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Israel announces new natural gas field off its coast

The official announcement on the discovery of the Katlan-Orca natural gas field off Israel's coast paves the way for hydrocarbon exploration company Energian to seek development and exploitation permits.
Israeli gas fields

Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and Greek-British hydrocarbon exploration and production company Energean officially announced on Wednesday the discovery of a new natural gas field off the coast of Israel. The field has been given the name "Katlan," which means "orca" in Hebrew.

Israel’s Energy Minister Israel Katz handed a formal recognition certificate — issued by the Energy Ministry Fuel Administration head Chen Bar-Yosef (under the 2018 discovery permit No. 12) — to Energean CEO Matthew Rigas for the discovery of the natural gas field.

Estimated at 68 billion cubic meters, the new field was technically discovered in May 2022, as part of search and discovery work by Energean under permit No. 12, essentially focusing on the discovery of the Karish and Tanin reserves. Katlan is considered rather small, compared with other fields off the Israeli coast. Still, with Israel's annual consumption estimated at less than 13 billion cubic meters, the new discovery is important.

The Katlan undersea gas field falls within Israel's economic waters. By contrast, the Aphrodite field is mostly in Cypriot territorial waters, with only a small part in Israeli waters. The Kana-Sidon undersea reservoir is mostly in Lebanese waters and only a small part in Israeli waters. An American/French-brokered deal between Israel and Lebanon last year established the maritime border line between the economic waters of both countries and the terms of exploitation.

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