CBN News
JERUSALEM, Israel -- An Israeli company announced the discovery of another sizable offshore oil and gas field on Sunday. Israel Opportunity Energy Resources LP estimated the newest field at about 1.4 billion barrels of oil and 6.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
"The quantity of gas discovered in the licenses -- and the high probabilities -- make it the third largest off-shore discovery to date," chairman Ronny Halman told Globes. "This quantity guarantees Israel's energy future for decades," he said, "and makes it possible to export Israeli gas and boost the State's revenues without worrying about gas reserves for domestic consumption."
The latest discovery follows last June's announcement of one of the world's largest offshore gas reserves estimated at more than 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 800 million barrels of oil.
In addition to the offshore gas and oil fields, another Israeli company has been exploring the country's shale oil reserves, which could equal Saudi Arabia's oil reserves.
Israel Energy Initiatives chief scientists Harold Vinegar told CBN News a conservative estimate was about 250 billion barrels of oil.
In February, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Cypriot President Demetris Christofias to talk about the discovery off the coast of Cyprus of natural gas deposits estimated at 8 trillion cubic feet. The two leaders discussed the possibility of a joint pipeline to export gas to Europe and Asia.
