Israel exported a record 981mn cfd of natural gas to Egypt in 2024, good for 18.2% year-over-year. According to Middle East Oil & Gas publication MEES, the remarkable surge in imports can be attributed to a growing gas deficit resulting from declining domestic production by Egypt. However, Israel will struggle to ramp up exports further due to infrastructure limitations.
The Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean Sea has emerged as one of the world’s top natural gas resources, with 85 trillion cubic feet (~2.4 trillion cubic meters) discovered over the past two decades by countries in the region, including Israel. The gas-rich offshore basin straddling Egypt, Israel, Cyprus and Lebanon has attracted some of the world’s top energy companies as Europe scrambles to secure supplies to replace Russian gas.
‘;document.write(write_html);}
Over the past decade, Israel has been aggressively pursuing hydrocarbon exploration and development. Israel’s natural gas reserves have grown by an impressive 40% over the past decade thanks in large part to increased drilling and exploration activities. During that time, offshore production has expanded five-fold growth since the start-up of Israel’s first major producing Tamar field in 2013. Israel has seen its gas reserves grow from 780 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2012 to 1,087 bcm at the end of 2022, while 119 bcm was extracted over the same period.
