Haifa oil refinery can’t open new sulphur site until emissions transgressions are probed

By Sue Surkes

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15 September 2025, 12:39 am

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Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter

The cooling towers of the Haifa Oil Refineries are seen lit by green and blue lights as night falls over the northern port city after another day of rocket attacks fired by Hezbollah terrorists from south Lebanon, July 24, 2006. (Gali Tibbon / AFP)

A planning committee decides not to approve a bid by the Bazan oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa to build a facility to solidify sulphur until it has examined the circumstances around benzene emissions in July that were 100 times higher than normal, as well as protocols for activating an emergency team.

Celebrating the delay and expressing determination to close Bazan altogether in line with a government decision to shutter the petrochemical complex by 2030 and rehabilitate the entire Haifa Bay area, the environmental organization Green Course notes the company’s repeated violations of its air emissions permits, which have resulted in millions of dollars in fines.