Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz told the 16th Herzliya Conference on Thursday that Israel discovered offshore natural gas worth four times the Leviathan field.
Steinitz said that “developing the gas fields, bringing natural gas to factories and transport and developing export pipelines, all these things are a huge engine of growth. What might save us from recession and bring us back to a reasonable level of growth is natural gas.”
Regarding the possibility of recession, Steinitz said, “It’s no secret that Israel has had a major downturn in growth, in investments and in exports and that’s very worrying.”
Steinitz told the conference that his office is debating laying a gas pipeline to Cyprus and to Greece, noting that “the project is technologically possible and the costs are not as high as we thought in the past.” He added that “if this can be realized it would position Israel well from the geopolitical and geostrategic point of view. Israel can become a significant player.”