First tanker left
Israel becomes an oil exporting nation
By Max Borowski
2/15/2023 2:34 p.m
According to a much-quoted proverb, Moses led the Jewish people to the only place in the Middle East where there is no oil. However, that is no longer true. Israel is now officially one of the region’s oil exporters.
It is a historical freight that the “Seliger” is currently sailing to Europe with. The 700,000-barrel tanker is carrying the first cargo of crude oil ever exported by the State of Israel. According to the operator of the Karish gas field, the Greek oil company Energean, the “Seliger” was loaded on a floating platform around 80 kilometers off the Israeli coast. One is “delighted” to have produced and shipped Israeli oil for the first time. “For the first time in the history of Israeli oil and gas production, liquid hydrocarbon will be exported to the world market,” the company said in a statement. Buyer is a major international oil trader.
In the global oil market, with a daily volume of around 100 million barrels, Israel will only play a subordinate role in the future. But for the small country and the Middle East, which has historically been shaped by conflicts over raw materials, it is an important step – symbolically and economically. The old saying that Moses led the chosen Jewish people to the only place in the region where there was no oil no longer applies.
In addition to the Karish gas field, Israel has already produced oil from the larger Leviathan gas field to the south. However, this was not exported but sold to Israeli refineries.
It is true that Israel will still have to cover part of its own oil needs with imports in the future, since its own production will not be sufficient for the foreseeable future and the country’s refineries will need heavy crude oil in addition to the light crude oil they produce. However, Israel has already become a net exporter of natural gas, which has been produced from several fields in the Mediterranean for several years.
The oil, which is now to be sold mainly to Europe, is only a by-product of this gas production. However, it is instrumental in helping make Israel’s gas fields profitable for years to come. So far, Israel has only been able to market its gas to a limited extent and in a roundabout way. A pipeline to energy-hungry Europe has yet to be built. In order to bring it onto the world market as liquefied gas, Israel’s gas first has to be pumped to Egypt via a pipeline, liquefied there and then shipped. The oil, on the other hand, can be transported by tanker directly from floating production and storage facilities in the production fields in the Mediterranean.