Deri: Natural gas deal not final, must be amended

Economy Minister Aryeh Deri spoke out on Thursday against the controversial current terms of a deal that would see Israel’s offshore gas fields remain under the control of only two conglomerates, granting them immunity from antitrust laws for the next 15 years.

“The outline of the deal introduced this week requires changes,” Deri told reporters while touring the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel, claiming that the outline could be used as a draft for further discussions, but that he “does not consider it final.”

Under the plan for regulating the state’s natural gas resources, presented on Tuesday by Energy and Water Resources Minister Yuval Steinitz, Israeli Delek Group and US-based Noble Energy would retain control over the Leviathan gas field, the largest of four discovered off Israel’s coast, but must sell off part of their ownership in the Tamar, Tanin and Karish fields.

While the Tamar sale would be completed within six years, the Tanin and Karish sales must be done within 14 months, Steinitz noted.

“The outline is good for the country and good for the citizens,” Steinitz said, emphasizing that the gas companies invested “hundreds of millions of dollars” in developing the fields.

But according to Deri, “nobody considers the deal to be a good one. “Even those who defend it say it is a lesser evil, given the circumstances,” he claimed.

Naming pricing oversight as one of the issues requiring amendment, the minister said there should be transparency regarding the outline, and that public and legislative concerns must be addressed.

“This is not an issue that can be settled within the cabinet or be under the responsibility of a single minister. Everyone must carry the burden of dealing with this issue,” he said.

On Sunday, the cabinet decided to overrule a call from the country’s regulatory agency calling to limit the dominance of the companies in the industry. But on Monday night, a parliamentary vote that would have ratified the cabinet’s decision was postponed indefinitely after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to cobble together a Knesset majority.

Noble and Delek have been selling gas to the Israeli market from the Tamar field, which went online in 2013, and have agreed to sell to neighboring countries as well. The Leviathan field, the largest in the Mediterranean, has not yet been developed.

Last year the Noble-Delek partnership was branded a de facto monopoly by Antitrust Commissioner David Gilo, who announced his resignation six weeks ago over the issue.

The future forced sales are aimed at opening the industry to competitors. The deal also sets a price ceiling for future sales to Israeli companies and commits the gas firms to complete the development of the Leviathan gas field by 2019.

But critics say the deal might in fact strengthen the gas monopoly, because the companies will maintain a de facto monopoly over the Tamar field for the next six years before embarking on a similar partnership to develop the Leviathan field.

Zionist Union MK Shelly Yachimovich, a fierce opponent of the deal, slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the issue and the terms.

“Now it is clear why Netanyahu did everything in his power to hide the outline until the Knesset vote: He negotiated for months, gave the gas companies everything they wanted — without making a single significant achievement. The public has heard a collection of lies and mistakes, the monopoly is stronger than ever, there is no proper control over prices and the companies are being given a list of unjustified and unforgivable benefits,” she said Tuesday.

Environmentalists have also voiced opposition to the plan, saying that increased competition would encourage the industry to use more environmentally friendly resources.

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.