Israel May Join Gas Exporting Nations
From Bloomberg
Israel is on the path to exporting energy for the first time in its 62-year history after Noble Energy Inc. and partners said their offshore discoveries in the country may hold twice as much natural gas as the U.K.
Nobel, the Houston-based operator of the Leviathan block, said yesterday the area may have 16 trillion cubic feet of gas, as it also raised its estimate for the nearby Tamar field to 8.4 trillion cubic feet. Nobel said all its areas in the eastern Mediterranean may hold as much as 30 trillion cubic feet.
“This has the potential to turn Israel into a key regional gas player, competing with the likes of Egypt,” Guil Bashan, an analyst at IBI in Tel Aviv, said by phone. “This is also a major plus for the economy and for the partners operating the licenses, which can produce value by becoming major exporters.”
