The Ministry of Environmental Protection’s app for monitoring pollution levels crashed, says Globes.

By World Israel News Staff 

A series of malfunctions took place on Tuesday morning as Noble Energy began operations of the Leviathan natural gas field off the Israeli coast, reports Globes.

Minutes before the American oil and natural gas exploration and production company began the flushing process to allow for the extraction of gas, the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s app for monitoring pollution levels crashed, says the Israeli business news outlet. As a result, real time pollution levels were not relayed.

In response, the ministry announced that the public could monitor pollution levels through a couple of different websites. However, many people trying to enter those sites reported that they could not access the information due to an apparent overload as large numbers of concerned residents wanted to check if the pollution levels from the Leviathan were excessive, said Globes.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection said that tens of thousands of people were trying to access the sites, causing the malfunctions.

The flushing process began after the ministry announced on Monday that all conditions had been met to allow for the launch of operations.

Exactly a week earlier, it had issued a statement delaying the move on the grounds that conditions had not yet been met. The Jerusalem Post reported at the time that a sampling and monitoring program had not been approved.

The production platform is located 10 kilometers (six miles) off the Israeli shoreline.

Proponents of the Leviathan project say that it represents a historic turnaround for Israel from an oil-barren country to an oil exporter. Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek Drilling have signed multi-billion dollar export deals with Egypt and Jordan, giving diplomatic as well as economic significance to the project.

Nobel Energy also predicted a 4 percent drop in electricity rates to the Israeli consumer, reports Globes.

However, environmental activists along with leaders and some residents of Israeli localities situated closest to the gas field have been working to stop the project, warning of a health hazard.

Activists mobilized for a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to protest the launch of the Leviathan operations.

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that the opponents of the project were showing “extraneous panic.”

He said that thousands of oil rigs in similar conditions operate in the U.S. and Europe without causing any environmental problems.

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Noble Energy had earlier announced that Israel’s largest offshore natural gas field would start production by the end of the year.

By World Israel News Staff 

The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday issued a temporary injunction preventing Noble Energy Inc. from conducting trial operations on the Leviathan platform, Israel’s largest offshore natural gas field, over environmental and health concerns surrounding “gas emissions.”

“The dramatic ruling in effect freezes the emission permit granted to Noble Energy by the Ministry of Environmental Protection,” reports Israeli business news outlet Globes.

The court was responding to a petition initiated by the Israel-based Zalul Environmental Association and six local councils located near the offshore platform.

The court is scheduled to discuss the matter on Sunday.

The petitioners argue that the imminent third stage of a test run at the gas field – which includes opening the wells and filling the sub-sea pipeline with natural gas – would emit an estimated 50 tons of polluting materials during an eight hour period, an amount that is normally permissible only over the course of at least 16 months and in other cases only in a duration of up to two-and-a-half years.

Noble had earlier announced that it planned to start production at Leviathan by the end of the year.

Texas-based Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek Drilling have signed multi-billion dollar export deals with Egypt and Jordan, and cancellation would have diplomatic ramifications in the relationships between Israel and the two Arab states with which it has a peace treaty.

Noble representatives say that the cost of delaying the project will amount to 5 million shekels daily, Israel Hayom reports.

Environmental activists and various local authorities had previously taken their case unsuccessfully to the Israeli Supreme Court to at least move the operation farther out to sea. The production platform was constructed 10 kilometers (six miles) off of the Israeli shoreline.

Noble Energy share prices dropped on Tuesday following the report that the Leviathan gas field operations would be stopped at least temporarily.

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The agreement stipulates that the Leviathan partners will supply the Hashemite kingdom with 45 billion cubic meters of natural gas over the course of the next 15 years, totaling at some $10 billion.

Israel’s Leviathan partners energy consortium will become the main supplier of energy to Jordan in the next 15 years, according to a new agreement signed Monday.

The dramatic deal was formed between two energy companies – US-based Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek Drilling – and Jordan’s Electric Power Company. Both companies hold the drilling rights of the Leviathan gas field off the coast of Israel.

The agreement stipulates that the Leviathan partners will supply the Hashemite kingdom with 45 billion cubic meters of natural gas over the course of the next 15 years, totaling at some $10 billion.

According to the export agreement, supply is to commence once the pipe from the reservoir to Jordan is in place, hopefully in 2019.

The agreement is the first sale using gas from Leviathan. The Leviathan reservoir is the largest ever discovered in Israel’s territorial waters; most of its gas supply is designated for export. This deal is for one tenth of the gas in the Leviathan field.

Jordan is in dire need of a new source of energy since Egypt, who was its previous main supplier, has stopped providing them with gas for energy.

Israel’s Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is entrusted with the National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources portfolio, praised the deal as “an historic moment in which Israel has become an exporter of energy and natural gas for the first time.”

He added that he had no doubt that this deal will pave the way to signing deals with other countries in the region.

Delek Drilling CEO Yossi Abu hailed the “historic” deal and said developers of the Leviathan reservoir would pursue similar agreements with others in the region, including Egypt, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority.

Some thirty-five trillion cubic feet of gas have been found in Israeli waters, worth some $500 billion. This crucial discovery enables Israel to become energy-independent for the first time in history and has also turned Israel into a major player in the international energy-exporting market.

By: World Israel News Staff

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