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The discovery of more major natural gas fields in Israel since 2009 has transformed the Jewish state from an energy-dependent country into an energy supplier Polish state-controlled energy company PGNiG is considering the purchase of Israeli natural gas as it seeks to reduce its dependence on key Russian supplier, Gazprom. “We want to be the company at the crossroads of North-South and East-West... we need something to the south,” PGNiG chief executive Piotr Wozniak told Reuters last week. “So we are looking at all those places to the south of Poland very carefully... So yes, we are interested in Israel,”...

Israel now is pumping natural gas from one of the enormous offshore fields which will transform Israel into an energy-independent nation and a global energy powerhouse: Natural gas from the offshore Tamar field was pumped to Israeli shores for the first time Saturday, four years after its discovery, in preparation for its first use in the Israeli energy market — a move that could transform the Israeli economy. The Tamar deposit, discovered in 2009 some 90 kilometers west of Haifa, holds an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. On Saturday, hailed an “important day for the Israeli economy”...

JERUSALEM: Natural gas from the Tamar field off Israel’s Mediterranean shores began flowing yesterday, the head of a partner in the field said in a statement. Israel, once energy poor, is expected to become a gas exporter by the end of the decade, with the Tamar field holding enough reserves to meet the country’s gas needs for decades. The gas discovery in 2009 led to an exploration frenzy in the Levant Basin — shared between Israel, Cyprus and Lebanon — and the uncovering of a second bigger find, Leviathan, which prompted Israel to set up a natural gas wealth fund....

One thing that makes the energy sector so intriguing is the constant overlap between markets and politics. In many ways, energy security is synonymous with national security, and the supply and demand needs of the oil market can make the most unlikely bedfellows. One country that has been at the center of energy and politics for decades has been Israel. For years the country has been dependent upon foreign energy sources, but a major discovery by Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL ) and its partners has turned this situation on its head. Let's look how this massive natural gas find could...

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus' offshore natural gas deposits are enough to warrant the construction of a gas processing plant to export excess supply, regardless of whether Israel decides to be a partner in the project, the island nation's foreign minister said Wednesday. Ioannis Kasoulides said Cyprus is continuing talks with Israel, which has also discovered its own offshore gas deposits, on ways the countries can best exploit their mineral reserves. Cyprus is particularly keen, hoping its future gas wealth will help pull it out of a crushing economic crisis that has forced it to ask for an international bailout....

President Shimon Peres on Sunday congratulated Yitzhak Tshuva, the controlling shareholder of the Tamar natural gas field which was first put into use Saturday, for pumping the gas into Israel four years after the deposit was first discovered — adding, however, that the pumping should not have begun on the Sabbath. Peres spoke with Tshuva and praised the “momentous deed” he had done “for the sake of Israel.” However, at a meeting Sunday with Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Peres said he was sorry that the pumping had begun on a Saturday, “of all days.”

The Israeli Navy is prepared to neutralize threats targeting Israel's Tamar natural gas rig, the IDF Website reported Saturday. The Navy will protect the reception facility – a vital infrastructural facility to pump gas from the rig – which is currently being built. The IDF's defensive model has been tested in three scenarios: routine, escalation, and emergency. "The wisdom in the development of this kind of model is that it provides an excellent response for all three scenarios," senior naval commander Rear Adm. Yaron Levi recently explained at a conference on protecting Israel's economic waters held at the Institute for...

Israel's offshore oil and gas fields could mean decades of self-sufficiency, and big profits for Noble Energy and its billionaire partner. All big oil and gas fields have geopolitical significance, but in recent years we haven't seen one with the potential to matter more than Leviathan--a prospect off the coast of northern Israel. Noble Energy in Houston will begin drilling a $150 million well into Leviathan in October. Noble's partners on the well, subsidiaries of billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva's Delek Group, announced in late August that Leviathan is estimated to contain 16 trillion cubic feet of easily recoverable gas, while its...