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Utilities official: Consumers will pay up to NIS 3b too much for electricity
Israeli consumers will be spending between NIS 2.5 billion and NIS 3 billion too much for electricity, a Public Utilities Authority representative told the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee yesterday. This is the difference in price between an original agreement in principle and the final contract signed between the Israel Electric Corporation and the partners in the Tamar offshore natural gas field. Only if the price of oil reaches $150 a barrel will the price paid to the Tamar partners equal the original terms, but if the price of oil falls below $100 a barrel, the IEC – and the Israeli consumer – will be paying even more of a difference. Under the new contract the price of gas is linked to the price of oil, as opposed to the original contract agreed to in December 2009. (Avi Bar-Eli )
Cellcom launches new deal in bid to tackle low-price competitors
Cellcom is trying a new tactic to keep customers, as competition with new low-price cell-phone operators heats up. Cellcom is offering a NIS 349 a month plan that includes three cellular lines, a home Internet connection, a landline phone and overseas calls. The plan, called Cellcom Total, starts today. All calls are included in the price, as is one gigabyte of cellular Internet for each cell phone. The home Internet connection will be 10 megabits. Multimedia messages will cost extra. To put the new package into context, until now Cellcom charged customers NIS 399 a month for a family package – which included just calls and text messages for three cell phones. (Ruti Levy and Amitai Ziv )
IEC may join project to renew Cyprus power plants
The Israel Electric Corporation is interested in expanding beyond the borders of Israel, despite the fact that its own local expansion plans are stuck. The IEC is examining the possibility of joining its Cypriot counterpart in a joint project to replace existing power stations on the island with new natural gas-fired generating plants. Cyprus suffers from electricity shortages and outages. Its old power plants run mostly on diesel fuel and heavy fuel oil. Some of the units were damaged a year ago when an ammunitions dump holding seized Iranian arms blew up next to a major power station. Cyprus now wants to refurbish its entire power-production capacity of some 1,200-1,500 megawatts. The IEC wants to join the project at the stage of negotiations between the two countries and without a tender. (Avi Bar-Eli )
Paz refinery to be shut for two months for maintenance
Paz Oil will conduct planned maintenance at its 95,000 barrels-per-day Ashdod refinery for two months starting in August, during which time the refinery will be completely shut. This type of maintenance occurs regularly every four years, according to a company spokesperson. The crude distillation units are expected to stop operating on August 12 and resume in mid-October, said a source familiar with the matter. Ashdod refinery is the smaller of Israel’s two refineries. Israeli Oil Refineries, which is controlled by The Israel Corporation, owns the larger Haifa refinery, with a capacity of 196,000 barrels per day. (Reuters )
