Turkey obtains natural gas from 6 different sources (two pipelines from Russia, pipelines from Iran, Azerbaijan and Iraq, LNG from Nigeria and Algeria). However, it also aspires to obtain gas from Turkmenistan and wants to set up a nuclear power station over the next decade.
Haifa Basic Oils is located at the Oil Refineries premises in Haifa. It produces 75,000 tons of oil products a year. Haifa Basic Oils was founded in 1965 as a joint venture between Oil Refineries, which owned 50%, and Israel’s three fuel companies at the time: Paz (24.5%), Delek Group (14%) and Sonol Israel (11.5%). In January 2010, Oil Refineries (ORL) acquired the 24.5% stake in Haifa Basic Oils from Paz Oil for NIS 59 million, reflecting a company value of NIS 240 million. Oil Refineries now owns 74.5% of the company. Haifa Basic Oils is a leading manufacturer of high quality base oils and paraffin waxes for lubricant producers and industries as candle, construction, fertilizer and the food industry
On July 3 2009, Algeria, Nigeria and Niger signed an intergovernmental agreement for the development of a 4,128 km gas pipeline that will send gas from the Niger Delta through Niger to Algeria’s export terminals. The project is estimated to cost around $12 billion and will supply up to 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year to Europe. In addition, it will enable Nigeria to increase its share of natural gas exports, while helping make Algeria one of the major energy hubs in the region, catering mainly to the European market. The European Union supports the program and considers the building of the TSGP crucial to the diversification of its energy resources. The pipeline would enable European countries to tap directly into Nigeria’s 5 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and reduce its reliance on Russia and Algeria (although Algeria’s Sonatrach and, potentially, Russia’s Gazprom will also be involved in the TSGP project). However, several doubts weigh on the building of the TSGP, despite a study carried out by Penspen and IPA Energy Consulting in 2006 that found the pipeline technically and economically feasible. First, the TSGP will be the world’s longest pipeline; much of the construction will take place in one of world’s most difficult environments, the Sahara desert, significantly raising costs. Second, developing Nigeria’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry would probably be a less expensive and more efficient way to export the country’s natural gas resources. Third, the TSGP is a highly speculative project and it will not be easy to find private partners willing to commit to such an unpredictable enterprise. It would take just one major incident to halt construction work and increase costs beyond profitability. The most significant obstacle to this massive project is the issue of security in the countries through which the pipeline will run. Nigeria, Niger and Algeria are among the least secure areas of the world because of the various guerrilla and terrorist movements that destabilize them; security risk, along with the speculative nature of this project, means that even a small-scale attack could seriously impair or delay the completion of the pipeline, dramatically raising costs for the companies involved. Despite the high costs and risks related to the TSGP project, the governments of Algeria, Niger and Nigeria are committed to its realization and have not expressed any doubts so far. The pipeline is considered strategic to the development of these countries’ resources, as it would enable Nigeria’s energy sources and Algeria’s southern gas fields to be duly exploited, reaching the European market. However, security threats are too significant to be ignored, undermining the economic viability of the project. Security costs are likely to be very high, as foreign and local workers will need to be protected from potential attacks. Insurance premiums are also likely to be considerable while a single successful terrorist attack could easily halt and delay construction for months, further increasing costs for the companies involved. Once completed, the pipeline will need constant patrolling and expensive surveillance systems to protect this infrastructure from potential security threats. All these factors are liable to raise costs beyond profitability for this extremely ambitious project.
Types of vehicles include the regular internal combustion engine vehicle; the mild hybrid vehicle; the full hybrid vehicle; the plug-in hybrid vehicle; the battery electric vehicle and the one day to be fuel cell hydrogen cars. A hydrogen fuel cell powered car has zero harmful emissions and would be self powered without need for a change of batteries.
With natural gas markets, especially LNG becoming increasingly globalized, a niche has opened up for service providers in the LNG industry that can offer solutions that include access to liquidity and markets, risk management, and credit and risk intermediation. Entities such as Barclays Capital LNG services aim to bring risk management expertise in liquid wholesale energy markets. Barclays Capital LNG Services will also provide entities such as Excelerate with fixed priced hedging mechanisms, allowing Excelerate to optimize pricing for natural gas buyers. Additional tailored solutions include taking physical delivery, transport and optimization of cargoes through profit sharing between the parties as well as access to liquidity and markets, risk management and credit and risk intermediation
The ability to weld onto in-service pipelines such as natural gas pipelines in which gas is actually already flowing. This makes it possible to add another section of a pipeline (hot tap branch connections) and to enable the installation of repair sleeves without interrupting the flow of gas (except for a few hours). While there are economic benefits to this practice, certain issues must be addressed to ensure that public, environmental, and worker safety is maintained both during and after welding and to ensure that the flow is indeed not interrupted for more than a number of hours and not days. The practice of welding onto in-service pipelines (hot tapping) is not uncommon.
LNG that cannot be sold potentially because of a situation where there is souring supply and diving demand or when marginal LNG suppliers compete head to head with the full cycle costs of unconventional gas producers in the US. Currently (beginning 2010), it is too early to judge the potential build up of such new gas resources. Over the next several years until 2015, it is very possible that there may be considerable distressed LNG unless liquefaction projects curtail production
MNI Minister Uzi Landau has set the goal for renewable energy (renewable energy masterplan) at 2,760 MW by 2020, less than the former goal of 4,000 MW. The minister stated that this would still represent 10% of the electricity generated at that date since the government was promoting a strong energy conservation program to reduce consumption by 20%. Solar systems are to represent 1,750 MW. The energy fuel mix for renewable is set to be in 2020 from 5 large solar power plants of each larger than 5 MW totaling 1,200 MW (35% of the total renewable) from both photovoltaic and thermo-solar technology. Medium size PV plants of between 50 KW to 5 MW will be limited to a maximum scope of 350 MW (300 MWs have already been met to date) and the other 50 MW will be allocated only by tender on industrial land in the periphery; the amount of generation from small PV facilities of up to 50 KW is unlimited in the periphery but is estimated that it will not increase above 200 MW. Regarding wind and biomass, the MNI estimates that wind will represent 800 MW and biomass 210 MW. In addition, the MNI is setting aside another 50 MW for local Israeli experimental technology. The MNI estimates that this penetration of renewable in the energy mix by 2020 will cost in 2010 terms $2.06 billion dollars and will cause an increase in the electricity tariff of a few percent each year.
A report by the international renewable energy research organization REN21 in October 2010 found that Israel is lagging far behind the rest of the world in producing electricity from renewable energy and that 18% of the world’s electricity is produced from renewable energy but only 0.4% in Israel.
17 July 2011 – Israel’s cabinet approved a plan to advance the production of energy from renewable resources, seeking 10 percent of electricity production from such methods by 2020. The aim of the plan is to reduce emissions and pollution in the electricity sector. The cabinet set a target of 1,550 megawatts (MW) of electricity from renewable resources by the end of 2014, and 2,760 MW by the end of 2020. Until 2014, quotas will be set allowing for 460 MW from large solar energy systems, 110 MW for systems targeted for self-consumption, 210 MW for production of electricity from biogas and waste, and 800 MW for wind energy. In 2014, the National Infrastructure Ministry will formulate policies to meet targets through 2020.
