Permalink Reply by Hopeful About Natural Gas on Thanks for posting this Ronny. I've been interested in fracking worldwide. I am not sure I share his optimism since it's based mostly on Israel having the technology and others not having it. Technology crosses borders fairly easily and everyone and his brother are probably testing their own fracking technology right now. But, I would like to see it ...
"Israel itself is set to dominate the region like never before. Thanks to the industrial technological miracle known as fracking, Israel is about to become the new energy Mecca of the Middle East, and there’s very little its Arab neighbors can do to stop it."
What’s tilting the region’s dynamics toward Israel?
For one thing, the Arab Spring has spawned a chaos and instability in every country it’s touched, that’s going to grind on for years to come. A new report warns that Egypt is on the verge of collapse; Israel’s old adversary Syria, already is. Both are also very likely headed toward economic ruin–as has already happened to Israel’s other foe, Hamas in Gaza, and could hit Iran next.
Israel is going to be the famous “still point in a turning world”–a world turning in on itself, with little or no energy to spend confronting the Jewish state. And here’s where fracking comes in.
What many people don’t know is that the land of Israel holds almost 250 billion barrels of oil shale reserves (that’s according to the World Petroleum Council). That’s almost equal to Saudi Arabia’s 260 billion barrels--and as conventional oil sources there and in the Persian Gulf gets harder to extract (it already’s happening) and the cost goes up, Israel will be the new energy frontier of the region.
It’s already happening. The fracking-savvy Canadians have joined an Israeli energy technology fund, to help companies like Israeli Energy Initiatives begin production of oil shale in reserve-rich areas like the Valley of Elah near Jerusalem; the Russians have signed a deal to help open up the vast natural gas reserves discovered in 2008 and 2009 off Israel’s coast–some 16 trillion cubic feet worth.
Right now production is still tiny, but as fracking technology continues to advance Israel could soon move beyond its declared goal of energy independence, and become a major oil exporting country–including to oil-poor neighbors like Egypt and Syria and Lebanon.
The implications are nothing less than staggering.
In researching the decades-old Tuscaloosa Trend and the immense wealth it has generated for many, I find it deeply troubling that this resource-rich formation runs directly beneath one of the poorest communities in North Baton Rouge—near Southern University, Louisiana—yet neither the university ( that I am aware of) nor local residents appear to have received any compensation for the minerals extracted from their land.
This area has suffered immense environmental degradation…
ContinuePosted by Char on May 29, 2025 at 14:42
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