54

 

Shfela Basin

Jerusalem, Israel

The sounds of excavation were pleasing to Nicolai Petrov. He’d wondered if this day would ever arrive. Now that it had, the day seemed anticlimactic.

Russia’s future as a world superpower was hanging in the balance. The United States and Israel were about to take a quantum leap into a bold, new energy future. In two short years, the Americans had managed to create leapfrog technology capable of safely extracting oil from vast shale reserves in a way that seemingly did no harm to the environment.

Petrov, for his part, didn’t care at all about the environmental implications of the new technology. Neither he nor his boss, Andrei Rowan, was concerned about whether the extraction process harmed the groundwater supplies. He just wanted the oil and was willing to do whatever it took to either steal the new technology or form a partnership with someone who could deliver it to him.

Which explained why the sounds emanating from the brandnew excavation site at the northwestern corner of Shfela Basin were so pleasing. Petrov glanced off to one side at the shiny sign that had recently been planted on the site, identifying the excavation site as a joint venture between INOC and Kosvo Oil.

“Is everything satisfactory?” the crew foreman asked him.

Petrov lifted his hard hat and beamed at the crew. “It is a glorious day—for Russia and for Israel.”

Petrov had argued, successfully, that they should use the bankrupt, nationalized Russian oil firm for the joint venture in Israel. No one would be the wiser, he’d argued. Rowan, in turn, had made the case to those who cared in Moscow, and the deal had been struck.

Russia now co-owned a significant oil company operating in central Israel. It had cost them a considerable sum of money, but Rowan believed it was worth it. They had no choice but to go into business with Israel—especially now that three of the largest Arab nations were tied up in knots over their own crude oil capabilities.

Petrov knew it bothered Rowan immensely that his back was against the wall and that he’d been forced to deal with Israel. Rowan was still smarting over the fact that the Israeli Defense Forces had been military advisors to the leadership of Georgia in their border war with Russia years earlier.

But Petrov’s boss was a pragmatist and willing to do whatever it took to return Russia to its former greatness. And if giving a great deal of money to Israel so it could co-own a significant, new oil extraction and excavation system near Jerusalem was required, then so be it.

The earthmovers had cleared the path in the past week, making way for the trucks and equipment that could get at the oil shale below. Petrov wasn’t entirely sure how INOC planned to refine the oil once it was pulled up, but frankly, he didn’t care about that.

The Shfela Basin reserves would yield some 250 billion barrels of oil when all was said and done, with much of that going to Russia since it had concluded its agreement with Judah Navon and INOC’s board of directors.

The Russian money was more than enough to assure that Israel could develop both the oil shale reserves as well as the extensive natural gas reserves they’d discovered in the Mediterranean. Israel would soon be energy-independent for the first time in its short history. And Russia was responsible for much of that new capability.

Stalin must surely be turning over in his grave, Petrov thought. But we do what we must, and there is no other way than to be here, in Israel. The times demand it.

Rowan, however, had been unsuccessful in convincing the Israeli prime minister to block the Americans’ efforts in the Negev. No matter. Russia had what it needed here in the basin. The Americans could have the Negev desert and its massive oil-refining facility near Beersheba.

Someday, perhaps, Russia and America would come to blows over their competing interests in the Shfela Basin. But not on this day. Petrov was just happy to see the beginning of the new Russian-Israeli partnership.