Former Royal Dutch Shell plc (LSE: RDSA; RDSB) president John Hofmeister has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he should oppose natural gas exports from Israel. Several weeks ago Netanyahu and Hofmeister, who was head of the Anglo-Dutch energy giant until 2008, held a meeting, which was also attended by National Economics Council chairman Eugene Kandel. At the meeting, Hofmeister raised a range of reasons why Israel would be ill-advised to allow natural gas exports at this stage include uncertainty over the amount of the reserves in Israel's offshore fields.
Hofmeister did not mention at the meeting that his former company is currently a competitor with the Tamar partners in trying to sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) to customers worldwide. Royal Dutch Shell is a partner in Australia's Prelude project, which involves construction of the world's first floating LNG terminal. The Tamar partners, Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL), Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) units Avner Oil and Gas LP (TASE: AVNR.L) and Delek Drilling Limited Partnership (TASE: DEDR.L), Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L) and Dor Alon Energy in Israel (1988) Ltd. (TASE: DRAL) unit Alon Natural Gas Exploration Ltd. (TASE: ALGS), are also planning a floating LNG terminal to export gas.
Both the Tamar partners and Royal Dutch Shell have already conducted talks with potential customers for the sale of gas and at least in one instance they bumped into each other during meetings. In addition to its planned floating LNG terminal, Royal Dutch Shell exports large amounts of natural gas to Europe via its liquefying installations in Qatar. Israeli gas would compete with Qatari gas on European markets.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 30, 2012
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