Discovery of gas field near shoreline of Gaza Strip

Discovery of gas field near shoreline of Gaza Strip

26-06-00 A large natural gas field recently discovered near the shoreline of the Gaza Strip has enough gas to supply Palestinian areas as well as neighbouring countries, Palestinian officials said. Mohammed Rashid, an economic aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, wouldn't say exactly how large the natural gas field is. But he said it is big enough to also supply Israel, Jordan and Lebanon.
The Gaza Strip -- along southern Israel's coast and adjacent to the Egyptian border -- is jointly administered by Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Another large natural gas field was found in the area in September, during a search for an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Israel, Gaza and Egypt.

Source: AP

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/discover/dix02980.htm

Now Israel is never going to pullout of there!!!!

Now that the place is a gold mine, America, Israel, and everyone in the region will be involved in this parcel of land.

I think DeLay's plan to impose a modern day Marshall plan on the Palestinian areas have just become appealing to the White House.

Throw a couple more coals on that fire.

My apologies to all. I just saw the date of that article.

But I looked for more details anyway:
Marine geologist Robert Ballard was studying the remains of ancient Phoenician vessels when he made the discovery, the National Geographic Society announced Thursday.

A seafloor natural gas reservoir had previously been found in the Mediterranean near the Israeli city of Ashdod, north of Gaza. It is estimated to be able to produce 30 million cubic feet of gas per day.

But Ballard's discovery indicates the gas field extends south, along the full length of the Gaza Strip and also along the coast of Egypt.

"That was just one hole,'' Ballard said of the Ashdod well. "If you were to exploit this field you would have many rigs ... so clearly it's sizable.''

But politics could complicate development of the field's natural gas.

<snip>

http://www.antipas.org/news/middle_east/natural_gas.html

BG STILL HOPES TO SUPPLY ISRAEL GAS

BG, the UK group, which has a concession to develop a gas field off the coast of the Gaza Strip, hopes to become Israel's second supplier of natural gas despite a decision by Ariel Sharon, prime minister, to take supplies from Egypt.

The Financial Times p. 8

http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=030820000860

Cached here

Lots of stuff in google. What a factoid! Seems they immediately started to seize those lands. Why is this not common knowledge over here?

This does NOT bode well for the Palestinians, nor the Israelis.

The Palestinians will be further herded off their lands. Expect the ethnic cleansing to increase - that's a gold mine just waiting for imperial exploitation by Sharon, and a possible ace against official U.S. dissent over any aspect of Sharon's Road Map to Death for the Palestinians.

Innocent Israelis will then face increased suicide attacks. In return, the IDF will follow Sharon's orders to further invade and occupy the Palestinians' lands.

And so the cycle continues, flavored with a little old-fashioned Peak Oil Politics, and a whole lotta death as empires scrabble for the draining energy reserves of the planet.

The only reason the rest of the world let the Jews live in Israel was that it had no oil and nobody wanted it but some arab peasants and who cared about them?

This would be a REALLY good moment for the Palestinians to grow up and stop killing themselves. Gas development and peaceful profit sharing, both sides could be prosperous.

And they NEED to stand together to keep George's friends out. It's not as if they can't go back to suicide bombing if things don't work out. It's always an option. I say, try being rich first. See how you like it.

There will be a new country created called Halliburtonia, and it will be led by President Dick.

JM

the area where the gas is located....the plan is to enclose the Palestinians with this "fence" into small pockets...like mice in cages..the fence goes all over the place...the whole idea infuriates me and I have nothing to do with the area...I hope the Palestinians are able to rise up and take their country back...I also hope the Israelis throw Sharon out and make a peacefull solution possible with Palestine.

The pilots and others who refuse to bomb civilian targets are heros in my eyes.

... not that I don't oppose the "fence" in the West Bank, but Gaza is already enclosed in its entirety by such a wall -- the Palestinians do need to rise up, but NON-VIOLENTLY