysts speculate that the new alliance comes in response to a perceived Israeli-Cypriot alliance over natural gas extraction. Oil wars are so last century. The resource with the potential [...]
Tamar undersea gas wells will soon supply Israel with needed natural gas – but at what costs? It has taken some time to reach this stage, but Israel’s undersea natural gas exploration activities by such companies as Noble Energy and the Delek Group have received greater attention as an energy source in the wake of [...]
Israeli researchers say they can provide a more integrated way for surveying for natural gas. As the race is on to find natural gas in the Middle East Med region, could this tech help the region switch from oil? Prospecting — the search for valuable reserves such as gold, diamond and natural gas — isn’t [...]
Map showing disputed Cyprus underwater gas fields, as well as those being contested by Israel and Lebanon Undersea drilling for natural gas by the Greek Cypriot government now appears to be more problematic than just their fears of disturbing the undersea environment or undersea territorial claims by regional countries like Israel and Lebanon. Cypriot’s “neighbor,” the [...]
Israel’s newly declared northern maritime boundary: note the slanted line that skirts the northern edge of the northernmost gas fields As a result of a series of Egyptian natural gas pipeline sabotages by terrorists in the Sinai, the third blast occurring just a few days ago, Israel is putting more efforts into developing the undersea [...]
Third act of sabotage in 5 months may spell the end of Egyptian natural gas shipments of both Israel and Jordan. Egypt’s natural gas pipeline to both Israel and Jordan suffered still another setback during the night when a third act of sabotage caused an explosion. This is three attacks since the beginning of the [...]
Natural gas drilling near Cyprus could affect lucrative tourism industry says its commerce minister. Drilling for natural gas by Israel in the eastern Mediterranean has already resulted in undersea territorial disputes between Israel and Lebanon, resulting in the United Nations deciding to mediate the dispute between the two countries. Besides the environmental concerns of this [...]
Algae based bio-fuel may someday be an important fuel source Los Angeles based Origin Oil has recently announced its intention to up-list its stock exchange shares as a result of the development of a new large scale oil extraction from algae process that could result in the process of up to 1100 liters (300 gallons) [...]
Sabotaged Gas Pipeline: Relying on Egypt in future is doubtful Israel’s interest in natural gas as an energy source has been written about several times on Green Prophet, beginning with the Yam Tethy gas exploration projects in the Eastern Mediterranean. With the second sabotage of the natural gas pipeline between Egypt, Israel and Jordan, a [...]
Israel Chemicals Ltd. has plans to replace its Mishor Rotem oil shale plant with more viable natural gas. Initially installed in 1978 as a pilot project, the Mishor Rotem oil shale plant will soon be shut down. Globes reports that Israel Chemicals Ltd. – which purchases the energy generated by approximately half a million tons [...]