The National Infrastructures Ministry published a competitive bid, Sunday, for consulting services in the field of oil-rights regulation.

The consulting services will include an appraisal of the amount of natural gas and crude oil in Israel's economic waters, assistance in formulating the emerging policy in allocating gas and oil search rights, and examination of the process for granting, maintaining and supervising permits. They will also include standards for checking and reporting on the findings of the rights holders and organization of the information received from the search activity.

The tender joins an additional bid of the ministry's oil unit which was published about a month ago for consulting and engineering supervision in the fields of drilling and production. That service includes, among other things, checking the drilling and development program for oil and natural gas fields on land and at sea, supervision of the drilling, maintaining safety, health and environmental standards, and a production control system.

It should be noted that the five-member crude-oil unit will be significantly expanded soon in light of the energy-industry revolution which has followed the discovery and use of natural gas for electricity production and industry in Israel. The expansion will include the addition of professional experts in the fields of geology and geophysics, drilling engineering, database engineering, safety and environmental engineering, etc. to enable increased supervision and enforcement on the search for and production of natural gas in Israel.