Oyl!

Oil is generally known as “black gold,” and finding and keeping that slimy substance has led to murder, fraud, massive political corruption on innumerable occasions… and worst of all, war. Most Americans are not aware that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, not because it was a happy German/Italian ally in search of lebensraum on American soil or because of an anxious fetish over pineapple and Hawaii golf courses and beaches. Because of Japan’s cruel invasion China and other Asian nations, the United States and its allies had cut off Japan’s access to oil, particularly in the relatively nearby oil fields of Indonesia. The Japanese hoped that a quick strike against American interests – hoping to take out the entire U.S. Pacific fleet (but our aircraft carriers were off delivering planes to Alaska!) – would force the United States to open up the oil taps again, and the conflict would end.

We know that the geopolitics of the Middle East is pretty much defined by access to oil, whether the power that oil money buys for those nations with enough of it, or the actually military battles that have peppered the Middle East with instability. Syria and Lebanon have made their oil money as conduits of the pipelines that carry oil to the Levant Coast on the Mediterranean, but recent turmoil in both nations has decimated those capacities. Iraq invaded Kuwait in the first Gulf War (1990/91) looking to restore its treasury from a decade-long war with Iran… by laying claim to some of the richest oil fields in the region. Folks often say that the United States has embroiled itself in Middle Eastern conflicts and supported significantly undemocratic political systems purely because of regional oil. And Iran and Iraq have value to the world by reason of their vast oil reserves, so perhaps our obsession with these lands is driven less by fear of nuclear proliferation and more by down and dirty concerns about the price of oil.

And so we come to the most unusual oil producer in the region, a very recent entrant into this maze of petroleum exploration and production: Israel. For years, oil companies didn’t want to take the risks of exploring for oil in a country surrounded by well-armed and exceptionally hostile neighbors. Further, it was generally believed that while this Holy land could be made to produce crops – even if that required some pretty sophisticated irrigation systems – there were little in the way of natural resources to benefit this tiny nation. Former Prime Minister Golda Meir once quipped, ““Why did Moses lead us to the one place in the Middle East without oil?” That was then.

Fact is, Israel is rich, rich, rich with oil. “[I]n the last three years Israel has discovered one mega-discovery after another. First, it discovered 1.5 billion barrels of oil onshore at Rosh Ha'Ayin, located about 10 miles inland from the Tel Aviv coastline. It was a small but important find that sparked a flurry of exploration activity… Then, a big one followed by another – both are noteworthy, and rare, and are the largest finds anywhere in the last decade. US Geological Survey (USGS) estimates, the entire Leviathan Basin holds 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 700 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas… Expert surveys for the Tamar field conducted by the U.S. petroleum consultants Netherland, Sewell & Associates indicate that the field contains proven reserves of 217 billion cubic meters of gas.

“And then another find. It turns out that Israel has the second-biggest oil shale deposits in the world, outside the US: ‘We estimate that there is the equivalent of 250 billion barrels of oil here. To put that in context, there are proven reserves of 260 billion barrels of oil in Saudi Arabia, says Dr. Harold Vinegar, the former chief scientist of Royal Dutch Shell.’… Let’s do the math. That’s 250 billion in shale oil, 3.2 billion in conventional oil in estimated reserves, or enough oil to match that of Saudi-Arabia. Plus, that’s 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, giving it about 10% of the entire world’s gas reserves -- all while Israel’s exploration activities are just beginning.” OmegaLetter.com

This is a good thing, no? It is indeed a blessing… and a curse. Already, regional conflicts are shimmering in the warm Mediterranean air over offshore discoveries in border regions: “A rapid descent into war is a very real possibility in the Levant unless Israel and Lebanon solve their disputed maritime border issue, and quickly. Weighed down by nearly $50 billion in national debt, Lebanon is eager to claim their share of the Leviathan basin gas and oil discoveries shared with Israel, Syria and Cyprus.

“Disputed maritime borders and the fact that Israel and Lebanon are technically still at war after the 2006 ceasefire agreement, forecast a tricky road ahead for all parties involved. In January [of 2011], the UN rejected Lebanon’s request for assistance in delineating the maritime border as well as preventing Israeli exploration and production (E&P) companies from drilling in would-be Lebanese waters.” Al Arabiya News, June 24, 2011. Oh, Lebanon is controlled by the Hezbollah Party, basically a field operative of the Iranian government. Swell! And what about the enhanced value of invading Israel, not to “push them into the sea,” but simply to take their oil?

To make matters even worse – or better depending on your point of view – there are oil finds in nearby Cyprus, a national already split into Greek and Turkish sectors, which threaten to further destabilize the region as Turkey has now jumped into the fray: “[In May], Turkey, a former strategic ally of Israel and now one of its most strongest critics, warned other major international companies seeking exploration licenses from the Greek Cypriot government, (Israel's new ally), to stay away. Predictably, Israel responded by dispatching military protection to the seas over its oil interests… Turkey has now warned it will stop Israel from unilaterally exploiting gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean and suggests it is prepared to respond with force to make its point.” OmegaLetter.com. And the United States is allied with “all of the above.” Nasty stuff, and perhaps the legendary Armageddon that will end the world as we know will in fact occur… yet another war over oil.

I’m Peter Dekom, and happiness and wealth can sometimes kill you.