According to the humble estimate of a US energy industry expert, international companies might soon join exploration efforts for oil and gas in the Holy Land.
Fred Zeidman told Globes website:

“It is quite likely that international firms will join the exploration efforts on Israeli territory; this comes one year after the ‘Tamar’ and ‘Dalit’ discoveries in the Mediterranean Sea. One international firm has already embarked on the could-be gold rush: Noble Energy, which was the partner of Delek and Isramco in their respective discoveries”.

Two of Israel’s largest financial groups: Nochi Dankner‘s IDB group and Ofer Nimrodi’s Israel Land Development too have entered the sector already.

Zeidman said:

“It happens all the time…We see in the US that the moment a company discovers oil or gas that can be transported, there’s a crazy rush to the region by other companies, and that’s a function of the size of the reserves found. Around the world, as soon as Noble goes to a place, many other companies follow in its wake. The prospects here are amazing, and I have no doubt that we’ll see an economic boom, and a rush of more companies to Israel from overseas following Noble.”

Levant Basin Province

A report done by the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas are in the Levant Basin Province in the eastern region of the Mediterranean.

This area includes the coastal areas near Israel, Lebanon and Syria.

Brenda Pierce, a USGS Energy Resources Program Coordinator said:

“The Levant Basin Province is comparable to some of the other large provinces around the world…Its gas resources are bigger than anything we have assessed in the United States.”

The Levant Basin Province holds an estimated 1.7 billion barrels of undiscovered oil, which can be easily recovered with existing technology. This marks the first time the USGS has assessed the Levant Basin area for extractable resources.