By ERICA SCHACHNEBini (Binyamin) Zomer, Noble Energy's Israel country manager.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Binyamin (Bini) Zomer, who in the past was selected as one of Globes newspaper’s 40 most promising young people, is Noble Energy Israel’s vice president of regional affairs. Zomer made aliya in 2010 to become director of corporate affairs in Israel for the Texas-based petroleum, natural gas and oil exploration and production company. Since 2014, he has led the mitigation efforts between Noble, one of the leading investors in Israel’s gas explorations, and the Israeli government.“Today, at peak days, we are supplying fuel for 78% of Israel’s electricity production,” Zomer said in May at The Jerusalem Post annual conference in New York, noting that the figure was up from 60% the previous year. “This year, we are moving over 70%, and that has been really terrific. We see that demand is continuing to grow.”On the local level, Noble is focused on maintaining its reliable supply of gas from the Tamar gas field and is well into developing the Leviathan pipeline in the Mediterranean Sea. The Leviathan project is expected to make a major impact on the Jewish state’s gas supplies and could transform energy sourcing for a number of locally under-supplied countries in the eastern Mediterranean area, with the first gas set to flow before the end of 2019. In the regional playing field, the company has also signed on to supply gas to Egypt and Jordan.Prior to making aliya, while he was still in the US, Zomer was AIPAC’s deputy director of policy and government affairs and served as legal adviser to former Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles. Zomer, an Oklahoma native, is a graduate of the University of Texas and Washington University Law School in St. Louis.
