This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
If it's allowed to get that far. The resources are there, but so is a phalanx of home-grown opposition.
This is a photograph I took on Thursday of a chunk of oil shale that had been dug up moments before from 400 meters below ground (1,300 feet, or a bit deeper than the height of the Empire State Building) at a drilling site in the Shfela Basin, southwest of Jerusalem. The shale's surface is smooth and uniform, like a clay pot, and it has a uniquely earthy smell -- something roughly between mud after a downpour, a distant barnyard, and a glass of Campo Viejo Rioja.
Notice the fossils. In the little caravan next to the drilling site, I had a look through a microscope at plankton that had been brought to the surface during drilling.
This chunk of shale is about 70 million years old. It's part of a deposit with the potential to yield about 250 billion barrels, well beyond Israel's domestic needs and amply sufficient to transform Israel into an oil exporter. Not far from the patch of land from which it was extracted is the cave of Adullam, in which David hid when he was running from King Saul.
There is a great deal to say about these resources, and I plan to give it to you in installments. For the time being I'll call your attention to the resistance to the oil shale exploration, which falls roughly into two categories: anxious locals and angry environmentalists.
The locals are apprehensive -- understandably -- about the introduction of what they fear will be disruptive and destructive technology into a pristine, even idyllic landscape. The environmentalists object on principle to the extraction of fossil fuels, period, regardless of location, and regardless of the implications for Israel of energy independence -- Gaia trumps the state, in other words.
Woven into the objections of both constituencies are elements that will be difficult to combat via pilot projects and feasibility studies: reflexive mistrust of the word of any government agency or representative, a residual socialist repugnance against any industry with the potential to create great wealth for individuals, and a zero-sum assumption that any progress that's made on the oil front must, by definition, be at someone else's expense.
I hope to speak directly with people on the opposition as well as with key figures in the exploration, which is being run by a company called IEI (Israel Energy Initiatives). I spent all of Thursday deep in conversation with IEI environmental engineer Dana Kadmiel, who gave me exhaustive data on the company's technology. Stay tuned.
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May '11
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
Judith, I live in Fort Worth. This is where the shale boom began at the beginning of the last decade. Fort Worth is the county seat of Tarrant Couny which has about 1.8 million people living in an area of about 900 square miles. During the decade over 3,000 wells have been drilled and I would speculate most of these have been in the urban areas of the county. The opponents of drilling here. Yes, even Texas has Environmental Idiots (EI's). These EI's have tried every lie, deception and distortion to stop the drilling. Ultimately, facts have prevailed over lies and emotion the EI crowd has spread. I invite you to research here, where drilling and production is actually happening. Right now there is a well being drilled about 1 mile from my house. I ate at a restaurant right next to the drill site last night.
Jun '10
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
I find this picture fascinating. When hearing about drilling wells, I assumed the shale was going to look like gunky compost and smell horrible. The fact that it is smooth and dry is just....really cool.
When you post more about your conversations with Ms. Kadmiel, keep us non-engineers in mind. I'd love to learn more about this technology, but fear it may be over my head.
Once again Israel shows incredible innovation. I hope the progress is not thwarted by the opposition.
May '10
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
yes Israel is near the leading edge but notice Ft Worth (TX) is about a decade ahead already. If I understand the process, the shale will not be dug out, but natural gas is released underground by drilling wells and injecting something (liquid?) under pressure. The released gas is then captured at the well-head. This process seems to be opposed by those who insist that all energy sources must be completely free of any threat to the environment (green). No such viable option exists but they are confident that pouring enough tax money into the search can/will produce one. And they are anxious to make us forgo current tecnologies until this miracle is made to work. They are dangerous to your future bank balance and should be actively opposed.
May '10
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
Please keep the updates coming, Judith. I hope the Obama administration will celebrate Israel's effort to exploit the oil shale with the same exuberance it expressed over Brazil's offshore finds. I won't hold my breath, though.
The sight of an oil tanker flying the Star of David at the ports of Houston and New Orleans would be a welcome sight indeed.
May '10
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
I have to say I find this sort of thing so cool. Being a technophile, I love this sort of thing. I have no doubt when push comes to shove, all the envirocommies will end up losing.
Feb '11
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
The environmental costs may be high. The economics may not work. But with friends like Obama and the European elite, and the hatred of the entire Arab Muslim world, Israel must try this.
Not sure if it has been mentioned here, but I suspect that Greece turning on the Flotilla is their first part of early negotiations over a gas pipe line from offshore Israel to Greece.
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
Yep: Why Is Greece Hindering the Gaza Flotilla?
Aug '10
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
Facinating Judith, can't wait to read more. You seeem to have as good a source as possible for this story.
Mar '11
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
About 25 years ago a colleague who worked with me in California returned to Israel and found funding to build a pilot plant to burn the shallow oil-shale deposits near Arad. Israel Electric chose not to pursue construction of a commercial-scale electric plant. Interest then turned to producing oil rather than electricity but, as we know, nothing came of it at that time. It's great that there is renewed Israeli interest. Under Carter the SynFuels Corporation sponsored several costly attempts to extract oil from Colorado shale. As with most of Carter's initiatives nothing came of it. I did a little work for one of the contractors on an original design flaw that prevented the plant from achieving its goals. They were close when the $ ran out and the price of oil dropped. An anecdote. The chief engineer of Jordan's electric company came to visit in California to discuss the use of the oil-shale deposit they share with Israel. After a briefing on our work I gave him my Israeli friends phone number. I don't think he ever made the call.
Dec '10
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
Gramps, people like me are still earning a living cleaning up that Syn Fuels mess; they rushed in with government money, while it was there, then bolted when the money ran out, leaving the rest of us to pay for their yachts.
Judith, you have included no citations. I have looked around and everybody is talking about 250 billion barrels as an estimated reserve for Shfela, but I see no actual data. Whom is a responsible source to query for data and methods, when they came up with that number? I'm only asking because there was a similar post on the Member Feed with numbers that seem incorrect to me, so if I am going to have an informative response, I would first like to see some numbers and methods. I see fake numbers every day, and it is not fair to base a Ricochet comment on a body of fake, when most people don't even like numbers. I like numbers. I will take the time to analyze them.
Edited on Jul 9, 2011 at 5:58pmRe: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
CJ, the 250 billion barrel figure was presented by Dr. Yuval Bartov -- IEI's chief geologist -- at a Colorado School of Mines symposium at the end of last year. I asked him this morning how he reached this figure. He replied:
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
continuation of Dr. Bartov's reply:
Re: This Is What Israel's Energy-Independent Future Looks Like
CJ, Dr. Bartov added that one of IEI's investors hired an international firm, Lambert Energy, to confirm the assessments. They did so, and the investment was made.