psclancaster : Message: Re: Fw: [pal_soc] British Gas, Israel to freeze Hamas out of $4b. gas deal

--- In psclancaster@..., michal nahman
<nahmanmichal@...> wrote:
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> ----- Forwarded Message ----
> From: Laila Alabidi <laila.alabidi@...>
> To: lanc_palestine@...
> Sent: Saturday, 7 July, 2007 7:20:48 PM
> Subject: [pal_soc] British Gas, Israel to freeze Hamas out of $4b.
gas deal
>
> Does anyone know when the concert is going ahesd cos I said I would
design leaflets for it. I am ill at the moment and could do with some
help getting ity done. Cheers Julia xx
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> >>any excuse for thievery,
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> British Gas, Israel to freeze Hamas out of $4b. gas deal
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> ------------ --------- --------- ---
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> Matthew Krieger, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 5, 2007
>
> ------------ --------- --------- ---
>
> Israel and the British natural gas company BG Group Plc will move
ahead
> with controversial plans to drill for natural gas in the Gaza Marine
> field, despite Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip last month, The
> Jerusalem Post learned on Thursday. The two sides have arrived at an
> "understanding" that will transfer funds intended for the
Palestinian
> Authority's Palestinian Investment Fund into an international bank
> account, a BG source told The Post. "Both Israel and BG intend that
> until the PA is able to remove Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip,
the
> money will be held in an international bank account," the source
said.
> "Neither side wants the money to go to fund terror-related
activities."
> According to the plan, BG will drill for natural gas 36 kilometers
off
> of the Gaza coast, in an area that was designated as PA territory
> following the Oslo Accords. The gas will then flow four km
underwater
> in a pipeline 850 meters below the surface to an Ashkelon refinery.
>
> The field, which BG purchased in 2000 and to which Hamas now claims
> rightful ownership, contains 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas
worth
> an estimated $4 billion, with Israel set to become the sole
consumer of
> the resources. "I cannot deny that Israel and BG are making
attempts at
> arranging a payment plan to accommodate the PA [and completely
exclude
> Hamas]," an official in the Infrastructure Ministry said, while
adding
> that along with officials from the Finance Ministry, negotiations
are
> still underway, despite the shaky security situation in Gaza. Ronen
> Moshe, the Infrastructure Ministry spokesman, claimed, however,
that he
> doesn't know anything about an "understanding" between BG and Israel
> regarding payments to the PA, but did say that right now the two
sides
> are negotiating over the price that Israel will pay for the gas.
> Similarly, the spokesman's office in the Finance Ministry claimed no
> knowledge of any "understanding" between Israel and BG concerning
the transfer of funds to an international account, while the Prime
> Minister's Office said nothing new has happened since the cabinet
> decided earlier this year to form a negotiating team to meet with BG
> representatives.
>
> According to the original bilateral arrangement
> between Israel and the PA, some 60 percent of the revenues from the
> sale of the gas will go to BG; 30% will go to BG's partner in the
deal,
> the British energy company CCC, and 10% of the revenue, estimated
to be
> worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, is to be designated
for
> the PA's Palestinian Investment Fund, under the auspices of the
office
> of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "However, now that
> the PA is no longer in control of the Gaza Strip, or the marine area
> off of its coast, Israel, should it purchase the gas, would no
longer
> be making payments to the PA, but rather would have to pay Hamas,"
> explained the BG source. Israel is obviously opposed to the money
> ending up in the hands of Hamas, and British law mandates that
should a British organization
> enter into any sort of negotiations with a terrorist group, that
> organization' s leaders will be brought to trial and may be
sentenced
> to jail, the source said. "Therefore, Israel and BG have come to a
new
> understanding of transferring the money into an international
account -
> allowing the deal to go through," he said. The deal appears to
exclude
> Hamas from receiving any of the revenues from the gas sales. Hamas,
> meanwhile, intends to ask for changes in the agreement with BG,
> Bloomberg reported two weeks ago. "It is unreasonable that the
owner of
> the gas, Palestine, gets 10% only," Mohammed al-Madhoun, the
director
> of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya's office, told the Palestinian
> Information Center, a Hamas Web site. "The government has no problem
> cooperating with the British gas company but only after modifying
some
> points of the 1999 contract."
>
> Earlier this week, Finance Ministry
> Accountant General energy coordinator Uri Shusterman confirmed that
a dispute over prices
> is the official cause for the delay in the signing of a contract
with
> British Gas, and that statement was the first comment by a
government
> official about the negotiations with BG Group. "Despite the
> disagreement, the government is determined to buy gas from the
> company's reserves offshore from Gaza, as an alternative to Egyptian
> gas," said Shusterman. He added that Israel is seeking to diversify
its
> supplies of gas, which it now buys domestically and also from
Egypt, in
> order to ensure a competitive market. He noted that the country
planned
> to buy 1.5 billion to 1.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas per
year
> from BG over 12-14 years. "It's critical that Israel come to an
> agreement now with BG, because the longer it waits to sign, the more
> likely it is that gas prices are going to rise even further and the
> less likely it is to begin receiving gas at its desired 2011 target
> date," said BG. Once Israel and British Gas arrive at an agreement,
the project will take
> three years to complete. "Right now there is nothing in the water,
as
> soon as we can, we need to build a gas rig, get the drill ready and
> build the pipeline," said the BG official, adding that he hoped the
two
> would finish the negotiations and sign an agreement within the next
> week. "There are already clear intentions as to how to handle the
Hamas
> situation, and plans have already been worked on regarding the
> construction of the pipeline, now we just need to finalize a
price," he
> said. Israel began talks with BG in February 2006 and said in May of
> that year that it expected to buy 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas
from
> BG annually starting in 2009. Soonafter, BG broke off talks with
Israel
> and said that it preferred bringing gas to Egypt to be liquefied and
> then shipped by tankers to the US, Europe and the Far East. The
talks
> resumed in July 2006 and in April of this year the cabinet voted
> 21-to-three
>
> to grant a negotiating team formal permission to hold talks with BG
on
> the purchase of gas from the Gaza Marine field. Included among the
> three opposed to the deal was Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor
> Lieberman, who said at the time of the vote that he was concerned
about
> the likelihood that revenues transferred to the PA would ultimately
end
> up funding terrorist activities, a concern that was shared by Ariel
> Sharon when he was prime minister. Lieberman did not return calls
for
> comment on the latest development. Separately, BG is also facing a
> petition by the Israeli company Yam Thetis, whose natural-gas
reserves
> off the Mediterranean coast are currently the country's sole source
of
> the fuel. The company is asking a court to block the government's
plan
> to buy the gas that BG plans to drill.
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