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Greek company Energean Oil and Gas said on Monday that the latest appraisals show an Israeli offshore natural gas discovery is greater than initially expected, boosting Israel's hopes of becoming energy independent and a natural gas exporter in the near future.
Energean Oil and Gas, which is focused on developing resources in the Mediterranean, said that its appraisal of the Karish North Discovery offshore Israel confirmed the best estimate of recoverable resources of 0.9 Tcf (25 BCM) plus 34 million barrels of light oil and condensate, significantly enhancing the discovered resource volumes across the company's Karish and Tanin leases.
In addition to the Karish and Tanin, Israel has seen other large gas fields discovered and developed in recent years-Tamar and Leviathan.
Israel is set to soon begin natural gas exports to Egypt. The two countries, which mark this year 40 years since signing a peace treaty in 1979, have made meaningful advances in their natural gas industries in recent years and are competing to become Eastern Mediterranean's next energy hub.
The deal under which Israel will export natural gas to Egypt has been described by Israeli officials as one of the most important bilateral agreements since the two countries made peace 40 years ago.
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At the beginning of last year, Israel's Delek Group and Houston-based Noble Energy-the main partners in the two large gas fields offshore Israel-signed agreements to sell significant quantities of natural gas from the Leviathan and Tamar fields to Dolphinus Holdings to supply gas in Egypt.
The closing of the deal for the control of the natural gas pipeline between Israel and Egypt is expected in coming days, Israel's Delek Drilling, a key partner in the Leviathan field, said on Sunday.
Separately, Leviathan operators Noble Energy and Delek Drilling may add a floating LNG export terminal to their project if it proved commercially viable.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More