The chairman of the EPA government company, Erez Kalfon, and CEO Itzik Levy participated today (Monday) in the Knesset in a discussion of the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee, on the environmental impacts of the EPA agreement with the private company Med-Rad (MRLB). Under the agreement, up to 70 oil tankers a year are to use the EPA pipeline from Ashkelon to Eilat to transport oil from Europe to Asia and the East, and vice versa.
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Kalfon and Levy, in their attempts to justify the agreement, and against the background of the growing voices for its cancellation, raised a number of arguments regarding the benefits and justifications for the implementation of the agreement, but did not provide evidence or proof of things.
One of the claims was that the Israeli energy economy needed an agreement to ensure Israel’s energy security. “I think there is a misunderstanding here as well,” Kalfon said.
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Erez Kalfon, U.A. EPA
(Photo: Daniel Bar-On)
This aroused the astonishment of some of the participants in the discussion, and MK Musi Raz (Meretz) asked Makfon to expand: “You talked about the fact that some of the fuel remained here. Is it for the use of Israeli citizens? Is it a basin for export? What exactly is this? “, MK Raz asked.
Kalfon replied: “In the fuel market, when unloading and loading transactions are made, some of this fuel reaches the containers of the EPA company, as soon as this fuel is here, business activity begins between the refineries in Israel, for that matter with the same trader who brought the fuel and oil.”
Kalfon went on to explain: “Obviously, a relationship is formed between the two entities and as a result some of this fuel, as in other transactions not only in the Med-Rad transaction, is drawn for the purpose of refineries in the State of Israel and from there to the consumer.”
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Tamar Zandberg, Minister of Environmental Protection
The Minister of Environmental Protection, Tamar Zandberg, criticized the claim and said that it was incorrect: “This agreement that you signed does not contain a single barrel intended for the Israeli economy! I say this with full responsibility. This agreement is a pipeline agreement from Eilat to Ashkelon.”
Kalfon replied to Zandberg: “Where does this statement come from? I know the world of fuel a little better than you and I know this agreement a little better than you.”
The deal was not intended to serve as an oil supplier to Bazan
There are two refineries in Israel: the refineries in Haifa (Bazen) controlled by the Israel Corporation (Idan Ofer) and the Paz refinery in Ashdod. Bazan stores fuel products that it imports in EPA tanks and rents storage space for this purpose. However, a Calcalist investigation shows that the EPA-Med-Red transaction was not intended to serve as an oil supplier to Bazan.
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Itzik Levy, CEO of EPA
Kalfon’s statement that he “knows the world of fuel” implies that the Med-Rad agreement will lead to the sale of oil to the refineries, not based on the content of the Med-Rad agreement, but on the fact that oil trading companies will store their oil in EPA tanks. He wants – for example the refineries – to be able to buy it from them.
It should be noted that the CEO of Zen, Malachi Alper, is one of the two architects of the EPA-Med-Red agreement, together with Yona Fogel. Alper and Fogel served as CEO and Chairman (respectively) of Med-Red. Upon his appointment as CEO of Zen in June this year, Alper resigned from his position at Med-Rad. His holdings in the company were transferred faithfully to Fogel.
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MK Prof. Alon Tal
(Photo: Amit Shaal)
“It is also reported that EPA has large storage tanks in Eilat and Ashkelon that can hold up to 23 million barrels of oil, the amount equivalent to more than 21 oil tanks, each of which is loaded with 175,000 tons. A. Higher amounts.
As part of this morning’s discussion in the Interior Committee, the MKs that the EPA will present data on the profits expected of it as a result of the agreement. MK Raz said: “No reasons were presented for justifying the agreement. Let’s look at the business interest, from a business standpoint What is your profit from this transaction? What is the profit of the state? In money. Did when you calculated this expected profit, someone took insurance costs. Or are you building on the fact that the next time there is a state pollution you will take care of it without imposing a fine on yourself? You did not present anything here. I expected there to be data here … nothing was presented here. I suggest you start your presentation from scratch. “
Another argument that came up in the discussion, according to EPA CEO Itzik Levy, was that the more EPA operates with more oil tankers, the higher its crew skill, its equipment will improve and thus the risk of leaks will decrease.
MK Alon Tal (blue and white) said at the hearing: “I have never seen a polluting factor that evades and presents dis information on a regular basis … the EPA’s confidentiality needs to be removed and the composition of the board of directors changed.”
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