Genie Energy

Genie Energy
Public
Traded as NYSE: GNE
Industry Oil and gas industry
Electricity
Headquarters Newark, New Jersey, United States
Key people
 Howard Jonas (Founder, Chairman and CEO)
Avi Goldin (CFO)
Geoff Rochwarger (Vice Chairman)
Subsidiaries Genie Retail Energy
Genie Oil and Gas
Website www.genie.com

Genie Energy Ltd. is an American energy company headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. It is a holding company comprising Genie Retail Energy, a retail energy provider in the United States, and Genie Oil and Gas, which develops conventional oil and oil shale projects in the United States, Mongolia, Israel and in the occupied Golan Heights.

Genie was part of IDT Corporation but was spun off on October 31, 2011, at which point Class B common stock of Genie Energy Ltd. began trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "GNE". [1]

Genie's founder, chairman, controlling shareholder and CEO is Howard Jonas. Avi Goldin serves as the company's CFO and Geoffrey Rochwarger serves as Vice Chairman. The president of its Israeli subsidiary is Effie Eitam. Genie Energy's Strategic advisory board is composed of: Dick Cheney (former vice president of the United States), Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, Rupert Murdoch (media mogul and chairman of News Corp), James Woolsey (former CIA director), Larry Summers (former head of the US Treasury), and Bill Richardson, an ex-ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary.[2]

Genie Retail Energy

IDT Energy, founded in New York State in 2004, is a deregulated energy provider, or retail energy provider (REP), that resells electricity and natural gas to residential and small business customers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Maryland and Washington, DC [3] Like other REP's IDT Energy competes against incumbent electric and gas utilities as well as over 100 other REPs.[4] Unlike many of its competitors, nearly all of IDT's customers are on variable rate plans (rather than long term fixed price contracts) and can change supplier at any time.[5]

Genie Oil and Gas

Genie Oil and Gas (GOGAS) explore conventional oil in the Golan Heights through Afek Oil and Gas, and is or has been involved in the oil shale projects through American Shale Oil (AMSO), Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI) and Genie Energy Mongolia. 89% of GOGAS is owned by Genie Energy while Jacob Rothschild, Michael Steinhardt and Rupert Murdoch among others hold minority interests.[6][7][8]

Afek Oil and Gas

In February 2013, Israeli authorities awarded Afek Oil and Gas an exclusive 36-month petroleum exploration license to a 153-square-mile (400 km2) plot in the Golan Heights, which the UN regognizes to be Syrian territory.[9][10][11][12] Afek subsequently conducted above-ground geophysical tests and based on its preliminary analysis, has applied for a ten well exploratory drilling program.[13] South of Katzrin in the southern Golan Heights in 2015, Afek discovered a substantial amount of oil and natural gas reserves that could make Israel energy self-sufficient.[14][15][16] The company drilled three exploratory wells: in May, Ness-5, just northwest of the Avnei Eitan and Nov moshavim and south of Kibbutz Natur and the town of Katzrin; in July, Ness-3, near the Bnei Yehuda industrial area; and, in September, Ness-6, located near the entrance of Moshav Kanaf, just southeast of Gamla.[17] As of October 2015, an estimate of the volume of resources and to what extent they may be extractable is unknown.[18]

Human rights groups have said the drilling violates international law as Golan Heights is an occupied territory.[19]

American Shale Oil

Main article: American Shale Oil

American Shale Oil (AMSO) is a joint venture between Genie Energy and Total S.A..[20] AMSO received in 2006 a Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) lease from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Colorado's Piceance Basin.[21] The lease comprises a tract of 160 acres (65 ha), as well as a preferential right to a contiguous area of 4,960 acres (2,010 ha). The lease grants an initial term of 10 years and the possibility of up to a 5-year extension upon proof of diligent progress toward commercial production. RD&D lessees may apply to convert the leases plus the contiguous area to a 20-year commercial lease once commercial production levels have been achieved and additional requirements are met.[22] AMSO had no operations and accrued no expenses for the first half of 2014.[23] AMSO's tech team is headed by Dr. Alan Burnham, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.[24] AMSO's proposed technology is called CCR (Conduction, Convection, Reflux).[21]

Israel Energy Initiatives

Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI) was founded in 2008 to develop oil shale in Israel. In July 2011, the company received a one-year extension of a three-year license to explore oil shale resources on 238 square kilometres (92 sq mi) in Israel's Shefela region.[25] In September 2014, a government planning committee rejected a building permit for the project. The committee decision essentially killed the project, as IEI did not pursue any means of appeal.[26] By the time of the committee ruling most of the staff of IEI, including Chief Scientist Harold Vinegar, had moved to work at the sister company, Afek.

IEI planned to use In-Situ Conversion Process technology for its pilot project, following the format a 1995 trial by Royal Dutch Shell. Shell subsequently shut down its work on developing the technology.

