Don’t Expect Gas Companies to Pause Business on Gaza’s Behalf | The New Republic

by Kate Aronoff

Source: Don’t Expect Gas Companies to Pause Business on Gaza’s Behalf | The New Republic

…Asked on an earnings call with analysts last month about whether the war in Israel-Palestine would alter Chevron’s ambitious plans for the eastern Mediterranean, CEO Mike Wirth was clear. “It doesn’t change our view on the development opportunities really at all,” he said. “This is a long-term play. It’s a very, very large gas resource.” The biggest prize there is the much-larger Leviathan gas field, further north, where operations have continued without interruption. Having generated a whopping $2.5 billion in revenue last year, Leviathan is also expected to produce an estimated 1.1 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide over the course of its life cycle. That makes it one of just 425 projects worldwide designated as “carbon bombs” that “significantly threaten the Paris Agreement climate targets.”

…BP, while ever eager to boast about its alleged climate credentials, also wants in on the action at Leviathan. Last March, the company made a $2 billion joint bid with ADNOC—Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil company, run by this year’s U.N. climate change conference president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber—to buy up a 50 percent stake in the Israeli firm NewMed, which owns a 45 percent stake in Leviathan. BP confirmed over the last month that it remains committed to that deal, according to Bloomberg.