Energy Corridors: Tamar, Leviathan, and the Egypt-Jordan Gas Architecture
Israel sits on more than 35 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves. Chevron leads operations across Tamar and Leviathan; NewMed Energy anchors the Israeli operator layer. The 2025 Cairo Accord restructured the Egypt corridor.
Israel's natural gas economy — production, pipelines, exports, operators.
Quick Answer
Israel sits on more than 35 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves — a scale that has restructured Israeli energy, anchored multi-billion-dollar annual export revenues, and tied Egypt and Jordan into long-term supply relationships. Chevron operates as lead operator across Tamar and Leviathan since acquiring Noble Energy in 2020; NewMed Energy anchors the Israeli operator layer.
Key Facts
- Combined Israeli proven natural gas reserves exceed 35 trillion cubic feet across Tamar, Leviathan, Karish, and adjacent fields.
- Leviathan: estimated 22 trillion cubic feet — Israel's largest gas field. Discovered 2013, production startup December 2019.
- Tamar: estimated 10 trillion cubic feet. Discovered 2010, production startup 2013.
- The Israel-Jordan gas agreement anchors approximately 45 BCM over 15 years — a structural anchor of Jordanian power generation.
- The 2025 Cairo Accord restructured the Israel-Egypt corridor with new commercial and political terms.
- Israeli natural gas export revenues reached the multi-billion-dollar range annually through 2024–2025, per Israeli Ministry of Energy data.
- Karish (operated by Energean) entered production in 2022.
Leviathan
The 2013 discovery is Israel's largest gas field. Production startup December 2019 restructured Israeli energy security and built the export capacity anchoring Egypt and Jordan.
Partner structure: Chevron as lead operator (post-2020), with NewMed Energy and Ratio Oil Exploration as Israeli partners.
The full Leviathan picture — production capacity, partner economics, the Chevron–NewMed lead-operator structure, and the 2025 Cairo Accord — is covered in Leviathan: Israel's Largest Gas Field, the Chevron–NewMed Architecture, and the 2025 Cairo Accord.
Tamar
Discovered 2010, approximately 90 kilometers west of Haifa in roughly 1,700 meters of water depth. First major Israeli offshore gas discovery to reach commercial production. Entered production 2013.
Tamar supplies a substantial share of Israeli domestic consumption and anchors a portion of Egyptian export volume. Partner structure has evolved across multiple transactions — Noble Energy historically as lead operator until the 2020 Chevron acquisition, with Israeli partners including Delek Drilling (now NewMed Energy), Isramco, and Tamar Petroleum.
The Egypt corridor
The Israel-Egypt gas pipeline was reactivated in 2018, enabling Israeli exports through the existing EMG pipeline (originally built for Egyptian exports to Israel). The route has scaled materially since.
Egypt's dual role — consumer of Israeli gas and downstream liquefier via the Idku and Damietta LNG facilities, which can re-export to global markets — makes the Egyptian channel structurally important to broader Eastern Mediterranean gas commerce.
The 2025 Cairo Accord restructured the commercial and political terms of the Egypt corridor.
The Jordan corridor
The Israel-Jordan supply agreement anchors approximately 45 BCM over 15 years — a structural anchor of Jordanian power generation. The relationship has produced periodic political controversy in Jordan but has continued operationally through 2025–2026.
Detail in The Israel-Jordan Gas Agreement: 45 BCM Over 15 Years and the Structural Anchor of Jordanian Power.
The operator landscape
Chevron operates as lead operator across Tamar and Leviathan following its 2020 acquisition of Noble Energy. Chevron's position is one of the major US oil-and-gas international holdings and a structurally important commercial anchor of Israeli gas exports.
NewMed Energy (the renamed and restructured Delek Drilling-affiliated entity) anchors the Israeli operator layer.
Ratio Oil Exploration operates as a Leviathan partner.
Energean operates the Karish field independently of the Tamar/Leviathan structure.
Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) anchors the downstream electricity sector as the state-owned utility historically dominating generation and distribution.
The Mubadala MOU
The 2021 Mubadala MOU to acquire a 22% stake in Tamar from Delek Drilling for up to $1.1 billion was signed but did not close — a Gulf-sovereign engagement that did not materialize. Covered in detail in Sovereign & Strategic Capital.
Topic tracks
- Leviathan — discovery, production, the Chevron–NewMed structure
- Tamar — discovery, production, partner structure
- Karish — Energean operations
- The Egypt Corridor — pipeline, the 2025 Cairo Accord
- The Jordan Corridor — 45 BCM agreement and the political picture
- The Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum — regional commerce
- Israel Electric Corporation — downstream electricity
Why this sub-cluster exists
Israeli natural gas restructured a meaningful portion of the real economy across 2010–2025 and continues to do so. The sub-cluster maps production, exports, and the operator landscape.
Source data: Israeli Ministry of Energy; Bank of Israel; Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics; SEC filings of Chevron, NewMed Energy, Energean; coverage in Calcalist, Globes, Times of Israel, Bloomberg, Reuters, S&P Global Platts. Data current as of Q2 2026.