Wednesday was a busy day for the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the outfit responsible for coordinating military sales contracts between the U.S. and its allies and getting Congress's "OK" on such sales before they can proceed. DSCA notified Congress of no fewer than five such upcoming "foreign military sales" contracts Wednesday. But the biggest contract on its list wasn't for "arms sales" at all.
It was for gasoline [link opens in PDF].
To be precise, it was for JP-8 aviation fuel, diesel, and gasoline -- 864 million gallons of the stuff worth $2.67 billion in aggregate -- which the Government of Israel has requested that the U.S. sell to it to keep its military humming. As DSCA explained in its notification to Congress: "The proposed sale of the JP-8 aviation fuel will enable Israel to maintain the operational capability of its aircraft. The diesel fuel and unleaded gasoline will be used for Israeli ground vehicles."
DSCA says it does not yet know which company or companies would supply the fuel to Israel. A competitive bid process for the supply sources is expected to be held (assuming the sale is permitted to proceed). However, in past sales of such large fuel stocks -- JP-8 in particular -- ExxonMobil has been said to serve as Israel's supplier.
