As once
energy poor, Israel is now expected to become a gas exporter by the end of the
decade, with the Tamar field holding enough reserves to meet its own gas needs
for decades.
Its
discovery in 2009 led to an exploration frenzy in the Levant Basin - shared
between Israel, Cyprus and Lebanon - and the uncovering of a second bigger
find, Leviathan, which prompted Israel to set up a natural gas wealth fund.
“Today we
begin independence in Israeli natural gas. It is an enormous achievement for
the Israeli economy and the start of a new era,” said Israeli billionaire
Yitzhak Tshuva, the controlling shareholder in Delek Group, one of the partners
in Tamar.
The gas
should lead to a reduction in production costs for state utility Israel
Electric Corp as well as a decline in the price of electricity, the Israeli
Water and Energy Ministry said last week.
Tamar is
located 90 kilometres off Israel’s northern coast and has an estimated 10
trillion cubic feet of gas. Development of Tamar and Leviathan will make Israel
less dependent on energy imports but the country has said it will also allow a
significant amount of its natural gas to be exported.
Tamar has
already signed a number of large deals, including one to supply as much as $23
billion of natural gas to Israel Electric Corp and $4 billion worth to units of
conglomerate Israel Corp.
Texas-based
Noble Energy holds 36 percent of Tamar. Isramco Negev owns 28.75 percent and
Delek Group subsidiaries Avner Oil Exploration and Delek Drilling hold 15.625
percent