Backed by Washington, Israel is spending an arm and a leg on oil drilling in the contested Golan Heights, Syria. Israeli daily, Haaretz, has reported on the recent Washington proclamation of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights as a key green light for Tel Aviv to move forward with its initiative to secure the large amounts of underground oil and gas wells there.
Golan Heights oil reserves are predicted to be somewhere around one billion oil barrels, which is enough to transform Israel from a self-sufficient start up country to a source of energy by 2020.
Until now, Israel has remained largely dependent on global markets for over 99 percent of its energy consumption needs, importing fuel from Angola, Colombia, Mexico, Egypt, Norway, Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Isolated from most of the region’s gas and oil pipelines, Israel only has access to the East Mediterranean Gas pipeline extending from Egypt’s Arish to Ashkelon, a southern Israeli city. The pipeline is responsible for 40 percent of the country’s gas needs.
The history of oil drilling in Israel
Oil drilling in Palestinian lands dates back to 1914, with the first exploration venture taking place in 1947 by an affiliate of the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC).
Years later, Israel established the Petroleum Unit-- a national resources committee focused on oil management and which operates under its laws and regulations. Since 1953, this body has been monitored by Israel’s Energy and Water Resources Ministry.
The council, more or less, bases its field operations on findings of researches conducted by the country’s Geological Institute, Geophysical Institute, Institute of Technology and prestigious universities. It is also responsible for the management and maintenance of all expert reports and data on oil and natural gas exploration conducted in Israel to date--information that is crucial for companies submitting their bids for approval.
It is worth noting that the Israeli Petroleum Law was enacted in 1952 and works to govern the exploration and production of petroleum onshore and offshore Israel, including the country’s continental shelf. A year later, oil companies rolled in their Vibro-trucks, making their first discovery in 1955. The first field was located in Negev, a large desert region in southern Israel.
In 1957, another oil well sitting under frackable land was discovered in the same area. In total, some 480 onshore and offshore rigs have been set up so far-- however, most of their output is not commercial.
Golan Heights oil reserves
Even though several Jewish rabbis deny the Syrian Golan Heights having any significant biblical importance, some of Israel’s supporters insist otherwise and push the occupation agenda in the contested territory.
Scripture-inspired businessmen believe in the Golan Heights as the right place for their venture, basing their convictions on 17 Torah references interpreted as a sign for the presence of oil there.
For decades, many American investors set out to find oil in the Golan Heights, most without avail. Despite oil explorations dating back as early as 1970 and rapidly growing in the 80s, it wasn’t until January 1990 that the Israeli government went public that it has been authorizing digging for oil in the occupied territory.
It was during that year that the Israeli state granted the Israel National Oil Company a license to look for oil in the Golan Heights. At the time, the Firil Center for Studies had revealed that a shocking $25 million has been spent on looking for oil in the occupied Syrian territory.
