"I have managed many discussions, but I have never been in a discussion in which after an hour of talk, I cannot get a simple number," Knesset Economic Affairs Committee chairman MK Avishay Braverman (Labor) said during a stormy committee meeting on the Tzemach Committee recommendations on natural gas exports from discoveries in the Mediterranean.
Labor Party chairwoman MK Shelly Yachimovich suggested that lobbyists be ejected from the meeting room, and MK Micky Rosenthal (Labor) suggested ejecting the representatives of Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL).
Braverman said, "In the press, and I do not rely on anything in the press, there have been reports that the Ministry of Finance supports reopening the Tzemach Committee recommendations. We must not allow the monopoly, which currently controls gas production, to also control gas transportation. On the other hand, the government must move forward on this matter."
Ministry of Energy and Water director general Shaul Tzemach said that the public debate on gas exports included utterly incorrect figures. He said, "A great many of the recommendations, which I hear as the committee's recommendations, were never written. Anyone who claims that we've allowed gas exports from unproven fields does not know what he is talking about.
"Until there are 450 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas, there will be no gas exports from Israel at all. Above 450 BCM, every field must set aside 50% of the quantity for domestic needs. Besides, the 450 BCM refers to proven reserves."
The committee meeting erupted, when MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) said that the Tzemach Committee had allowed for the export of more than half the gas. Tzemach replied that the committee had never said that, and Khenin then cited the report.
MK Ariel Atias (Shas) said, "If that is the case, then the amount of gas for export above 450 BCM is only 50% of the additional amount."
Braverman told Tzemach, "I understand from you that if there is 450 BCM above the 450 BCM, then the amount for export is 225 BCM?"
Tzemach replied, "The half of the 450 BCM."
Braverman said, "Until we solve this arithmetic problem, we will not leave the room. We cannot understand."
Tzemach replied that half the gas from the second field could be exported.
"How can it be that you cannot explain such a simple number?" asked Braverman, to which Tzemach replied, "Because it isn't simple."
Rosenthal said, "If it's not simple, then we're screwed."
Former Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav, who now represents Italian energy major Edison International SpA, told the Economic Affairs Committee, "This argument should be about economics. I don’t understand how it has turned into an ideological argument. Gas is gas. It is fetishism to give emotional value to gas. Anyone who wants to break up the over-concentration in the Israeli economy should bring in new players, and to bring in new players, you must give an export horizon."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 13, 2013
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