Israel’s Natural Gas Royalties Soar By 50% First Half of 2022

Israel’s offshore natural gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean Sea saw revenue increase by almost 50% in the first half (H1) of 2022. Israel has several natural gas fields that were discovered in recent years like the Tamar and Leviathan.

Lebanon claims that one such field actually crosses into its own territorial waters. This is why the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah is threatening to bomb it if Israel does not cease its operations there.

Data presented by the Royalties Division of Israel’s Ministry of Energy shows that in the first half of 2022 there was a significant jump of approximately 48% in the total royalties collected from Israel’s natural gas reservoirs which now stand at approximately NIS 824 million ($251 million).

In the first half of 2021 total royalties were about NIS 557 million.

This increase was attributed to the record production of natural gas from both the Leviathan and Tamar reservoirs in the first half of the year, which amounted to 10.85 BCM (billion cubic meters), of which about 6.26 BCM for the domestic economy and about 4.59 BCM for export – this, compared to the production of about 8.9 BCM in the first half of 2021 – An increase of about 21.9%. Beyond that, the increase in the dollar exchange rate also contributed to a significant increase in total royalties.