Israeli Minister Resigns, Paving Way for Gas-Field Development

TEL AVIV-Israel’s economy minister resigned on Sunday, allowing the government to move ahead with stalled plans to develop two offshore gas fields after almost a year of political wrangling.

“Deri’s resignation and the transfer of his authority to the Prime Minister could move the gas plan forward and avoid a legal battle with Noble Energy”, Mona Sukkarieh, an analyst at the Middle East Strategic Perspectives risk consultancy, told Agence France-Presse.

“Minister (Aryeh) Deri announced to me his intention to quit”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is already acting foreign minister, will assume Deri’s position and will approve a deal achieved in August.

On October 25, Deri told Netanyahu that he would not use his ministry’s legal powers to award the deal special exemptions from Israel’s anti-monopoly regulations. “Today we are taking a major step to advance the supply of gas in Israel”, Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. “Gas will be Israel’s No. 1 growth engine in the coming years”.

Neighboring Egypt has recently discovered another large gas field in the Mediterranean, raising concerns that Israel might fall behind in gas production.

Leviathan is more than twice the size of Tamar, reportedly holding a few 18.9 trillion cubic feet (535 billion cubic meters, or bcm) of natural gas, along with 34.1 million barrels of condensate.

But in December, then-antitrust commissioner David Gilo ruled that the Delek-Noble conglomerate may constitute a monopoly, sparking a vociferous national debate on the terms given to the energy companies. For much of the year, Deri has refused to give that dispensation, and Netanyahu failed over the summer to pass a Knesset vote transferring his “Article 52 authority”, as it is known, to the broader cabinet.

Deri will continue to head the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and Galilee.

The prime minister and Shas chairman Deri have yet to reach agreement on the additional portfolio that the latter will receive as compensation for leaving the Ministry of the Economy.