Eastern Mediterranean Gas: How Israel Became Europe's Newest Energy Supplier
Tamar and Leviathan hold 33 trillion cubic feet between them. Chevron operates both, NewMed Energy is the largest Israeli partner. Egypt liquefies, Israel produces, European buyers take the LNG. The operational answer to what an Israel-to-Europe energy connection looks like.
Israel's two largest offshore gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan, hold roughly 33 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves between them.
Tamar was discovered in January 2009. Leviathan in December 2010. Together they made Israel — historically a net energy importer — into a regional exporter within a decade of discovery.
Today Israel pipes gas to Egypt and Jordan. Through Egypt's LNG re-export terminals, Israeli molecules reach European buyers.
After Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine reshaped European gas supply, that triangulated flow became material to European energy security.
The eastern Mediterranean gas corridor is now operational.
The Fields
Tamar sits roughly 90 kilometers west of Haifa. Reserves: approximately 11 trillion cubic feet. Production: from 2013.
Leviathan sits further offshore. Reserves: approximately 22 trillion cubic feet — the largest gas discovery in the world in the prior decade at the time. Production: from 2019.
Karish, operated by Energean, came online in 2022 and added Israeli production capacity outside the Tamar–Leviathan complex.
The Operators
Chevron operates Tamar and Leviathan, having acquired Noble Energy in 2020.
NewMed Energy — the rebrand of Delek Drilling effective 2022 — is the largest Israeli partner across both fields.
Ratio Oil Exploration holds the third significant stake.
Energean operates Karish independently of the Chevron–NewMed consortium.
Egypt — The Largest Export Route
Israeli gas flows to Egypt through the EMG pipeline from Ashkelon to El Arish in northern Sinai.
Egyptian domestic consumption absorbs part of the flow. The remainder feeds Egypt's two LNG export terminals at Idku and Damietta, which liquefy gas for export to European markets.
That re-export structure has been the principal commercial channel for Israeli gas reaching Europe since 2022. Italy, Spain, France, and Greece are the largest LNG buyers.
The arrangement gives Israel a European market without building a direct pipeline. It gives Egypt commercial use of LNG infrastructure originally built for Egyptian domestic gas exports. It gives European buyers a non-Russian supply source.
Egyptian domestic gas shortages through parts of 2024 constrained re-export volume periodically. The framework itself has held.
Jordan — The Direct Pipeline
A separate pipeline supplies Jordanian power generation under a 15-year agreement signed in 2016 between the Leviathan partners and Jordan's National Electric Power Company.
Jordanian gas demand is structurally Israeli-sourced. There is no realistic alternative supply at comparable cost.
The agreement has survived political pressure across the Jordanian street through the Gaza war. The commercial logic has held.
The EastMed Pipeline
A direct subsea pipeline from Israel to Europe — the EastMed pipeline — was proposed in the late 2010s.
The route would have run from Israel's offshore fields to Cyprus, then to Crete, then to mainland Greece, then north into European gas grids.
The United States withdrew support in January 2022. The economics were challenging at scale. The project has not been built.
EuroAsia Interconnector — the parallel electricity cable connecting Israel, Cyprus, and Greece to the European grid — is the surviving direct energy connection.
EastMed gas remains conceptual.
The Triangulated Architecture
The operational eastern Mediterranean gas system runs through Egypt.
Egypt liquefies. Israel produces. European customers buy from Egyptian terminals.
That triangulated flow is the practical answer to what an Israel-to-Europe energy connection looks like — not a direct pipeline, but a routed flow through Egyptian liquefaction infrastructure.
Status as of May 2026
Tamar and Leviathan continue at full capacity.
Egyptian re-export of Israeli-sourced LNG to Europe continues, with periodic volume fluctuations tied to Egyptian domestic demand seasonality.
Karish adds incremental Israeli production capacity through its Egyptian export contracts.
Cyprus continues to develop its own offshore reserves. The Aphrodite field remains under field development planning.
No direct Israel-to-Europe pipeline has been built.
What This Means
Eastern Mediterranean gas is the most commercially mature element of any Israel-to-Europe connection.
It generates billions of dollars annually in Israeli export value.
It is the operational counterpart to IMEC's still-conceptual hydrogen and electricity layers.
If IMEC ever moves cargo, it will run alongside an energy system that has been moving molecules for years.