New Energean Karish FPSO rig (company pic)
The government of Israel has made it official, announcing, after days of rumors and speculation, that it has come to terms with Lebanon on an agreement over where to set the maritime border between their countries in the Mediterranean Sea. This is significant because Lebanon has made claims to rights over parts of Israel’s offshore Karish natural gas field in the Med and the Hezbollah terrorist group even threatened an attack on Israel should it begin production there before it reached a final deal with Lebanon over the border dispute.
The specifics of the agreement have not yet been revealed.
Energean, the British energy company which operates Israel’s natural gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea, just announced that it has begun pumping gas to its FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) facility in the offshore Karish gas field as part of reverse flow testing procedures approved by the Israeli government. So the Israel-Lebanon agreement has come at an opportune moment.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.
The news comes after rumors of a final agreement came out over the weekend. But then it was reported that Israel rejected a deal because of demands made by the Lebanese that were unacceptable to Israel due to security concerns. But the Israeli government now says that on Tuesday morning it received a draft agreement that meets” all of its security, economic, and legal demands as set out by Prime Minister Yair Lapid.”
Declaring the new deal a “historic achievement,” Prime Minister Lapid said that this will “strengthen Israel’s security, inject billions into Israel’s economy, and ensure the stability of our northern border.”
Lapid’s office said that the draft agreement meets all the security and economic principles laid out by Israel and that Lapid will convene Israel’s Security Cabinet on Wednesday to discuss the deal, which will be followed by a special meeting of the government.
Any new agreement will need to be ratified as a treaty by the full Knesset in a vote. Since Israeli head to the polls in just three weeks’ time for new Knesset elections, no such vote should be expected until after a new government is formed and this could take months, if at all.
Now the Israeli public waits for the opposition to come out and condemn the deal, even in the absence of its formal publication. Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasted no time in condemning the government since word first surfaced about Israel having reached such a deal with Lebanon. Netanyahu accused Lapid and his government of “surrendering” to Hezbollah. He also said that if Lebanon is given any share of the profits from the Karish natural gas field then it would mean that Lapid is giving billions to Hezbollah to spend on continued acts of terrorism against Israel.
