Israel To Export Natural Gas To Jordan
Drilling at the Leviathan offshore natural gas field. Image by Haaretz
The cabinet on Sunday approved a controversial plan to reserve 60 percent of Israel’s natural gas for domestic use while letting the rest be exported. Ministers approved a change that will entitle Jordan to start receiving gas exports immediately.
Eighteen ministers approved the plan, while three opposed. As a result, Israel will be assured around 540 billion cubic meters of gas over the next 25 years.
The government hopes the cabinet vote will end the debate on how much of Israel’s gas reserves, currently estimated at 900 bcm, should remain at home for use by industry, transportation and consumers, and how much should be sold overseas.
But a group of MKs and nonprofit organizations plans to ask the High Court of Justice on Monday to order that gas-export policy be approved by the Knesset.
The ministers backed one politically significant change that was hammered out last week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This would book sales to Israel’s immediate neighbors, namely Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, as exports. As a result, Jordan will be entitled to 20 bcm of natural gas from the offshore Tamar field, which has been in operation since March, rather than waiting for the larger Leviathan field to come online.
Read more at Haaretz.com.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
