Last Sunday Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tabled plans to approve the development of a gas field off the Gaza Strip known as the “Gaza Marine”.
Announcing the move on the Gaza Marine project Netanyahu said progress would hinge on “preserving the State of Israel’s security and diplomatic needs.”
The project is nearly 36 kilometers from the Gaza coast in the waters of the Mediterranean.
Gaza Marine is estimated to hold over 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas much more than is needed to power the Palestinian territories.
The Netanyahu’s decision falls within the framework of the ongoing negotiations between Israel Egypt and the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli media sources said that the Israeli government held internal discussions about the gas field after it was formed at the end of last year.
It reported that the talks were renewed as part of the political and security process that began recently between Israel and the Palestinian Authority under US mediation.
The issue of developing the Gaza Marine field and preparing it for gas extraction was at the heart of the talks that took place in Aqaba and Sharm El-Sheikh.
The talks brought together security and political officials from the Palestinian and Israeli sides under the auspices of the US. Jordan and Egypt were part of the talks.
The Gaza gas fields were first discovered in 1999 in Palestinian territorial waters.
The first discovery was called Gaza Marine 1 and contains an estimated 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
The second field — located on the sea border area between Gaza and Israel — was called Gaza Marine 2 and contains an additional 3 billion cubic meters.
The fields have long been seen as a major stepping stone toward Palestinian energy independence but they remained untapped mainly due to Israeli objections and obstacles.
The offshore fields can help Gaza’s power station switch from oil to gas which would increase its operational capacity.
In November 1999 a 25-year contract for gas exploration and development of gas fields was signed between the British Gas Group or BG Group the CCC and the PIF.
BG Group withdrew from the project in 2016 and handed it over to Shell which withdrew from the agreement in 2018 due to various disputes.
In 2021 the PA signed a memorandum of understanding with Egypt to develop the Gaza gas field and the necessary infrastructure.
