Israel believes vast new gas reserves await offshore

16 June 2016, 4:06 pm

Edit

There may be a lot more natural gas under Israel’s Mediterranean waters than is currently known to exist, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz says.

Citing Israeli, American and European assessments, Steinitz says that “there are another some 2,200 billion cubic meters of gas” under Israeli territorial waters, equal to four times the amount in Leviathan, the largest known Israeli field.

Speaking to the Herzliya Conference Thursday, the energy minister says the assessments have a “50 percent likelihood, and by this fall we will open the ocean to exploration. Another find will turn Israel into a gas exporter, and we’re examining the feasibility of installing a gas pipeline from Israel to Turkey at a reasonable cost.”