The author is a senior lecturer at the School of Sustainability, Reichman University
The dispute between Israel and Lebanon over the borders of the economic waters between the countries may end in a close agreement. The agreement will allow drilling to find gas in the Block 9 area, known as the Cana or Sidon field. The dispute over a maritime area measuring 860 square kilometers stems from the method of determining the border between the countries: Israel used a method according to which the border extends from the head of the peninsula at an angle of 90 degrees, the Lebanese followed a different method and continued the angle at which the land border reaches westward to the sea.
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The measurement methods created a triangle based on the maritime border agreed between Israel and Cyprus and between Lebanon and Cyprus. There is a fundamental difference between territorial waters and economic waters. Territorial waters are defined as those that are up to 20 kilometers from the coast and are considered part of the country’s territory. Contrary to this, in the economic waters the state does not have sovereign rights, but only economic rights in the natural resources – if such are found among them.
There is no certainty that gas will be found
According to the agreement, the line between the countries will be determined according to the demand of the Lebanese in their application to the United Nations border registrar in 2011. The five-kilometer “line of sight”, marked by Israel on the ground, as the security border between Israel and Lebanon will be in accordance with the Israeli requirement. In addition, if gas is found in the Kana field, Israel will receive compensation from the gas production profits in proportion to the area that will be within its economic waters. It should be emphasized that there is no It is certain that gas will be found in the disputed area, therefore all talk of a loss of billions of dollars to Israel is speculative.
Lebanon has an interest in looking for and finding gas in its territory. In this conflicted country, whose economy is collapsing, electricity is supplied 3 to 4 hours a day, at best. Electricity in Lebanon is extremely expensive and comes from fuel oil and diesel fuel, which are mostly imported from Iran. The gas, if found, will be able to supply fuel to the power plants and industrial plants in the country, will lead to the supply of electricity and reduce its price by approximately 70%.
Israel also has an interest in stabilizing the economy of its neighbor to the north. There is an important security consideration in the presence and development of gas fields in Lebanese economic waters that will constitute a security threat to the fields in Israel. This may neutralize the basis for Nasrallah’s threats to damage the Israeli gas fields.
The wonders of the Middle East
Israel is expected to soon export natural gas from Leviathan through the Arab pipeline passing through Jordan and Syria to a power plant in northern Lebanon. The station was connected in 2009 to the Arab pipeline, and after the coup in Egypt in 2011, Egypt stopped exporting gas through it. Today, gas is exported from Israel to Egypt through the two pipelines, which until 2011 will export gas in the opposite direction. Therefore, since the part of the Arab pipeline that continues from Jordan through Syria to Lebanon was not damaged in the civil war in Syria, it is possible to export gas from Whalen.
An agreement to export “Egyptian” gas through Jordan to Syria and Lebanon was signed about two months ago and is awaiting the approval of the US government, which is supposed to allow the export of gas due to sanctions on Syria. Since the Arab pipeline currently exports gas from Israel through Jordan to Egypt, the molecules that will flow to Lebanon, which do not have a blue and white flag attached to them, They will be from the Leviathan field, so that the lights in Nasrallah’s bunker will be illuminated by Israeli gas, from the wonders of the Middle East.