Page 4 - DMEA Week 09 2020

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA
Israel conceals data
on gas exports to
Egypt and Jordan
Gas exports have an important political dimension for Israel, as they help cement relations with Egypt and Jordan
ISRAEL
WHAT:
Israel has stopped reporting data on its gas exports.
WHY:
The statistics bureau has cited commercial secrets.
WHAT NEXT:
Israeli gas supplies
are controversial in Egypt, whose parliament recently voted to ban their import.
CITING commercial secrecy, data on Israel’s overseas sales from the Leviathan gas field are disguised under other categories of exports
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has stopped reporting data on exports of Israeli natural gas, saying that doing so would disclose commercial secrets.
The agency confirmed that it had changed its policy on reporting gas exports, “camou- flaging” them by moving the dollar amounts to other export categories. The CBS declined to say which categories, saying it sought to preserve the commercial secrecy of Leviathan’s partners, US company Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek Drill- ing and Ratio.
Explaining its new policy, the bureau said: “Natural gas in Israel is a developing sector which contains information of enormous importance. The Statistics Ordinance mandates the confiden- tiality of information received from public bod- ies, in order to ensure that data that is published is not disclosed to identify the reporting entities.
“In recent weeks, the CBS has begun to thor- oughly examine the manner and content of pub- lishing data on the all-important issue of the gas sector,” it said
Gas exports are not only important eco- nomically; they have an important political
dimension. For Israel, they help cement rela- tions with two Arab neighbours, Egypt and Jordan. In the case of Jordan, natural gas from Israel is a critical source of energy. But importing Israeli gas is controversial, especially in Jordan. Last month, the kingdom’s parliament approved a draft law to ban imports of Israeli gas to the country just days after they started.
In addition, because Israeli gas production comes from just two fields, Tamar and Levi- athan, export data effectively provides inside information about their operations.
Until now, the bureau issued figures on exports of natural gas from Tamar to Jordan, purchased by the Arab Potash and Jordan Bro- mine companies. But after gas began to flow from the much bigger Leviathan field earlier this year, both to domestic and export markets, the bureau ceased reporting the data.
Pipeline Flows
The discovery of the Zohr gas field offshore Egypt in 2015 was a game-changer for the North African country. Covering 3,765 square kilo- metres and operated by Italian energy company Eni it is the largest ever natural gas find in the Mediterranean Sea, and is estimated to have total gas in place of 850bn cubic metres, which has
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 09 05•March•2020