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Israeli Shale Oil Pilot Project Denied

CBN

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- The Jerusalem District Committee for Planning and Building voted down a pilot project for the shale oil initiative in the Shfela basin. 

After nearly 20 hours of discussion in two separate meetings, the committee denied the Jerusalem-headquartered Israel Energy Initiatives permission for the next phase of the operation to determine the viability of producing an estimated 40 billion barrels of shale oil in central Israel.

Since completing the exploratory phase of the project in 2011, IEI, a subsidiary of the New Jersey firm Genie Energy, has faced opposition from several environmental groups claiming it would cause irreversible damage to the area.

Howard Vinegar, IEI's chief engineer, spoke with CBN News in January 2012. Vinegar said IEI had developed an environmentally safe technique, based on a Swedish process developed in the 1940s, to heat the shale rock for several months before extracting the oil.

"What we basically do is drill wells using oil field technology and the holes we drill in the ground are basically just six inches in diameter," he explained. "By drilling horizontal wells rather than vertical wells, we're able to minimize the surface footprint."

Vinegar predicted that Israel could be energy independent and a major exporter within a decade, crediting God with providing the answer.

"You know, when you have Iran that wants to nuke you, when you're at the mercy of Saudi Arabia and all these other countries, now is when the danger is the greatest and now is when I think God has put the solution in our hands," he said.

IEI's chief geologist, Yuval Bartov, told CBN News shale oil production in the Shfela basin could compete with Saudi Arabia's reserves of 264 billion barrels.

The pilot project, slated to produce about 500 barrels of oil, would be limited to one drilling site and production facility within the area the company is licensed to explore.

IEI says its technique would not pose a risk to the region's underground aquifer, a premise backed by Israel's national water authority, but environmental groups praised Tuesday's decision.

Amit Bracha, executive director of Adam Teva v'Din, Israel Union for Environmental Defense, called the committee's decision "brave and just," the Jerusalem Post reported.

"We praise the elected officials who did not bow down to economic interests and preferred environmental protection, health and future generations," Bracha reportedly said.

IEI CEO Relik Shafir, who envisioned a potential 10 billion shekel annual yield, told the Post they didn't know "the reasoning, but we know that they decided that they don't want to have the pilot in that area."

"We have to learn and make our decisions," Shafir said. "But we'll take our time and think about what options we have and then we'll make a decision."

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