A example of an oil platform exploring for offshore gas. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Israeli government announced the discovery of a new offshore gas field located 90 miles from Israel’s coast that holds at least 3.2 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The field, which has been named “Royee,” will be drilled starting in December 2015. If the estimates on the amount of oil contained inside are correct, Royee will become the fourth-largest gas field located in the Mediterranean Basin.

Two larger offshore fields, Tamar and Leviathan, were discovered by Israel in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Those fields are already expected to satisfy most of Israel’s natural gas needs for the next 100 years. But gas experts believe that additional fields such as Royee will continue to be discovered as offshore exploration continues.

“At the national level, the news means a lot. We have learned that the Levantine basin holds reservoirs at other depths and I hope the next government will exploit the opportunity by encouraging entrepreneurs to continue the exploring and developing,” said Eyal Shuker, CEO of Israel Opportunity, which holds a 10-percent stake in the Royee project.