Energy security is one of the biggest components in the national security of any nation. This can only be achieved in case a country could manage to be fully reliant on the natural resources at home. This should be without any significant dependency on external providers.
One of the major considerations in a government policy formulation is to ensure energy security, at a national level. The characteristics of the Israeli economy are quite unique. Hence, all of these unique characteristics must be kept under view during the formulation of any government policy.
Israel has always remained an energy Island. Israel, at the same time, does not possess a very broad regional network. Moreover, it does not have any connection with cross-border systems for energy transportation.
In comparison, there are plenty of intricate networks of pipelines for the transportation of oil and gas in the United States and Europe. As a result of this, it is important for Israel to be able to rely on its own resources fully. Either Israel could make use of the local energy resources, or it could import these energy solutions at very high costs. In this case, import could result in political, security, and economic dependency on other nations.
Since many years, Israel had no choice but to import expensive raw materials from other regions. Vast amounts of fuels and coals were purchased that were then used for electricity generation. Apart from the high costs, Israel also had to pay the price of air pollution that was a direct result of combustion. The combustion of a number of polluting fuels and coal, in this case, was quite harmful to the region.
However, the natural gas revolution led by the Israeli conglomerate Delek Drilling, has set Israel on the road to energy security.
The production of natural gas began at the Tamar gas field in the month of March, in 2013. It happened to be one of the most challenging and costly projects that were undertaken in Israel.
Today, the Tamar gas field is a major source of production of natural gas in the region. However, due to a number. Of regulatory limitations, the Tamar Partners could not connect the Tamar reservoir to the onshore terminal that is situated to the North of Israel. Instead of that, a 150 kilometers long system of transportation was built.
It is expected that by the end of the year 2019, the Leviathan gas field will fully be developed. As a result of this, a lot of. Redundancy will be achieved, resulting in better energy security. At the same time, government run companies are working on building systems that will connect extra reservoirs of gas to transmission systems. This includes the Tanin reservoirs and Karish reservoirs. So indeed, the future of Israel in terms of energy security is quite bright.