Sheshinski committee member Petroleum Supervisor Dr. Yaakov Mimran opposes the committee's final report, joining Ministry of National Infrastructures director general Shaul Tzemach. Tzemach voted against the final recommendations at the committee's concluding meeting last Monday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting tomorrow to discuss the Sheshinski committee recommendations was postponed at the last minute to next Monday. All the parties involved in the issue, including the executives from the Tamar partners, are scheduled to attend: Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) controlling shareholder Yitzhak Tshuva, Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) CEO Charles Davidson, Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L) controlling shareholder Maimon, Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer, Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz and top ministry officials, and Minister of National Infrastructures Uzi Landau
Mimran's opposition means that the ministry's two committee members both agree with the position of Minister of National Infrastructures Uzi Landau, taken after the committee rejected his demand to exclude the Tamar discovery from the recommendations. The Ministry of National Infrastructures intends to submit a minority report by Mimran and Tzemach today, which will be appended to the final committee report. The Ministry of Finance announced that the final Sheshinski committee report will be publicized at 5 pm today.
Landau and Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz are deeply divided as to whether the Sheshinski recommendations should apply to Tamar. Landau says that applying the new taxes on Tamar will harm development of its natural gas reserves and delay the delivery of the gas to Israel. Steinitz says that excluding Tamar is tantamount to foregoing tens of billions of shekels in revenues owed to Israeli citizens.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 3, 2011
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