Separating what is obviously IDT hype from reality...
An old joke has Moses making a wrong turn after leaving Egypt and leading the Israelites to the only land in the Middle East without oil. Over 400 wells have been dug in Israel over the past six decades with little success, some by wildcatters claiming divine guidance from scripture and rabbinical advisers.
Here's more info on the IDT/IEI project...
By yearend, IEI plans to start a small pilot project in Adullam to show how the conversion from kerogen to oil works on-site. That prospect has alarmed environmentalists, who argue that IEI risks contaminating Israel's main aquifer. Adam Teva V'Din, head of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, has petitioned the High Court of Justice to halt the pilot, arguing the government wrongly granted IEI a permit under a 1952 petroleum law that does not apply to unconventional extraction methods.
Concerns about aquifer contamination have dogged other shale oil efforts, including an IDT project in Colorado. Vinegar says contamination is not an issue in Israel because an impermeable, 200-meter-thick rock layer separates the Adullam oil shale deposits from the aquifer. Israel's National Infrastructures Ministry says IEI has a license solely for the pilot project, and commercial development will proceed only after the environmental impact has been evaluated.
These reassurances don't satisfy all the residents of the Adullam region's grape-growing Elah Valley, which is marketed as Israel's answer to California's Napa Valley. On Apr. 22 a protest took place in an archeological park amid 2,000-year-old ruins. It featured children playing in a pool of "oil" simulated by black plastic tarpaulins. "They are planning an experimental, hazardous, and dirty oil industry," says Orit Skutelsky, an ecologist with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. "Israel is not the place for this kind of industry, especially this part of it."
If the pilot project is allowed to proceed this year, says IDT's Jonas, oil could be produced as early as 2017. Shale oil expert Jeremy Boak at the Colorado School of Mines believes the project "is something they can achieve and make profitable at the kind of oil prices we have right now." Boak also says that since the technique releases natural gas as a byproduct, the gas can be used to heat the rods and keep costs down.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_24/b4232017039815.htm
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