War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza's Offshore Gas Fields

The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves.

This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline.

British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon's Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority.

The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21, 2007). The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline.(Middle East Economic Digest, Jan 5, 2001).

The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. (See Map below). It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine.

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£1million Pay Rise On The Way Or Boss Of British Gas As 16 Million Of Their Customers Face Huge Bill Rises

'The boss of British Gas's parent firm could see his pay soar by £1million this year as millions face huge bill rises.
Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, is expected to get a seven-figure increase in his pay, bonus and shares package.
The rise will be a blow for 16million British Gas customers who face a 35 per cent rise in charges.
He is one of several executives at the firm who could see earnings rocket, including British Gas managing director Philip Bentley.
Mr Laidlaw's total package is likely to top £2.8million, more than £1million ahead of last year.
In theory, he could earn £4.8million if Centrica hits profit and performance targets.
It made a profit of almost £1billion in the first half of this year and is likely to increase this in the second six months'

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If All British Gas Customers switched suppliers in protest they would soon climb down !!!

This is totally obcene!