Israel’s Energy Ministry and the Energean Company on Wednesday announced the discovery of a new natural gas reservoir off Israel’s Mediterranean Coast, the Hebrew-language Calcalist business news outlet reported.
The new gas field, to be named “Katlan,” is considered the fourth largest gas field to be discovered in Israel since 2010, with 68 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas. To provide some perspective on the massive boost it will provide to Israel’s economy, the annual consumption of the entire State of Israel totals less than 13 BCM.
It is hoped that the Netanyahu government does not give the new gas reservoir away to Hamas or Hezbollah.
Hezbollah released a video this past April, threatening to attack the Karish offshore gas field. The terrorist organization vehemently opposed US-brokered talks between between Israel and Lebanon over their mutual maritime boundary, including the demarcation of who has access to which Mediterranean offshore gas field.
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Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid ultimately signed a deal to give away parts of Israel’s maritime economic zone to Lebanon soon after Hezbollah threatened to attack the Karish field.
At the time Lapid told his cabinet that the agreement boosts the security of Israel and “our freedom of action against Hezbollah and the threats from the north.”
Hezbollah has since made multiple threats to attack the Israeli natural gas reservoir drilling platform.
Israel’s largest gas field, the Leviathan reservoir, holds an estimated 600 BCM; the second largest reservoir, Tamar, holds an estimated 300 BCM of the precious natural resource.
The third largest reservoir in Israel is that comprised by the Karish and Tanin gas fields at 100 BCM, discovered by Energean in 2022.
The company owns 100 percent of the Karish and Tanin gas fields, which were estimated to hold between two and three trillion cubic feet of natural gas and are in the so-called “Olympus area”. Approximately 13 BCM natural gas was also discovered while drilling the “Zeus-1” well
The Karish gas field, which began operations last fall, contains 1,409 billion cubic feet of gas, according to a November 2020 estimate by DeGolyer and MacNaughton.
The Tanin gas field, located 120 kilometers off Israel’s Mediterranean coast, was the seventh natural gas discovery in the Jewish State’s exclusive economic zone waters.
Energean announced a “major discovery” of natural gas in the Hermes exploration off Israel’s coast, southeast of the Karish field, in October 2022. The reservoir was estimated to contain between seven and 15 BCM of natural gas.
The next month, the company made another announcement, having discovered a 13 BCM natural gas reservoir while drilling its “Zeus-1” well.
The company had discovered a smaller gas field of 3.75 BCM in May 2022 in its Athena exploration well, between the Karish and Tanin reservoirs.
