Yesh Atid leader Lapid
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Lapid calls for transparent natural gas deal
Netanyahu says hundreds of millions shekels Israel will make in gas deal in coming decades will go to education, welfare and health.
Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid said on Saturday that his party will not support a plan to let a American-Israeli energy group keep control of most of the country's natural gas deposits.
The government approved the plan on Thursday in a decision set to end months of uncertainty and will likely to be welcomed by Texas-based Noble Energy and Israeli conglomerate Delek Group. Their control of two sizeable gas fields was put in doubt late last year when the anti-trust regulator branded them a monopoly.
"Yesh Atid will not support a plan that does not include a supervision mechanism for gas prices," Lapid said at a cultural event in Holon.
"We need to study the formulating plan in a transparent and open manner at the Knesset's Finance Committee, it cannot be done in the darkness, it has to be transparent," he added.
Lapid (Photo: Emil Salman) and Netayahu (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
The former finance minister said that "the gas issue is a complicated one, filled with interests and important for the State of Israel."
He noted that Israel "should allow the development of the Leviathan gas field during a given timeframe. You cannot continue stalling on this issue. We lost billions from the delay on signing the agreement and will lose billions more if we are now asked to go back and start everything from the beginning."
Details of the agreement have yet to be made public, but industry sources have said Noble and Delek will be allowed to keep control of Leviathan, the world's largest offshore gas discovery of the past decade.
"We are establishing a significantly more competitive market and putting in place mechanisms that will prevent price gouging," Eugene Kandel, a top economic adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who led negotiations with Noble and Delek, said on Army Radio.
On Friday, Netanyahu wrote on Facebook that his government was "promoting a realistic solution that would bring natural gas to the Israeli market, not a populist solution. I do not intend to surrender to pressures - I am determined to implement the gas plan, which is backed by the majority of professional and objective experts, in order to add many resources to the Treasury that would allow us to improve the quality of life for each and every Israeli citizen."
"I do not work for any tycoons," Netanyahu stressed. "I am the prime minister of Israel and I work for you, for the security of Israel and the welfare of all of its citizens."
"During the elections campaign I committed to acting to cut the cost of living. I am determined to do so using the many resources we will gain thanks to the gas plan. This plan breaks the monopoly and will bring in hundreds of millions of shekels in the coming decades for education, welfare, and health to all of the citizens of Israel," he continued.
The Leviathan natural gas field (Photo: Albatross)
The 10-member cabinet for security and diplomatic affairs was an unusual forum to handle a primarily economic issue, but it allowed Netanyahu greater control. After voting in favor of the proposal unanimously, the government is widely expected to approve it.
"It is of decisive importance to move quickly to develop and expand the natural gas fields that have been discovered off Israel's shores out of concern for state security and the foreign relations of the State of Israel," a cabinet statement said after the meeting ended.
On Sunday, the government is expected to approve transferring the authority to bypass the he anti-trust regulator's decision from Economy Minister Aryeh Deri to the entire government, in order to approve the gas plan.
This will be done despite Deri's refusal to participate in the cabinet meeting on Thursday about Article 52 of the 1988 Restrictive Trade Practices Law, which allows him to go around the anti-trust regular's decision on security and diplomatic grounds - something that could hasten the approval of the controversial gas plan.
After consulting to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, it was decided that after the cabinet approves the transfers of authority from Deri to the entire government, the move will be brought to the Knesset's approval on Monday.
While the opposition demanded that any natural gas plan is brought to the Knesset's approval, at this point the MKs will only vote on the first stage - transferring the authority from the economy minister to the government.
After the Knesset's approval, a public hearing will be held on the topic, following which the government will have to make a final decision on the topic.
The deal gives Delek subsidiaries Avner Oil and Delek Drilling six years to sell their 15.625 percent stakes in another large field, Tamar, while Noble will have to lower its stake in that project to 25 percent from 36 percent, industry sources said.
Delek and Noble will also be forced to sell their stakes in two smaller fields, Tanin and Karish, in up to 18 months.
Tamar, with reserves of about 10 trillion cubic feet (tcf), began production in 2013 for the domestic market. Leviathan, which holds an estimated 22 tcf, is primarily earmarked for exports and is expected take three years to bring online. Tanin and Karish have a combined 3 tcf.
Israel's energy sector was blindsided in December when the anti-trust regulator deemed Noble and Delek a monopoly and said they could be forced to sell their assets.
Noble in response halted investments in Israel, the companies threatened legal action and a number of long-term, multi-billion dollar export deals to Egypt and Jordan were thrown into jeopardy.
Netanyahu quickly set up a government committee to find a compromise and his intention to speed up development of the fields rather than demand a more sweeping divestment led to the resignation of the anti-trust regulator.
