HOUSTON, May 23 (UPI) -- A natural gas discovery off the coast of Israel may hold as much as 2 trillion cubic feet of reserves, operator Noble Energy Inc. announced.
Noble said it confirmed a natural gas discovery in the Karish prospect offshore Israel. Drilling uncovered a natural gas pay measuring 184 feet, which Noble said indicated a reserve potential of 1.6 trillion-2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Karish marks the seventh discovery for Noble and its partners in the Levant Basin.
"With the addition of Karish and the recent increase in resource estimates at Tamar and Leviathan, total discovered gross mean resources in the Levant Basin are now estimated to be approximately 38 trillion cubic feet," the company said in a statement.
Noble, which has headquarters in Texas, and its Israeli drilling partners, Avner Oil Exploration and Delek Drilling, said last week there were "significant signs" of natural gas at its Karish-1 license area in the deep eastern waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
Israeli authorities are debating how much of the offshore natural gas to export. Tamar is slated for domestic use, while Leviathan could service both domestic and foreign markets.
