Leviathan gas field - Phase B NewMed Energy
Drilling & Production

Israeli LNG exports to Egypt and Jordan up 13.4 per cent in 2024

Reuters

Israel's natural gas exports to Egypt and Jordan surged by about 13.4 per cent in 2024, despite the country's war with Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza, Israel's energy ministry said on Wednesday.

The jump, "demonstrates that Israel’s natural gas industry is a strategic asset, contributing to regional stability," and security, Energy Minister Eli Cohen.

Israel is positioning itself as a regional energy hub and has committed to supplying natural gas to Europe, which has been diversifying away from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.

"My policy is clear: to maximise the utilization of Israel’s natural gas reserves," Cohen said, adding he hoped the coming year would bring more competition and opportunities to export natural gas.

In the past, Cohen has said Israel was looking into expanding exports to enable supplies to Europe, either through Egyptian liquefaction plants or by building local facilities.

The offshore Leviathan field, operated by Chevron with two Israeli partners, produced 11.33 billion cubic meters (bcm), up 2.7 per cent from 2023, while exports contributed 87.5 per cent of total revenue of 1.022 billion shekels ($282 million), the ministry said.

The nearby Tamar field earned revenue of 779 million shekels from 10.09 bcm of natural gas.

Natural gas production rose 8.3 per cent in 2024, while royalties jumped 10.88 per cent to 2.37 billion shekels.

Cohen said total state revenues from natural gas including royalties, corporate tax, and levies will reach some five billion shekels this year, and 10 billion within a few years.

Since the beginning of natural gas production in Israel more than a decade ago, total accumulated state revenue from such output has totalled nearly 30 billion shekels.

Half of this amount, or 14.9 billion shekels, came from royalties collected by the ministry, and the remainder from natural resource profit levies and corporate taxes.

State royalties feed into a nascent sovereign wealth fund, aimed at preventing the Israeli shekel from overheating from a sudden expansion in national wealth.

Israel discovered huge deposits of natural gas in the east Mediterranean 15 years ago and major production began in 2013.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer Editing by Bernadette Baum)