Israel Antitrust Authority Director-General Professor David Gilo referred to the entry of Delek and Noble Energy to the Leviathan reservoir, and to the options available to the antitrust authority in its effort to create competition in the natural gas market in Israel: “The goal is that in the near future, the market would enjoy competition and avoid being at the mercy of a monopoly. In our discussions with Delek and Noble, we demanded that competition in the near future be established via an independent player with at least 70 BCM, with prospects of finding an additional amount of gas amounting to 26.6 BCM.”

Professor David Gilo clarified that, if Delek and Noble do not meet the conditions required for effective competition, action will be taken against them in court for their removal from Leviathan. Such action would be necessary to achieve at least some degree of competition in the long run, after litigation over the issue, that could take five to six years, is resolved.

Within this context, the Director General stated that “Parallel to this initiative, we have built the foundations in advance in order to prepare the market for the emergence of such a new competitor in the near future. We have limited the contracts between the existing gas partnership and its customers so that all customers in the Israeli economy, including the Electric Company, would be able to enjoy competition between the incumbent partnerships and the new player. Our vision involves a combination between creating a substantial competitor in the short term on the one hand and opening existing gas contracts for such competition on the other.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)