Israeli gas rigs supply to be cut off in war with Hezbollah: Official

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli media
16 Jul 2024 21:12
2 Shares

The Chairman of the Israeli electricity management company says authorities will call a "plumber" if Hezbollah attacks and destroys crucial gas rigs and reservoirs.

Listen

Israeli occupation gas rigs operate on the Tamar natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of occupied Palestine, on September 2, 2015 (AP)

The Israel Electrical Company (IEC) will begin a drill simulating power outages caused by attacks from the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah.

These drills are expected to last for nearly a week and a half and will include exercises to restore power to the grid, repair damage to power generation sites, handle hazardous materials incidents, aerial drills, and more.

The Israeli occupation's gas rigs in the Mediterranean are expected to be primary targets of the Resistance's aerial and rocket attacks, in case the occupation encroaches on a wide-scale aggression on Lebanon. The possibility could be directly linked to a video released by Hezbollah, which included coordinates of future targets located near the occupied Palestinian coastline.

Striking such rigs would cut off the Israeli occupation's main source of energy, as about 70% of its electrical power stations use natural gas to produce an output.

"Gas rigs are sensitive, and when a rig is active, it can turn into a ticking bomb," said Sami Turgeman, Chairman of Noga, the Israeli Independent Power Management company.

"If a precise missile hits it, we will certainly lose the rig and possibly the gas reservoir as well. Therefore, the immediate action taken by the Israeli government would be to stop gas production and empty the rigs, rendering the pipeline irrelevant," Turgeman explained.

"If a missile hits the pipeline? We can call a plumber," he said satirically, indicating the gravity of such a scenario.

The Israeli occupation will most likely depend on alternative energy supplies in the scenario of an all-out war, restricting its consumption purely to diesel imports.

However, the Israeli Ministry of Energy did not reveal specific details regarding the quantities of various reserves, due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The Israeli Ynet news website explained that "almost everyone agrees in a state of war, there be malfunction and disruption in the electricity supply."

Israeli media outlets also report that the IEC will be unable to fix electrical malfunctions if the "danger is too great."

According to Turgeman Israeli authorities are still preparing to fix severe power outages in the occupied territories.