[ATimes] 
About 80 kilometers off the coast of Haifa in Israel, a string of rigs, platforms and pipelines now work day and night, extracting natural gas from one of the largest reservoirs in the Eastern Mediterranean.
This resource, known as the Tamar Field, now powers businesses and homes throughout Israel. It has helped the country approach self-sufficiency in electricity production, while radically improving its energy import bill.
Along with other neighboring fields, Tamar also places Israel in the normally-enviable position of holding a major natural gas surplus, ready for export.
Yet – so far– Israel has failed to fully capitalize on this bounty.
Instead, a combination of security, politics and prices have kept many of Tel Aviv’s hydrocarbon riches locked firmly beneath the sea floor.
Now, though, the effort to find a way to release this giant resource has led to some controversial plans – as well as some unlikely-sounding deals with former foes.
Domestic and foreign
Israel has several large offshore gas reserves, with the now-depleted Ashkelon field the first to be exploited. Tamar was then discovered in 2009, with the larger Leviathan field uncovered in 2010. Since then, two more fields have also been discovered – Karish and Tanin.
Two companies have been key in developing Tamar and Leviathan – Texas-based Nobel Energy and Israel’s Delek Group – while Karish and Tanin are being developed by Greece’s Energean.
So far, however, only Tamar has been brought into production, while Leviathan is scheduled to begin delivering gas next year. Of the other two, Karish will be the first to begin output, with this scheduled for 2021.
Given the extent of these reserves and the relatively small size of Israel’s domestic market, much of the gas from the most recent discoveries is thus targeted for overseas sale.
On paper, there are also many potential buyers.
To the north is Turkey, with a large and growing economy, while to the northwest lies Europe. Egypt, too, has a fast-growing population and rapidly expanding economic needs, while to the south, Jordan has no oil and gas of its own.
Yet, “all of the possibilities for export of Israeli gas, except to Jordan, are very difficult,” says Charles Ellinas, the CEO of energy consultancy EC Cyprus Natural Hydrocarbons Co.
Nobel has a deal with the Hashemite Kingdom’s national electricity company to supply $10 billion worth of gas via a planned underground pipeline. Israel also already supplies gas to Jordan’s potash and bromine industries, via a third-party US company.
Exporting to Turkey, however, would indeed be a lot more difficult. This is not only because of the current dire relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv, but also due to the unresolved Cyprus dispute. Any pipeline heading for the Turkish coast would have to go through Cypriot waters – a route unlikely to find backers while the island remains de facto divided.
Meanwhile, a route to Europe bypassing Turkey – the proposed East Med Pipeline – would have to travel 2,000km between Israel, south Cyprus, Greece and Italy. This also involves crossing one of the most seismically active sea floors in the Mediterranean, often at great depth.
In addition, “Even if it were technically possible,” says Ellinas, “it would not be commercially feasible.”
| Hit the article for the possible solutions and the Saudi angle. |
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