A forum of top Israeli ministers will meet on Thursday to try to break up a regulatory logjam stalling the development of Israel’s biggest natural gas field, Bloomberg said June 25.

Disputes over ownership and pricing have held up the production of gas from the offshore Leviathan gas field, controlled primarily by Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. and Israel’s Delek Group Ltd. An inner cabinet of ministers with security responsibilities will to be asked to declare gas resources a national security issue, overriding the country’s antitrust authority to push ahead a contested gas policy.

Israel’s failure to draft a coherent gas strategy six years after it discovered large offshore reserves has held up development, complicated export deals and antagonized investors. Critics of the emerging policy -- including antitrust commissioner David Gilo who resigned in protest -- say it will entrench a gas monopoly.

The proposed plan would require Delek and Noble to sell stakes in smaller offshore fields while allowing them to maintain their hold in Leviathan, Finance Ministry budget director Amir Levi told Israel Radio on Thursday. It also would cap prices for sales to the local market until competition is in place, Levi said.

“I believe this is the dismantling of a monopoly -- not believe, I know it is -- though it’s true this is a process that will take time,” he said. “But we are creating a market here, and if we create a good enough environment, more companies will come to look for gas.”

Pricing Disputes

The government says the two large fields discovered in the past six years, Leviathan and Tamar, can supply the country’s energy needs for decades, with leftover for export. Until regulatory issues are resolved, expansion of Tamar and development of Leviathan has been suspended.

Opposition lawmakers and civic groups want the proposed policy revised to lower prices to the domestic market. “The course that’s shaping up doesn’t bring a single benefit -- not a single one -- to the public,” lawmaker Shelly Yachimovich from the opposition Labor party told Army Radio.

Earlier this week, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel petitioned the High Court of Justice to block the policy moves.

The regulatory uncertainty has thrown into limbo gas export agreements with Egypt and Jordan, the two Arab countries with which Israel has peace treaties. Failure to advance these agreements would hurt Israeli strategically, according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record.

Netanyahu’s Determined

After the ministers meet on Thursday, the plan will be put before the public at a hearing and then sent to the full cabinet for a vote next month, the official said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the government is “determined to extract the gas” and would work to balance the needs of the economy and Israel’s citizens with investors’ needs.

National Economic Council chief Eugene Kandel, who steered the drafting of the policy, called it a “win-win” proposition earlier this week and urged the swift development of the country’s gas fields to ensure supply at “reasonable” prices and additional investment.