Wut a dalek might look like.
Posted on 08/26/2008 12:30:57 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Two Israeli energy companies are convinced the best chance for finding oil in Israel lies at a site in the Judean Desert nature reserve and have stirred up a storm of controversy with their persistent requests to drill an exploratory hole.
The companies, Ginko Oil Exploration and Delek Energy System, want to drill in an empty corner of the desert. However, the Nature and Parks Authority Science Committee and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) contend that even exploratory drilling will destroy the fragile ecosystems in the reserve. The two sides will go head to head on Tuesday in front of the Nature and Parks Authority general assembly, the Authority's highest body, which will decide whether to grant the companies' request.
The situation, from an environmental perspective, has also been complicated by the fact that Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra has recommended the drilling plan, although on the condition the ecological damage was reversible.
Ginko made headlines two years ago when it discovered a small amount of oil near the Dead Sea through Zuk Tamrur 3. This time around, Ginko director Rami Karmin believes Zuk Tamrur 4 in the reserve has the best chance to produce as much as 6.5 million barrels.
But even he admits that drilling for oil is "a tricky business" and there are no guarantees.
"We are talking about drilling in a spot that the Authority had already approved drilling there 10 years ago, and we requested that spot because we thought they'd approve it again. The district committee approved it two weeks ago and now we need the Authority's approval," he said.
"We need [approximately] 1.25 acres out of 150,000 for two months so that we can drill an exploratory hole 2,000 meters down. We had an ecological company evaluate the area. There have also been other exploratory holes in the Dead Sea area and you can't even see them anymore," Karmin argued.
According to Karmin, Zuk Tamrur 4 is the likeliest place in Israel to find oil because of its unique geological properties.
"There is oil around the Dead Sea but the constant little earthquakes that occur because the Sea is on a fault line release the pressure before the oil can be driven to the surface. At this spot, there is a four-way closure and there is a good chance there is oil there," he said.
However, SPNI argued Sunday in a position paper ahead of Tuesday's meeting that the relatively small predicted reservoir did not justify the massive ecological damage. Israel uses about 80 million barrels of oil per year, or 270,000 per day. 6.5 million barrels would meet Israel's needs for less than a month.
Karmin contended that the amount of oil wasn't the point, its cost was.
"Six-and-a-half million barrels is worth about $800 million. The government would be receiving about $400m. in fees and taxes - can we really afford to turn down that much money?" he demanded.
The Authority's Science Committee, nevertheless, has submitted its assessment report to the general assembly and has counseled the body to prohibit the companies from drilling. The committee consists of, among others, two professors and two doctors, including the Environmental Protection Ministry's chief scientist Dr. Yishayahu Baror - who apparently disagrees with his minister.
Rather than a deserted corner of the desert, the site actually sits in the middle of a very narrow corridor which serves as a natural transit area between the Judean Desert Reserve and the Negev reserve, the committee said. Disturbing the area would have a massive impact on plant and animal life in the whole area, they argued. Animal populations would be cut off from their main groups with no way to get back to the Negev, they said.
The committee addressed both the potential damage from the initial drilling, but also the greater potential impact of striking oil.
While an exploratory hole would inevitably cause some damage, if oil was found, much more damage would result, the committee wrote. A constant stream of tanker trucks and the new roads they would require would doubtless result in severe damage. Even putting up lights, as is usual for drilling sites, would adversely affect the delicate ecosystems. The inevitable accidents if oil were found would pollute the ground in the area as well, according to the report.
The committee concluded by reminding the general assembly that it was precisely their job to protect nature in the face of such threats.
Meanwhile, even if the committee voted against granting them permission on Tuesday, Karmin vowed to employ additional legal measures to get the permits.
Why drill for oil? Every economy can run on socialist hot air......
“Here’s to hoping they strike it big.”
I hope they do too, but then they will surely be blamed by the Arabs and their other detractors for using sneaky Jewish technology to drill sideways under Arab lands to steal “their” oil.
if they find oil this will be just like the book The Ezekiel Option. wow.
Wut a dalek might look like.
Stumbled upon this footnote only yesterday, interesting:
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/kimfire.htm
“...Gas fire from mud volcanoes as a trigger for the appearance of high-temperature pyrometamorphic rocks of the Hatrurim Formation (Dead Sea area). Doklady Earth Sciences, 2007, Vol. 413A, No. 3, pp. 474-480. Pleidades Publishing Ltd. English Text Version. Original Russian text in Doklady Akademii Nauk, 2007, Vol. 413, No. 6, pp. 803-809.]
[Example extract from the introduction]
“In Israel and Jordan there are more than ten areas totaling about 250 km2 with curious mineral and rock associations, known as the Hatrurim Formation (Fm). The genesis of these rocks is still problematic. Carbonate sedimentary rocks of late Cretaceous age (75-55 Ma) were subjected to local super-high temperature metamorphism (as high as 800- 1200°C) beginning in the Miocene (especially in the range 16 Ma to 200,000 a). The thermal alteration is of the type referred to as combustion metamorphism. It is not likely an accident of nature that all these combustion complexes are located mainly in the vicinity of the Dead Sea Rift, the major structure of the region which has influenced the geological evolution of the region throughout the Cenozoic (Figs. 1 and 2). The Hatrurim Fm is best exposed in the Negev Desert, not far from the town of Arad. Hatrurim Basin, an area of about 50 km2, is located here (Fig. 2)......
And as a giant natural theatre the smoky Jordan shore of the Rift rises up a full 1 km (Fig. I). This is the Hatrurim Basin nestled it the Negev Desert. The striking appearance of these rocks and the rich range of tones - straw, terracotta, pink and olive - in the natural palette of the terrain are in fetching harmony with the relief of the Negev Desert. One should keep in mind that the Hatrurim Fm differs drastically from adjacent areas of unaltered sedimentary rocks by their monolithic appearance, rocky ledges, in some cases circular agglomeratic collars and surrounding them collars of the porous zeolitic rocks included in and located between brecciated and hydrothermally altered sedimentary rocks...
‘Brecciated and hydrothermally altered sedimentary rocks...’ sounds catastrophic.
Arad was 30 acres in size in the Early Bronze period (3000-2300 B.C.) and never reached this size again. Its importance at this time was because of trading expeditions which traveled from here - to Sinai in the south to mine copper, and to the east for extracting bitumen from the Dead Sea.
OK, put 100 windmills there instead. We're not the oly ones with eco-dopes.
I had a pizza (kosher pizza!) in Arad with my kids way back in 1989. A totally desolate area with a few ruins and a “modern” town of concrete apartment buildings. People go there for allergy relief.
I have that same dream!
:’) And the Dead Sea is 4000 years old.
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