Much hot air about gas

摘要

Sixteen years after the first discovery of commercial-scale natural-gas reserves under the Mediterranean off Israel's coast, the country's transition from dependence on imports to energy exporter is proving slow. Next week the government will publish a long-overdue outline for regulation of the natural-gas industry. There will be a new framework for pricing and competition in those fields that have already been discovered and licensed, and a long-term plan for the exploration and exploitation of yet-to-be-found undersea riches. Opposition politicians and NGOs have been conducting a noisy campaign against the Israeli-American consortium that currently holds the licences to the largest gas-fields, and against the sudden haste with which the new government, sworn in just six weeks ago, has been conducting its regulatory review. The head of the country's competition authority, David Gilo, recently resigned after rowing with the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, over how to break up the consortium's monopoly over gas production. The finance minister, Moshe Kahlon, recused himself from any decisions on energy matters, because of his friendship with a shareholder in one of the gasfields involved.