Dr. Brenda Shaffer of the School of Political Science at the University of Haifa, an expert in the international energy policy, says that the Leviathan discovery does not come at a good time as far as international markets are concerned.
In the past year, technological development has doubled the US's natural gas reserves. "The US has effectively withdrawn from the list of countries importing natural gas, along with countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, and Egypt. Gas intended for the US market is now being directed to the European market, and driving down prices," she says.
"The European market is still very national, and entering transit countries like Greece does not yet allow the flow of gas to other countries in Europe. It requires huge investment in building a pipeline to Greece and linking it to other countries. The Far Eastern markets are more attractive, but there is fierce competition there between countries that already have a very developed infrastructure of export facilities, such as Australia, Qatar, and Russia."
Shaffer says that Israel should exploit the Leviathan discovery to revolutionize the country's energy market structure to dramatically increase natural gas consumption. She says that the main direction that the country should go in is to increase the use of methanol, a natural gas product, as a fuel to replace gasoline, refined from oil.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 30, 2010
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