Tensions Boil as Israeli Oil Riches Grow
News From Around the World
Monday, June 25, 2012
Ed DeShields

Israel’s once hidden oil riches are now certain to be so large its treasures could make it the richest oil country in the world.  And, its neighbors are not only noticing, they’re boiling mad.

......in the last three years Israel has discovered one mega-discovery after another.  First, it discovered 1.5 billion barrels of oil onshore at Rosh Ha'Ayin, located about 10 miles inland from the Tel Aviv coastline.  It was a small but important find that sparked a flurry of exploration activity.

Then, a big one followed by another – both are noteworthy, and rare, and are the largest finds anywhere in the last decade.  US Geological Survey (USGS) estimates, the entire Leviathan Basin holds 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 700 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas.

Expert surveys for the Tamar field conducted by the U.S. petroleum consultants Netherland, Sewell & Associates indicate that the field contains proven reserves of 217 billion cubic meters of gas.

And then another find.  It turns out that Israel has the second-biggest oil shale deposits in the world, outside the US:

    "We estimate that there is the equivalent of 250 billion barrels of oil here. To put that in context, there are proven reserves of 260 billion barrels of oil in Saudi Arabia, says Dr. Harold Vinegar, the former chief scientist of Royal Dutch Shell."

Let’s do the math.  That’s 250 billion in shale oil, 3.2 billion in conventional oil in estimated reserves, or enough oil to match that of Saudi-Arabia.  Plus, that’s 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, giving it about 10% of the entire world’s gas reserves -- all while Israel’s exploration activities are just beginning.