Israel Seeks To Export Gas To Neighbours

Israel, where the rich Tamar gas field started yielding earlier this month, is now considering exports to neighbours such as Jordan, Turkey and even Egypt.

According to the Financial Times, the chief executive of Delek Drilling said his country's gas sector was was looking at possibilities to export gas via pipelines from offshore fields such as the big, unexploited Leviathan reserve to Israel’s regional neighbours.

This would overcome, or ignore, traditional enmities with some of its neighbours, such as Egypt. The CEO, Yossi Abu, said a longer-term plan was exporting to European markets.

“We believe that there is a real opportunity to supply gas to the Turkish market, and maybe through the Turkish market to the European market,” Abu told the FT. “Also, there’s a real opportunity to supply gas to Jordan.”

A pipeline to Turkey might go undersea via Cypriot waters, he said, and would not need to pass through Syrian or Lebanese territory. A pipeline to Jordan would require “a very modest investment [in] a few kilometres of on-shore pipeline,” he added.

The parent group of Delek Drilling, Delek, is described as Israel's dominant energy company. Its website describes the Levant basin in the Mediterranean as "one of the energy industry’s most promising emerging regions". Lebanon and Cyprus also have territorial waters in the Levant basin.