From 2021: #Palestine’s forgotten oil and gas resources

A fair distribution of #Oil and gas resources in the Levant Basin will be needed to achieve a lasting political and economic settlement between Israel and Palestine.

by Mahmoud Elkhafif
Published On 21 Jun 2021

Excerpt: "The prolonged closure and recurrent military operations in Gaza have left more than half the territory’s population living below the poverty line and cost $16.7bn in lost GDP annually. This figure does not account for the huge opportunity cost of preventing the Palestinian people from using their natural gas field off the shores of Gaza.

"The 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the #WestBank and #GazaStrip, known as the #OsloII Accord, gave the #PalestinianAuthority (PA) maritime jurisdiction over its waters up to 20 nautical miles from the coast. The PA signed a 25-year contract for gas exploration with the#BritishGas Group in 1999, and a large gas field, #GazaMarine, was discovered at 17 to 21 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza the same year. However, despite initial discussions between the Israeli government, the PA and British Gas on the sale of gas from this field and the provision of much-needed revenue to the occupied Palestinian territories, the Palestinians have not realised any benefits.

"Since the blockade of Gaza in 2007, the Israeli government has established de facto control over Gaza’s offshore natural gas reserves. The contractor, British Gas, has since been dealing with the Israeli government, effectively bypassing the Palestinian government regarding exploration and development rights.

"Israel has also taken control of the #Meged oil and natural gas field, located inside the occupied #WestBank. Israel states that the field lies west of the armistice line of 1948, yet most of the reservoir is situated beneath the #PalestinianTerritory occupied since 1967.

"More recently, Israel has begun to develop new oil and gas finds in the Eastern Mediterranean, solely for its own benefit.

"In commandeering and exploiting Palestinian oil and gas resources, Israel is acting in violation of the letter and the spirit of #TheHague Regulations, the Fourth #GenevaConvention and a body of international #humanitarian and #HumanRights law that addresses the exploitation of common resources by an occupying power, without regard for the interest, rights and shares of the #occupied population."

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/6/21/palestines-forgotten-oil-and-gas-resources

#OccupiedPalestine #FreePalestine #WorldPol #FreeGaza #FreePalestine #EndTheBlockade #GazaGenocide #RoyalDutchShell #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal #IsraeliIsAPetroState #BritishGas #PetroCriminals #ShellOil #BigOilAndGas #Oiligarchy #LevantBasin #Starvation #WarCrimes #StolenLand

Behind #Israel’s ‘#EndGame’ for #Gaza: Theft of #OffshoreGas reserves

By Betsey Piette
November 14, 2023

"In 1999, #BritishGas (BG) discovered the existence of natural gas in the Gaza Marine fields, 20 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, at a depth of 610 meters below the surface. Further exploration by BG through two successful wells — Gaza Marine 1 and Gaza Marine 2 — determined the field could contain up to 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. (EgyptOil-Gas.com, April 5, 2018)

"The Palestinian Authority was 'granted' the right to exercise sovereignty over its own maritime territory by the Oslo Accords in 1995. Four years later, following the findings of the offshore natural gas, the PA gave the international consortium BG a 25-year, 90% stake in a license to explore, develop any discovered fields, and install the required infrastructure. Since that time Israel has consistently blocked this development.

"In 2002, the PA approved BG’s proposals to construct a pipeline to a processing facility in Gaza. However, the Israeli state delayed this development, arguing that the pipeline should run to an Israeli-controlled port, and that Palestinians would have to supply Gaza Marine surplus fuel to Israel at far below market price.

"When Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in Gaza in 2007, Israel established a militarized naval blockade, prohibiting further offshore development. Around the same time, #YamThetis, an Israeli gas consortium, challenged the awarding of the contract to BG, further delaying the process.

"In December 2008, in total contravention of international laws, Israel declared sovereignty over the Gaza Marine area, and BG closed its offices in Tel Aviv.

"#RoyalDutchShell bought out BG’s interests in the #GazaMarineFields for $52 million in 2016. By March 2018, Royal Dutch Shell backed out of their investment, leaving the PA to search for a replacement company to develop the field. (EgyptOil-Gas.com, April 5, 2018)."

Read more:
https://iacenter.org/2023/11/15/behind-israels-end-game-for-gaza-theft-of-offshore-gas-reserves/

#WorldPol #FreeGaza #FreePalestine #EndTheBlockade #GazaGenocide
#IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal #IsraeliIsAPetroState #BritishGas #PetroCriminals #ShellOil #BigOilAndGas #Oiligarchy #LevantBasin #Starvation #WarCrimes #StolenLand

Why Do Corporations Love Authoritarianism?

"If IBM's Nazi collaboration was just a bizarre historical anomaly, we could safely file it away with other horrifying 20th-century oddities.

Unfortunately, it's not.

It represents a base alignment problem between profit-seeking entities and authoritarian politics."

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/why-do-corporations-love-authoritarianism/ #IBM #Krupp #IG_Farben #Thyssen #RoyalDutchShell #Shell

Our application to appeal in our case against #Shell Board of Directors has been rejected | ClientEarth

https://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-office/press/court-fails-to-engage-with-key-climate-risk-arguments-in-shell-directors-case-dismissal/?utm_source=uk_rg_digest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mandrill&utm_term=uk

#RoyalDutchShell #ClimateCrisis #CourtofAppeal #negligence

*Shell consultant quits, accusing firm of ‘extreme harms’ to environment*

"Caroline Dennett tells staff in video she made decision because of ‘double-talk on climate’"

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/23/shell-consultant-quits-environment-caroline-dennett

I hope she is an example for all #Shell employees, and all other climate and environmental damaging corporations, but …

She has the privilege to be able to do this, white, probably enough cash on the bank, relatively a high position, etc. For the under-payed Shell worker this is not an option, because they need to feed their family, pay for housing and a part of them live in the Global South, having even more obstacles to quit. They will also never receive this kind of media attention.

Still these workers have no future as well, because the fossil industry has received a dead sentence. Plus the paradox is that workers from the Global South are hit even harder by the #ClimateCrisis. So let's offer those workers a way to get out of the Shell Death Zone! How?! With helping them directly or via funds or via whatever! Offering them schooling and financial compensation to restart their life, so they can also have the privilege to say goodbye to Shell!  Same of course for workers of other parasitical corporations!

#ClimateEmergency #fossil #fossilFuel #oil #gas #RoyalDutchShell

Is this the end of #RoyalDutchShell as we know it ?
Or is this just #Shell evading taxes?

https://code-rood.org/en/2021/11/15/its-the-end-of-royal-dutch-shell-as-we-know-it/

#ShellMustFall

Shell to pay $111m over decades-old oil spills in Nigeria

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/aug/12/shell-to-pay-111m-over-decades-old-oil-spills-in-nigeria

#TheGuardian #RSS #News #Bot #Oilandgascompanies #RoyalDutchShell #Environment #Oilspills #Worldnews #Business #Nigeria #Africa #Oil

‘Cataclysmic day’ for oil companies sparks climate hope

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/27/cataclysmic-day-for-oil-companies-sparks-climate-hope

#TheGuardian #RSS #News #Bot #Greenhousegasemissions #Environmentalactivism #Oilandgascompanies #RoyalDutchShell #Energyindustry #Climatechange #Fossilfuels #Environment #ExxonMobil #Worldnews #Business #Chevron #Energy #Oil #Gas #Oil