Quicktake Q&A: Israel’s Geopolitical Quandary on Exporting Gas

Israel has paved the way to sign multi-billion dollar contracts for exports from its Leviathan gas field. Government officials and the companies developing the reservoir typically speak about two main options for exports: Egypt and Turkey. Both scenarios carry geopolitical risks in a region fraught with them.

Israeli company Delek Group Ltd. and its U.S. partner, Noble Energy Inc., have begun development work on Leviathan, a natural-gas field discovered in 2010 in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel’s coast. The goal is to start exporting gas by 2019. In the first stage, the partners want to pipe the majority of 12 billion cubic meters of gas annually to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. The rest could go to Egypt’s domestic market through existing infrastructure. A later stage could involve a pipeline to a regional neighbor for a cost of $1.5 billion or more.