"But this geologist hadn't just found sunken ships. He'd found buried treasure. He'd unknowingly found the most spectacular energy discovery in the history of modern Israel and Palestine — hidden underwater reserves capable of producing millions of cubic feet of natural gas per day, every day, for decades, perhaps centuries."
Bennett now had Doron's full attention, and he could see Sa'id warming as well, excited to see his counterpart becoming engaged.
"But it turned out there was more," Bennett added, carefully building the drama. "Last year, a team of Medexco and PPG geologists — paid for by GSX — discovered oil as well. Unbelievable amounts of oil. Perhaps enough oil to make Israel and Palestine — if they were to work together to drill it, pump it, and refine it — the second-largest oil producer in the world, behind Saudi Arabia."
A new slide showed the top ten oil producing and exporting countries in order of their annual production. The next slide showed the top ten list in order of annual sales. The next showed Israel and Palestine in the number two position.
"Now, the Saudis have about a quarter of the world's known petroleum reserves, and they pump about eight and a half million barrels a day. When the price of oil is between twenty-five and thirty dollars a barrel, they gross somewhere north of two hundred million dollars a day — nearly eighty to ninety billion dollars a year. Iraq also has tremendous potential, and we believe they are going to become a very aggressive new player in the international oil markets. By aggressive, I mean in the competitive business sense, not the military, nuclear sense, of course."
That got a laugh from all of them, and bought Bennett more goodwill.
"Now, Prime Minister Doron, I'd be happy to get into Iraq's potential if you'd like. But the details aren't particularly important. What's essential to understand is that they've got a huge head start on you both. Their equipment is substandard. It's old. It's poorly maintained. It needs to be replaced, and that's going to take time and a lot of money. But they've got the whole world hoping the U.S. will secure order, the new provisional government will get the country functioning again, and the U.N. will lift the sanctions and allow Iraqi oil to be sold on the open market.
"Once that happens — and I believe it will happen relatively soon, Iraq's oil industry is poised for explosive growth. If they accept foreign direct investment, they will have the opportunity to begin dealing with their technology problems fairly quickly. And, of course, they already have quite a bit of infrastructure already in place, regardless of its quality. You don't. All this oil and gas is sitting off your coastlines. But no one can start getting it out of the ground and into refineries and into the world markets until there's some kind of political agreement, some real assurances that there's going to be peace between Israel and the Palestinians — and that there will be enforceable property rights and legal mechanisms necessary for the proper functioning of a free market."
"Sir, we've got a body. "
FBI director Scott Harris heard the words but couldn't believe them.
He was in one of the Bureau's black-and-gold jet helicopters heading to New York from Washington on orders from the president. He and Chief of Staff Larry Kirstoff and three bodyguards were three thousand feet above the coast of New Jersey. They were inbound for a press conference with the mayor and police commissioner at city hall. Thus far, the manhunt hadn't turned up anything. Now he feared the worst.
"This is Harris, talk to me — what have you got?" he told the Bureau's lead investigator on the ground.
"Sir, one of the NYPD 's search-and-rescue units just found a floater in the East River. Probably been there twenty-four to thirty-six hours, best they can tell. "
"And?" pressed Harris, hesitant to ask the obvious question on a frequency that was probably being monitored by the media.
"Hard to say, sir. The body's badly disfigured. The ME is on the way — but my guys tell me it's definitely a woman, somewhere between the ages of forty and sixty."
Harris didn't know what to make of that. The age range was a bit young. But in the fog of war, first reports were often wrong.
Investigators had also just positively confirmed that it was indeed Ruth Bennett's ATM card used to withdraw $300 at a Chase Manhattan branch near Radio City Music Hall. But the ATM's security camera apparently had malfunctioned. There was no video of the transaction. Fingerprints were useless. At least eight other people had used the same ATM before the police could secure the scene.
No one remembered anyone matching Ruth Bennett's photograph being seen in the area. But no one could positively say they hadn't seen her either. It was too early in the morning. Too much was going on.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Prime Minister Doron had questions.
"Assuming Prime Minister Sa'id and I and our respective governments and countries can come to some agreement — that's a big assumption, I understand — but let's just make it for the purpose of this portion of our discussions."
"Fair enough," said Bennett.
"How long would it take for the oil and gas to start flowing? And, more to the point, how long would it take for the money to start flowing?"
"It's a good question, and, of course, there are all kinds of variables. The first and foremost being that the Medexco joint venture currently has exploration licenses, but not drilling and production licenses. Before the oil, gas, and money start flowing, Medexco needs to be granted such licenses.
"This could take several forms. One way would be to grant a concession to Medexco, whereby the company essentially leases the drilling rights, does all the work, and pays the Israeli and Palestinian governments a certain dollar amount each year, or a certain agreed-upon percentage of gross revenues. The government could then put these revenues in public trust, and distribute them annually by way of royalty checks.
"The State of Alaska does this. It leases petroleum and mineral rights to private companies. It collects about twenty-five billion dollars a year in fees, aside from corporate taxes. It puts all that money into what it calls the Permanent Fund, which it made part of its constitution back in the '70s when they struck black gold on the North Slope. At the end of the year, every official resident of Alaska gets a royalty check of more than fifteen hundred American dollars. It's not the only route, of course. But it's a relatively clean and simple process, and it would put hard, cold cash directly in the hands of every Israeli and Palestinian adult every single year of their lives."
"And the other routes?"
"Well, there are lots of them, actually. But the most attractive would be, some form of direct ownership."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning Israel and Palestine would basically grant Medexco drilling and production rights for a nominal fee, and the right to tax its profits at a low, flat rate. In exchange, Medexco would hold an initial public offering — an IPO — and become a publicly traded company. It would distribute shares of its common stock to every adult Israeli and Palestinian, as well as to its employees, venture capital partners, et cetera. Rather than receive an annual royalty check, Israelis and Palestinians would simultaneously be creating wealth in two different ways. First, each shareholder would, of course, receive dividend checks. The size of those checks would depend on how many shares a person held and the profits generated by Medexco that quarter or year. Second, each person would in all probability see the value of their stock rise — perhaps exponentially — overnight and then over the long haul. There would be a holding period of course, during which you couldn't sell the stock."