Major natural gas reserves recently discovered off the coast of Israel have ignited

considerable interest in the hydrocarbon potential of the East Mediterranean basin.

Recent discoveries include Tamar near the port city of Haifa (240 billion cubic metres

of natural gas) discovered in January 2009; Dalit near the northern city of Hadera (14

BCM) in April 2009; and Leviathan off the coast of Haifa in June 2010, the largest gas

discovery in the world within the last decade (approximately 460 BCM of natural gas).

In 2010, the US Geographical Survey estimated that the entire Levant basin, encompassing parts of

Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus, may contain as much as 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and

3.45 trillion cubic meters (122 trillion cubic feet) of recoverable natural gas. For comparison, Iraq,

ranked as the 11th country worldwide in terms of proven gas reserves, has 3.1 trillion cubic meters

of gas........continue reading