Haifa refinery estimates costs of leaving the Gulf at $5 billion

BAZAN Holding sent the country’s leadership an assessment of the cost of evacuating its assets from the Haifa Bay area in accordance with the government decision of 2022.

According to Calcalist, the estimate was more than $5 billion. The general director of the holding, Rafael Maman, sent these data to the head of the National Economic Council, Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister, Professor Avi Simhon, who heads the coordinating committee for the development of Haifa Bay and is responsible for the implementation of the government decision.

The holding’s management opposes the planned removal of the group’s enterprises from the Gulf and the replacement of their capacities with imports, citing the lessons of the protracted war in the Middle East, which showed the need to preserve Israel’s energy independence.

According to Bazan, the specified compensation amount is conservative and does not take into account structural changes in the world’s oil refining capacity, as well as several hundred million dollars more in damages suffered by the company since the start of preparations for the evacuation; in addition, according to the group, the state will have to finance the closure of the enterprise and dismantling of facilities, as well as provide social protection to workers.