Could Israel’s Shale Oil Development be a Game Changer in World Geo-Politics?

Could Israel’s Shale Oil Development be a Game Changer in World Geo-Politics?
By Jerry Gordon (Scribe) on June 21st, 2011
The old joke used to be that Ha Shem should have made the ancient Hebrews turn right instead of left to the Holy Land during the Exodus from  Egypt. Then the joke continutes the Jews would have had all that Saudi crude oil. Now the tables have dramatically turned with discoveries of massive offshore natural gas fields in the Mediterraean  coming on stream in 2013 and prospective development of oil shale fields with estimated reserves of more than 250 billion barrels. The principal oil share deposits are located southwest of Jerusalem in the Shefla basin. This would make  Israel the third largest country with oil shale reserves. The estimated oil reserves would make it only second to that of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.
The major backers of the Israeli oil shale field include some heavyweights: Rupert Murdoch of NewsCorp,  Lord Jacob Rothschild, former  US Vice President Dick Cheney.   Probably the best news is that according to this map of oil shale deposits in Israel and Jordan, these discoveries lay within the existing State of Israel and in Jordan, but, not in the disputed territories, Judea and Samaria.  According to National Post (NP) columnist Lawrence Solomon of  Energy Probe, the Israeli technology involved with fracking these oil shale deposits could deliver a barrel of oil at a cost of $30 to 40 each. Further, if current pilot tests  prove out, the technology might be licensed for export to countries with significant oil share deposits.   Howard Jonas of Israel Energy Initiatives  CEO  of US communication company IDT said in a Solomon Financial Post (FP) column ,” Israel’s new energy.”
“None of the major oil companies are willing to do business in Israel because they don’t want to be cut off from the Mideast supply of oil,” explains Howard Jonas, CEO of IDT, the U.S. company that owns the Shfela concession through its subsidiary, Israel Energy Initiatives. Jonas, an ardent Zionist, considers the Shfela deposit merely a beginning: “We believe that under Israel is more oil than under Saudi Arabia. There may be as much as half a trillion barrels.”
Solomon’s FP column identifies the team that IEI has put together to exploit the oil shale development in Israel;
To win this war, Israel Energy Initiatives has enlisted some of the energy industry’s savviest old soldiers – here a former president of Mobil Oil (Eugene Renna), there a former president of Occidental Oil Shale (Allan Sass), over there a former president of Halliburton (Dick Cheney). But the Field Commander for the operation, and the person who in their mind will lead them to ultimate victory, is Harold Vinegar, a veteran pulled out of retirement and sent into the fray. Vinegar, a legend in the field, had been Shell Oil’s chief scientist and, with some 240 patents to his name over his 32 years at Shell, revolutionized the shale oil industry.
Lord Rothschild notes the potential  geo-poiltical impacts of this Israeli oil shale development:
The company’s oil shale technology “could transform the future prospects of Israel, the Middle East and our allies around the world.”
Watch this interview with Larry Solomon  of Energy Probe on Israel’s energy discoveries and potentials impact on the World geo-political landscape.