Oil In The Levant Basin
Israel has been dependent on energy imports from international suppliers to meet its energy needs since its existence. With the recent discovery of huge natural gas and crude oil reserves in the Levant Basin, the status of Israel changed to that of an energy-producing nation with the added capability of being able to export natural gas and oil to the international market. Being a deep-water natural gas find, the Levant basin has huge potential but also involves huge costs in the exploration and exploitation of the natural gas contained in the reserves.
The Leviathan reservoir covers a few countries including Israel located on the west coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has created a special Economic Zone across the waters of the Mediterranean Sea to start exploring and using the natural gas reserves found in the Levant Basin. Most of the natural gas and oil reserves for Israeli exploration are located in two huge gas fields, the first being the Leviathan gas field and the second the Tamar gas field.
The gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea are amongst the deepest in the world, with the average depth of the Leviathan gas field being around 5000 feet below sea level. These natural gas fields alone comprise around 700 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, which are way more than Israel alone can consume to meet its energy needs – and so naturally, these will need to be exported to other countries.
These natural gas fields can be collectively clubbed under the deepwater natural gas fields. The Leviathan gas field almost exclusively comes under Israeli economic zone territory and is a huge boost to the economy of the country with its huge gas reserves.
The Leviathan is a huge gas field that is located on the Mediterranean Sea, at a distance of around 80 miles west from the Israeli city of Haifa, and it is located south of the neighboring Tamar gas field. Being such a deep natural gas reserve find, it has taken a lot of investment and effort on the part of several private players to get this gas field to a stage where the reserves present inside it can be exploited for commercial usage. The amount of proven natural gas reserves in the Leviathan gas field comes up to around 500 billion cubic meters, as well as around 600 million barrels of crude oil, which is a huge bonus for a small nation like Israel. Experts have conservatively estimated Leviathan’s gas potential and found that it was enough to sustain the energy needs of Israel for the next 40 years.
From the gas reserves in the Levant Basin, Israel is looking to export natural gas to its neighbour, Egypt up to the tune of around 80 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year, in a deal that has been valued at around 20 billion dollars, bringing in huge amounts of revenue for the players operating the Levant gas fields.