Ministry: Gas royalties up $117 million last year, exports to Jordan, Egypt up 25%

By Sue Surkes

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26 February 2024, 5:01 pm

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Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter

An Israeli Navy Sa’ar 6-class corvette guards the Energean floating production, storage and offloading vessel at the Tamar gas field, in an image published by the military on April 23, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

Royalties paid by companies that extract natural resources such as gas and minerals totaled NIS NIS 2.125 billion ($583 million) last year, up from NIS 1.7 billion ($466 million) in 2022, the Energy Ministry says.

The increase is due largely to Israel’s third natural gas field, Karish, starting to operate in October 2022.

The lion’s share — just above NIS 2 billion (just under $550 million) — came from the gas companies, with the big Leviathan field supplying NIS 995.6 million ($274 million) in 2023, the Tamar field NIS 695 million ($190 million) and Karish NIS 390 million ($107 million).

An increase in exports from Tamar led to a 1.2 percent rise in royalty payments, despite the facility’s shutdown between October 8 and November 12 last year, during the initial stages of the war against Hamas.

The Tamar facility is located off the coast of Ashkelon, in southern Israel, within close range of Hamas rockets.

In a statement, the Energy Ministry also says that gas exports to Jordan and Egypt had risen by 25%, with some of the gas being converted to liquid form in Egypt and shipped to Europe. This was within the framework of a 2022 memorandum of understanding signed by Israel, Egypt and the European Union to supply the Europeans with gas after Russia cut supplies in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.