• by Ido Liven (tel aviv)
• Monday, March 16, 2009
• Inter Press Service

A group of Israeli environmentalists is campaigning to prevent oil exploration inside a nature reserve by the Dead Sea.

Tzuk Tamrur 4, named after the nearby promontory, is expected to be the fourth attempt in the area to dig for oil. A number of other attempts have so far failed to discover crude oil, or yielded limited amounts.

This time the group of companies carrying out the exploration is confident it will find oil. Rami Kremien, managing director of Ginko Oil Exploration, who is leading the exploration partnership, says up to 6.5 million oil barrels lie two kilometres beneath the ground.

One of his partners, however, was quoted last October by the Israeli travel magazine Masa Acher as saying that the estimate is significantly lower.

The first experimental drilling requires a 5,000 square metres site, just a kilometre from the nature reserve's southern boundary. The reserve is spread across 592 square kilometres.

'The expected limited yield of the drilling doesn't justify the endorsement for a severe and permanent harm to the wildlife, plants, landscape and the enjoyment of those hiking within the designated nature reserve,' the Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI), a nationwide NGO said in a public announcement.

Construction of the drilling facility was approved by the Nature and Parks Authority in the late 1990s. It was only a few years later, in 2003, that the Judean Desert was formally designated as a nature reserve, including the plot of land of the planned drilling site.

In June 2007, the Authority reversed the decision, arguing that the oil pumping facility could harm the natural assets on the site. The scientific committee of the Authority's assembly wrote in June 2008 that 'the oil drilling and production might harm populations of rare species and prompt invasive species. In the long run, this impact might cause the detachment of populations of desert species - for which the Judean Desert is a world dispersal boundary - from their main populations in the Negev.' The border between the Judean Desert on the northern side and the Negev desert region stretches roughly from the southern tip of the Dead Sea westwards to Hebron.

But the assembly decided later to allow the drilling facility after all, with a number of restrictions, and stipulating that in case the project moves into a production phase – that would last a few years - the entrepreneurs would have to go for diagonal drilling, in which the pumping rig is stationed outside the nature reserve.

Drilling personnel are working with the Nature and Parks Authority to minimise any environmental impact during two months of test drilling expected to begin in May. Should considerable oil be discovered, the size of the pumping site will be reduced to a tenth of the initial experimental drilling site, says Kremien.

'Obviously, there is damage,' he told IPS. 'But there's the trade-off of a minimal and monitored damage - also according to environmentalists and experts - and the need for discovering oil. After all, even the most enthusiastic environmentalists drive polluting petroleum-fuelled cars.'

The environmentalists are concerned over the principle of allowing development within the fragile nature reserve. Apparently, such drilling has no precedence. 'My impression is that the whole issue of this drilling is only meant for increasing stock exchange profits,' says Shay Tachnai, SPNI's south district nature conversation coordinator. 'The chances of discovering oil in this place are small, at least judging by past prospects in the area.'

'Each individual case should be examined in a pertinent way,' says Gilad Gabay, vice-manager of the south district at the Nature and Parks Authority. In this particular case, he says 'it's clear that the environmental impact will be harsh. First, scenic damage, second ecological damage, and third, marginal impact in an area that is completely undisturbed.'

Nevertheless, says Gabay, 'we have to find the golden mean - to do it in a rational way, to minimise impact.'

Israel has always been dependent on imported crude oil. Even if Tzuk Tamrur 4 meets its optimistic expectations, with a national consumption of more than 220,000 barrels a day, the contribution of the planned drilling would probably be rather modest.

The Ministry for National Infrastructure offered no comment.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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