Israel's major environmental organizations, including the Jewish National Fund, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Greenpeace, and the Israel Union for Environmental Defense protested against the IEI license. Environmental concerns include the potential for contaminating Israel's Shfela aquifer, which runs underneath the Shfela oil shale formation, for destroying a rural region of Israel that currently promotes eco-tourism, and for reversing Israel's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Residents of the local community of Adullam and their supporters led the campaign to stop the IEI work, citing both the environmental damage and the questionable economic value of the project.[27]

Genie Oil Shale Mongolia

Genie Oil Shale Mongolia is a subsidiary of Genie Oil and Gas. It is a project company for oil shale exploration in Mongolia. The company has exploration rights for 34,470-square-kilometre (13,310 sq mi) and 25,000-square-kilometre (9,700 sq mi) plots in Central Mongolia.[28]

See also

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ "Genie Energy Begins Trading on NYSE". Business Wire. 2011-10-31. Retrieved 2011-12-07.
    2. ↑ "Black gold under the Golan". The Economist. 7 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
    3. ↑ http://genie.com/investors/quarterly-earnings/ for earnings release "Genie Energy Reports First Quarter 2014 Results".
    4. ↑ New York Public Service Commission
    5. ↑ 10-k, IDT Corp, July 31, 2011
    6. ↑ "Business and Financial Leaders Lord Rothschild and Rupert Murdoch Invest in Genie Oil & Gas" (Press release). IDT Corporation. 2010-11-15. Archived from the original on 2012-04-02. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
    7. ↑ "Michael Steinhardt to Become Chairman of IDT Corporation Subsidiary, Israel Energy Initiatives" (Press release). IDT Corporation. 2010-04-19. Archived from the original on 2012-04-02. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
    8. ↑ Barkat, Amiram (2010-11-22). "Murdoch, Rothschild invest in Israeli shale oil". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
    9. ↑ Kelley, Michael (February 22, 2013). "Israel Grants First Golan Heights Oil Drilling License To Dick Cheney-Linked Company". Business Insider. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
    10. ↑ "Israel approves drilling for oil in Golan Heights". The Jerusalem Post. 2013-02-02. Retrieved 2014-05-20.
    11. ↑ Barkat, Amiram (20 February 2013). "Israel awards first Golan oil drilling license". Globes. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
    12. ↑ "N.J. firm wins original rights to drill in Golan Heights". JTA. 21 February 2013. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
    13. ↑ "Genie Energy Reports First Quarter 2014 Results" (PDF) (Press release). Genie Energy. 2014-05-07. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
    14. ↑ Graeber, Daniel J (7 October 2015). "Israel upbeat on Golan oil potential: Israeli company estimates reserve column 10 times larger than global average". UPI. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
    15. ↑ Globes correspondent (7 October 2015). "Huge oil discovery on Golan Heights: Estimates are that the amount of oil found will make Israel self sufficient for very many years to come". Globes. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
    16. ↑ Graeber, Daniel J (9 October 2015). "Major reserve discovery confirmed in the southern Golan Heights: Leadership of company behind the find seen as close to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu". UPI. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
    17. ↑ Udasin, Sharon (7 October 2015). "Still too soon to determine production potential of Golan Heights oil: Afek Oil and Gas say findings have so far revealed a ‘very robust oil-bearing strata’". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
    18. ↑ Udasin, Sharon (8 August 2015). "Drilling begins at third Golan Heights oil exploration site: "We are very pleased with the progress of the work and the findings, which have thus far matched our expectations," said Afek Oil chief geologist Dr. Yuval Bartov". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
    19. ↑ Khoury, Jack (25 February 2016). "Human Rights Groups: Golan Oil Drilling Contravenes International Law". Haaretz. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
    20. ↑ "Total buys 50 pct stake in AMSO to sell shale oil". Reuters. 2009-01-14. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
    21. 1 2 Secure Fuels from Domestic Resources: The Continuing Evolution of America's Oil Shale and Tar Sands Industries (PDF) (4th ed.). United States Department of Energy. 2010. pp. 14–15. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
    22. ↑ Andrews, Anthony (2008). Developments in Oil Shale (PDF) (Report). Congressional Research Service. pp. 18–19. CRS RL34748. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
    23. ↑ Genie Energy quarterly report August 2014. (Report).
    24. ↑ "Alan K. Burnham Ph.D. Executive Profile". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
    25. ↑ 10-k, IDT Corp, October 11, 2011
    26. ↑ Udasin, Sharon (2014-09-02). "Jerusalem District Committee rejects Shefla basin oil shale pilot project". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2015-02-12.
    27. ↑ Laylin, Tafline (2010-12-08). "Oil & Wine Don't Mix: Over 1,000 Israelis Protest Oil Shale In Adullam". Retrieved 2011-10-18.
    28. ↑ "Genie Energy Signs Agreement for Additional Oil Shale Exploration in Mongolia" (Press release). Genie Energy. 2014-09-16. Retrieved 2015-12-01.

    External links

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