An expanded panel of at least five justices will consider the petitions to the High Court of Justice challenging the legality of the government’s gas framework agreement, the court announced Tuesday.
The framework gives monopoly control of the country’s major offshore natural gas exploration sites, Tamar and Leviathan, to a consortium led by Houston-based Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek group, subject to certain limitations, in an effort to pave the way for their development.
The court’s initial hearing on the matter has been scheduled for February 3 before three justices, Elyakim Rubinstein, Uzi Vogelman and Noam Sohlberg.
As it stands now, the court has four separate petitions pending by three public policy groups as well as the Meretz party. A fifth petition is expected from the Zionist Union party as well. The Tamar exploration site is already in production, but development of the much larger Leviathan site has stalled amid the regulatory uncertainly pertaining to the project. (Avi Bar-Eli)
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