Why Is Israel Spending $500m to Protect Gas Facilities Close to Home? - HAARETZ

Aug 02, 2018 6:04 AM
Hagai Amit
The navy is ordering ships designed to protect drilling platforms far from the coast, even though they will be just 10 kilometers from the shore

The debate under way over how far offshore the natural gas production platforms should be located raises another question about why Israel’s navy is spending 430 million euros ($502 million) to buy four corvettes from Germany.

If plans to locate the facility 10 kilometers from Israel’s coast go ahead as planned, despite protests of residents near Dor Beach concerned about the environmental impact, the Israel Navy will be equipped with a fleet of expensive firepower completely disproportionate to the threats it will face.

The platform, which is being built in Texas and is due to arrive in about six months, will service the giant Leviathan field when it goes into production.

Israel navy drills attack on offshore gas rigs - THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

6 June 2018, 1:34 pm

The Israeli Navy successfully completed a complex exercise last week led by its missile boats flotilla, the military announced Wednesday.

The drill included two major attack and defense scenarios at sea.

In the first scenario, an aircraft simulated a missile threat against an Israeli gas rig. The threat was detected on board a Sa’ar 4.5 missile boat, and was shot down by an interceptor missile launched from the ship.

The navy noted that the ship was recently fitted with state-of-the art detection and observation systems, including the new Fire Sickle radar system which officials said significantly improves vessels’ tracking capabilities.

Last week’s drill was the first live test of the ship in its new configuration.

In the second scenario, a seaborne target simulating an enemy ship was struck by two cruise missiles launched by the ships INS Lahav and INS Kidon. The target was successfully hit and destroyed.

Israel Navy gearing up for its latest mission – protecting Mediterranean gas rigs - HAARETZ

March 09, 2017
Gili Cohen 

It will take two and half years for custom-designed missile boats being built in Germany to arrive. Until then, the navy is not resting on its laurels regarding this strategic economic asset.

For the sailors serving on the Israel Navy’s missile corvettes, the latest revelations concerning the bid for purchasing drilling rig-protecting boats, associated with the procurement of new submarines, have brought about a surprising turn of events. The combat mission of these seamen, which usually remains secretive and submerged, has become an open topic of conversation.

Israel The Maritime Power: A Noble Vision, But Is It Feasible? – Analysis - EURASIA REVIEW

JANUARY 4, 2017

Traditionally, Israel has relied primarily on its ground and air forces to meet national security needs. Now it must also bolster its naval forces — this is what ten prominent US and Israeli experts argue in a joint University of Haifa and Hudson Institute report released earlier this year.

The US Navy — the guarantor of free trade — has significantly shrunk its permanent presence in the Mediterranean since the end of the Cold War. As the report notes, “[t]he Sixth Fleet’s permanent naval presence is now a single command ship in Italy and four Aegis destroyers equipped for ballistic missile defense, all based in Rota, Spain, just outside the Mediterranean.”

According to the report, Israel must therefore strive to take on the regional naval policing job and seek even greater cooperation with the US Navy. In other words it must play the role of deputy sheriff in a similar manner to the United Kingdom and Australia.

Turkish Stream crosses choppy waters - NATURAL GAS WORLD

December 29th, 2016, 8:30am
John Roberts

In the second half of 2017, the world’s most modern pipe-laying barge will lay the first string of the Turkish Stream pipeline across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey.

Despite all the vicissitudes of recent Russian-Turkish relations, including the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov December 19, the two nations remain committed to laying at least one 15.75bn m³/yr pipe between Russia’s offloading terminal near Anapa and a landing site at Kiyikoy, on the Black Sea coast of Turkish Thrace.

But there is still a lot that remains uncertain. These mainly concern the question of a second string – in effect another 15.75bn m³/yr pipeline running roughly parallel to the first; the question of a connection to the Turkish-Greek border; the issue of who would be served by a second string; and the possibility of foreign partnership in the offshore component of the new system.

Offshore gas platforms vulnerable to attack | Globes

Offshore gas platforms vulnerable to attack

12/03/2014, 18:29

Yuval Azulai

State Comptroller: Red tape means the IDF can only provide partial protection.

Israel's offshore natural gas facilities in the Mediterranean are inadequately protected and vulnerable to attacks by hostile countries and terrorist organizations, says State Comptroller Joseph Shapira in a report on the Ministry of Defense. He found that delays in decision-making by the National Security Council, the Ministry of Defense, and the IDF have left the platforms only partly protected, despite the acknowledgement of their huge economic potential.

Shapira warned that an attack on gas facilities is liable to have significant economic and strategic consequences to Israel, and even deters foreign companies from operating in the country, greatly disrupting life in Israel.

"The reality in which Israel's economy and international standing are improving in the gas production industry, and the economy's growing dependence on the gas supply, make the gas facilities targets of attacks by hostile countries and terrorist organizations," warns Shapira. "Hezbollah has made explicit threats to attack Israel's gas platforms. Threats against the Tamar production platform and the Yam Tethys platform which contain combustible gas and complex machinery, which are close to the Gaza Strip and not far from shore, are diverse and should be prepared for."

Staff work on a defense plan for the gas facilities by the National Security Council, the Ministry of Defense, the Israel Navy, and others is characterized by foot-dragging, says Shapira. National Security Council began its staff work on the subject in late 2010 and submitted proposals to the security cabinet in April 2013. The plan includes protecting Israel's exclusive economic zone, timetables for the procurement of equipment, and the necessary budgets. The security cabinet only discussed the matter in September 2013, and gave the IDF the mission two months later.

Shapira says that the IDF lacks the means to adequately defend the facilities. He says that even as the staff work dragged on, the IDF tried to move forward. In October 2012, then-Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Yair Naveh warned then National Security Council chairman Yaakov Amidror, "We're entering the Israel project on the back foot."

The gas facilities are protected by private security companies which mostly use veterans of combat units. Shapira found that the platforms have not yet been declared "critical enterprises" during an emergency, which means that the security guards are liable to be called up for reserve IDF duty, even though threats to the facilities will be heightened during an emergency.

The Ministry of the Economy is responsible for classifying "critical enterprises", but it told Shapira that the Ministry of National Infrastructures has not requested the designation. The Prime Minister's Office told Shapira that the IDF is responsible for protecting the facilities, and that it will use its discretion whether to call up the facilities' security guards during an emergency. "This decision should not be put at the IDF's door, because it is not responsible for the facilities' security," said Shapira.

The Ministry of Defense said, "When the government decision was made, the ministry acted to execute the procurement of ships for the navy and other equipment under a very short timetable."

The IDF spokesman said, "As part of the staff work, the cabinet was shown a defense concept and plan to carry out this mission. The designated system will include field ships, ships for routine operations, and unmanned vessels, intelligence gathering, and more. Pursuant to the cabinet decision, the Navy is carrying out its mission using the means available and carries out patrols in the defense space defined for it."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 12, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014



Link to source: http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-offshore-gas-platforms-vulnerable-to-attack-1000923993