(They’re not huge.)
Discussion
(1 trillion cubic feet) It was enough to provide all the power Gaza needed plus opportunity for export. So compared to the US reserves (about 700 trillion cubic feet), you're right.
For the Gazans, though, it was huge. It could have meant energy independence for some time. It was big enough for Israel to block its extraction.
1 TCF is not very big at all. The US has a lot more than 700 TCF. Also the Mediterranean gas is offshore and so expensive to develop and it is biogenic so it is completely dry methane (no NGLs which are usually valuable). Natural gas resources are not a part of this conflict.
Israel is pumping enough natural gas out of the Med to supply itself and Jordan. If it wasn't a factor why was Israel preventing Gaza from extracting it?
To keep the Palestinians from having contractual legitimacy with a global contractor.
It was more than contractual legitimacy. Israel wanted them dependent.
Nah … Gaza can’t afford the price of natural gas to pay for the cost of developing the resource and building a power plant to turn it into electricity.
I’m pretty familiar with this.
That's what the IMF literally does. It funds power plant projects around the world that countries can't afford.
Dude. Stop.
This was never about Oct 7. That was the excuse. So, no. I don't think I will. This has been about driving out the Palestinians since 1948 and claiming the land.
You can say whatever…the natural gas story isn’t really relevant other than it’s Israel bullying Gaza from having claim to a crummy asset with no clear way to monetize.
It was virtually the only asset Gaza had, and given that Israel is monetizing its Med reserves (of roughly the same size), it's difficult to buy that it will never be extracted.