page_title: Natural gas in Israel
section_title: Discoveries in the 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: Natural gas in Israel / Discoveries in the 2000s
caption_attribution_description: English: Proved reserves of natural gas in Israel
context_page_description: Natural gas in Israel is a primary energy source in Israel, mainly utilized for electricity production and to lesser degree in industry. Israel began producing natural gas from its own offshore gas fields in 2004. Between 2005 and 2012, Israel had imported gas from Egypt via the al-Arish-Ashkelon pipeline, which was terminated due to Egyptian Crisis of 2011-14. As of 2014, Israel produced over 7.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year. Israel had 199 billion cubic meters of proven reserves of natural gas as of the start of 2016. In early 2017, Israel began exporting natural gas to the Kingdom of Jordan.
context_section_description: In 2000, a modest discovery was made when a 33-billion-cubic-metre (BCM), or 1,200-billion-cubic-foot, natural-gas field was located offshore Ashkelon, with commercial production starting in 2004. As of 2014 however, this field is nearly depleted—earlier than expected due to increased pumping to partially compensate for the loss of imported Egyptian gas in the wake of unrest associated with the fall of the Mubarak regime in 2011. In 2009, a significant gas find named Tamar, with proven reserves of 223 BCM or 7.9×10¹² cu ft (307 BCM total proven + probable) was located in deep water approximately 90 km (60 mi) west of Haifa, as well as a smaller 15 BCM (530×10⁹ cu ft) field situated nearer the coastline. Furthermore, results of 3D seismic surveys and test drilling conducted since 2010 have confirmed that an estimated 621 BCM (21.9×10¹² cu ft) natural-gas deposit exists in a large underwater geological formation nearby the large gas field already discovered in 2009. The US Energy Information Administration listed Israel as having 6.2 trillion cubic feet of proved reserves as of 1 January 2015.
  The Tamar field began commercial production on 30 March 2013 after four years of extensive development works. The supply of gas from Tamar is expected to provide a boost to the Israeli economy, which has suffered losses of more than NIS20 billion between 2011 and 2013 resulting from the disruption of gas supplies from neighboring Egypt (and which are not expected to resume due to Egypt's decision to indefinitely suspend its gas supply agreement to Israel). As a result, Israel, as well as its other neighbor Jordan, which also suffered from disruption of gas deliveries from Egypt, had to resort to importing significantly more expensive and polluting liquid heavy fuels as substitute sources of energy. The ensuing energy crisis in Israel was lifted once the Tamar field came online in 2013, while Jordan committed to a US$10 billion, 15-year gas supply deal totaling 45 BCM from the Israeli Leviathan field which is scheduled to come online in late 2019. The agreement is estimated to save Jordan US$600 million per year in energy costs. In 2018, the owners of the Tamar and Leviathan fields announced that they are negotiating an agreement with a consortium of Egyptian firms, subject to regulatory approval in both countries, for the supply of up to 64 BCM of gas over 10 years valued at up to US$15 billion. Although Egypt has been making strides in developing new gas fields in recent years to help it meet rising domestic demand, it also has idle LNG exporting capacity and the deal has the potential to help make it an important regional gas export hub.
  The discoveries of natural gas confirmed that the Levant basin of the Eastern Mediterranean contains significant quantities of natural gas. Consequently, additional exploration for gas off Israel's coastline is continuing. In early 2012 the Israeli cabinet announced plans to set up a sovereign wealth fund (called "the Israeli Citizens' Fund") that would allocate part of the royalties from energy exploration to education, defense and overseas investments.
caption: Proved reserves of natural gas in Israel
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