"This committee could be called the Natural Gas Euphoria Committee. Please allow me to let some gas out of the balloon," Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) CEO Amos Lasker told the Energy Committee of the Israeli Institute of Energy and Environment today.
Lasker warned against raising natural gas-powered electricity production beyond the current level of 40% of total electricity production. "It would be irresponsible to generate more than 40-45% of Israel's electricity by gas so long as the present gas transportation network is unreliable. In my opinion, it will take ten years before a reliable system is built.
"What would happen if, Heaven forbid, there were an earthquake off the coast of Israel? 40% of electricity production would go down. There would be no electricity. What will we do then? Fly in gas from Houston (a reference to the headquarters of Noble Energy) or bring it by truck from El Arish (a reference to East Mediterranean Gas Company's (EMG) gas field offshore from Sinai)?"
Lasker added that IEC somewhat doubted that natural gas from the Tamar field would arrive in 2012 as promised by its owners, who include Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL), Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG), and Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L). "Tamar coming on stream in 2012 isn't an academic matter for us; it's super-critical. If Noble makes it in 2010 we'll take our hats off, but our risk management envisages other scenarios. The company must be prepared for a situation in which this doesn’t happen, not in 2012, not in 2013, and even not in 2014. We have contingency plans."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 3, 2010
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