In accordance with the National Infrastructures Ministry policy of ensuring regular supply of energy to Israel, oil rights have recently been granted in addition to previous rights – practically covering the entire division of Israel's economic waters for oil and gas exploration purposes.

National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin (Fouad) Ben-Eliezer recently approved sea and land oil and gas exploration permits and licenses for ten different companies. In total, various types of rights have been granted at 12 sites, at sea and on land. The National Infrastructures Minister thus adopted the decision of the Petroleum Council, which convened last week to discuss 19 different applications.

Among the companies granted licenses are Israeli and international ones, which presented the Petroleum Council with oil and gas exploration models and their economic abilities and professional experience. All the companies are reputable and have plenty of professional experience in the field of exploration in Israel and the world.

According to the Petroleum Law, there are three possible rights in Israel:

Preliminary Permit – A right to collect and reprocess existing data and to define drilling targets at specific sites. This right is granted for a maximum period of 18 months.

License – A right to plan and execute a drilling at a specific target. The license is granted for a maximum period of 7 years, subject to the execution of a detailed work plan.

If the drilling turns up positive findings, and petroleum or gas may be commercially produced, a certificate of discovery is awarded and the entrepreneur is entitled to a holding; the latter is granted for a period of up to 50 years subject to a reasonable production rate.

A year ago the Ministry of National Infrastructures "reopened the sea" to oil and natural gas explorations with National Infrastructures Minister Ben-Eliezer's signing of an order allowing the opening of the sea to oil explorations. The new order signed cancels the previous one from June 2000, which "closed the sea" to oil explorations. Closure of the sea stemmed, at the time, from the National Infrastructures Ministry's need to examine the possibility of amending the Petroleum Law, which was slated to increase royalties to the state following natural gas discoveries offshore at Ashkelon and Gaza in 1999-2000. Several drillings have since been performed at sea at a major investment, but have not yielded new discoveries, which is why it was decided that there is no justification to increase royalties.

The signing of the recent permits by Minister Ben-Eliezer effectively completes the division of most of Israel's economic waters.

Various Israeli and foreign entrepreneurs have recently begun to express an interest in investment in oil explorations in the State of Israel's waters. In a move slated to encourage potential investors, the Ministry of National Infrastructures, through the Geophysical Institute and the Geological Institute, has begun to process seismic material that makes it possible to decipher a subterranean structure, leading to the defining of geological structures likely to constitute reservoirs worthy of drilling activity. A report produced by the research institutes has recently been published.

Such moves have been fruitful, and from among the many applications filed, licenses have been issued to 10 selected companies.

According to National Infrastructures Minister Ben-Eliezer, "A secure energy supply is one of the ministry's central goals. Expanding and diversifying natural gas and oil sources is an inseparable part of that goal. The State of Israel, which is not rich in natural resources, relies on external supply sources, which is why I am hopeful that the companies granted exploration licenses will succeed in their task and contribute to expanding current energy sources."