High Court to review gas export petitions
Several MKs back move to block government decision that would see 40% of Israel's supply sold abroad
The High Court of Justice on Thursday began reviewing the case against a government decision to export 40 percent of Israel’s natural gas. The petitioners, including several MKs, argue that a such a significant matter must be legislated in the Knesset and not passed by the cabinet alone.
High Court President Asher Grunis said the future of the offshore natural gas reserves is a “serious question.”
A petition was filed in June after the government announced its intention to keep 60% of the gas supply for domestic use and allow the rest to be exported. MKs Shelly Yachimovich and Avishay Braverman (Labor Party) and Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) signed the petition, as did former Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own Likud party.
“This petition,” they wrote, “is based on the foundations of the democratic system, according to which the authority to make policy decisions with a wide impact on Israeli society is given to the Knesset.”
Rivlin wrote on his Facebook page at the time that the issue of natural gas was too important to leave in the hands of the few. “It’s unthinkable that the Knesset, as the ruling body, would be excluded from conducting the proper and needed public debate” before a decision is made on the matter, he wrote.
Under the current plan, Israel will receive 540 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Based on the country’s 2012 natural gas consumption of 7 billion cubic meters, this allotment is expected to last for at least 25 years even with significant increases in domestic use.
In March 2013 Israel began pumping natural gas from the Tamar deposit, discovered in 2009 and located some 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of Haifa, which holds an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
In addition to Tamar, in 2010 an even larger deposit, Leviathan — which boasts an estimated 16-18 trillion cubic feet of gas — was discovered 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of Haifa. It is expected to become operational in 2016, at which time Israel plans to begin exporting natural gas.
The decision on gas exports grew out of conclusions published by the Tzemach Committee headed by former Water and Energy Ministry director general Shaul Tzemach. The committee, formed in late 2011, had called on Israel to keep the first 450 billion cubic meters for the country’s use, and allow the export of up to half of any additional amount extracted from the proven reserves.