Source: Boiling Frogs Post
F. William Engdahl
The
discovery in late 2010 of the huge natural gas bonanza off Israel’s
Mediterranean shores triggered other neighboring countries to look more
closely at their own waters. The results revealed that the entire
eastern Mediterranean is swimming in huge untapped oil and gas reserves.
That discovery is having enormous political, geopolitical as well as
economic consequences. It well may have potential military consequences
too.
In
December 2010, as it seemed the Greek crisis might still be resolved
without the by-now huge bailouts or privatizations, Greece’s Energy
Ministry formed a special group of experts to research the prospects for
oil and gas in Greek waters. Greece’s Energean Oil & Gas began
increased investment into drilling in the offshore waters after a
successful smaller oil discovery in 2009. Major geological surveys were
made. Preliminary estimates now are that total offshore oil in Greek
waters exceeds 22 billion barrels in the Ionian Sea off western Greece
and some 4 billion barrels in the northern Aegean Sea.[1]
F. William Engdahl
Rising Energy Tensions in the Aegean—Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria
The
discovery in late 2010 of the huge natural gas bonanza off Israel’s
Mediterranean shores triggered other neighboring countries to look more
closely at their own waters. The results revealed that the entire
eastern Mediterranean is swimming in huge untapped oil and gas reserves.
That discovery is having enormous political, geopolitical as well as
economic consequences. It well may have potential military consequences
too.
Preliminary exploration has confirmed similarly impressive reserves
of gas and oil in the waters off Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and potentially,
Syria.
Greek ‘energy Sirtaki’
Not surprisingly, amid its disastrous financial crisis the Greek
government began serious exploration for oil and gas. Since then the
country has been in a curious kind of a dance with the IMF and EU
governments, a kind of “energy Sirtaki” over who will control and
ultimately benefit from the huge resource discoveries there.
In
December 2010, as it seemed the Greek crisis might still be resolved
without the by-now huge bailouts or privatizations, Greece’s Energy
Ministry formed a special group of experts to research the prospects for
oil and gas in Greek waters. Greece’s Energean Oil & Gas began
increased investment into drilling in the offshore waters after a
successful smaller oil discovery in 2009. Major geological surveys were
made. Preliminary estimates now are that total offshore oil in Greek
waters exceeds 22 billion barrels in the Ionian Sea off western Greece
and some 4 billion barrels in the northern Aegean Sea.[1]
The southern Aegean Sea and Cretan Sea are yet to be explored, so the
numbers could be significantly higher. An earlier Greek National
Council for Energy Policy report stated that “Greece is one of the least
explored countries in Europe regarding hydrocarbon (oil and gas-w.e.)
potentials.”[2]
According to one Greek analyst, Aristotle Vassilakis, “surveys already
done that have measured the amount of natural gas estimate it to reach
some nine trillion dollars.” [3] Even if only a fraction of that is available, it would transform the finances of Greece and the entire region.
Recent
discoveries of not just significant, but huge oil and gas reserves in
the little-explored Mediterranean Sea between Greece, Turkey, Cyprus,
Israel, Syria and Lebanon suggest that the region could become literally
a “new Persian Gulf” in terms of oil and gas riches. As with the old
Persian Gulf, discovery of hydrocarbon riches could as well spell a
geopolitical curse of staggering dimension.
The
game-changer was a dramatic discovery in late 2010 of an enormous
natural gas field offshore of Israel in what geologists call the Levant
or Levantine Basin. In October 2010 Israel discovered a massive
“super-giant” gas field offshore in what it declares is its Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ). The find is some 84 miles west of the Haifa port
and three miles deep. They named it Leviathan after the Biblical sea
monster. Three Israeli energy companies in cooperation with the Houston
Texas Noble Energy announced initial estimates that the field contained
16 trillion cubic feet of gas—making it the world’s biggest deep-water
gas find in a decade, adding more discredit to “peak oil” theories that
the planet is about to see dramatic and permanent shortages of oil, gas
and coal. To put the number in perspective, that one gas field,
Leviathan, would hold enough reserves to supply Israel’s gas needs for
100 years.
With
Tamar, prospects began to look considerably better. Then, just a year
after Tamar, the same consortium led by Noble Energy struck the largest
gas find in its decades-long history at Leviathan in the same Levantine
geological basin. Present estimates are that the Leviathan field holds
at least 17 tcf of gas.
