Energy Security for Israel

= Foreign Energy Dependency in Israel =

Until the 1999 discovery of hydrocarbon resources (NB link corrected by Lucy as example)just off the coast, Israel had been almost entirely dependent on foreign energy since its founding. In 2011, Israel imported 98% as rule, we write out 'percent')of its oil needs and 57% of its natural gas for consumption. Since Israel has no diplomatic relations (as of 2012?)with the majority of the petrol exporting countries in the Arab world, it has historically struggled to secure steady flows of oil and natural gas. Over the past 25 years, significant fuel imports have come from Angola, Colombia, Mexico, Egypt, and Norway and most recently, Russia and the former Soviet bloc states. Be careful here with time signals... between what period exactly? Always imagine that you are reading this text mid-2013 and it should still make sense! Currently, again, careful with words like 'currently'natural gas accounts for a relatively small portion of its energy mix at 11%. Oil accounts for almost half of Israel’s primary energy consumption, and coal is 35%.

try throwing in a few more internal links to relevant articles eg. natural gas (done above), energy mix....

= History of Israeli Energy Sources =

Israel has shifted among sources (of energy)depending on the regional political atmosphere of the time. During Shah Pahlavi’s rule, Israel received the bulk of it’s itsoil from Iran via the Tapline Oil Pipeline which began operations in 1968. This relationship was quickly put to a halt after the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979, forcing Israel to look elsewhere. For the purpose of energy security, Israel agreed to return control of the Sinai peninsula to Egypt the which it had acquired during the six day war in a treaty that stipulated “Israel shall be fully entitled to make bids for Egyptian-origin oil not needed for Egyptian domestic oil consumption." In another treaty of the same year, the U.S. government promised to supply Israel with oil in the event that Israel is unable to secure its needs in times of crisis. Recently, ("more recently"? be careful with time-sensitivity so that document still makes sense in a couple years time...)a deal struck between Israel and Egypt in 2005 that guaranteed that Israel could buy Egyptian natural gas below the market price via an underseas pipeline that delivers the gas to Southern Israeli coastal city Ashkelon. However, this deal was recently again, careful with "recently" as this is not a dated document but a living oneterminated due to a payment dispute between the two countries. This is significant because before the disruptions, Egypt was said to have provided Israel’s electric utility with 40 percent of its natural gas, which makes up about a third of its total fuel. This cozy relationship was very unpopular among Egyptians, however. Since the ouster of Mubarak in 2011, the pipeline has been attacked at least 15 times (careful / 'between ouster and July 2012" for e.g. depending on date of source, ultimately leading to the abandonment of the deal. careful here with projecting uncited opinions onto the voice... no mention of word "cozy" in source as I can see - with that sort of subjective statement it must be backed up by source according to wiki guidelines and should probably be introduced with "according to (name of journalist/academic/whoever....

Maybe paragraphs of this length could be split into paras - ok to split into paras within sections

= Natural Gas and the Future of Energy Security =

Natural gas is the fastest growing source of energy in Israel. In 2003, approximately 33% of electricity was generated by natural gas and approximately 64% by coal. A UBS report estimates that as soon as 2013, 46% of electricity production will be coal-based and 48% will be natural gas-based; and that by 2020, 80% of Israel’s electricity production will come from natural gas. In 2010, Israel consumed 5.3 BCM of natural gas, of which 90% went to electricity generation. Yam Thetis, the consortium composed of the Delek Group, through its subsidiaries Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration, Isramco Negev 2, Dor Gas Exploration and US oil operator Noble Energy Inc. supplied approximately 60% of Israel's natural gas consumption needs, with the remainder supplied by Egypt's Eastern Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG). In 2010, 40% of electricity in Israel was generated from natural gas, leading to savings of 1.4 billion dollars for the economy. By 2015, the rate of natural gas consumption is expected to rise to 50% as the new fields come online.

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