Israel's Energy Minister in the US to Attract New Investors

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz is visiting the US this week in what he described as "a road show" in order to mobilize new investors for energy exploration in Israel. "One of my goals is meeting with top level [executives] from energy companies in order to entice them to come to Israel, not only to develop natural gas fields but also to explore and discover new oil and gas fields," Mr. Steinitz said to reporters.

On Tuesday Mr. Steinitz was scheduled to visit the headquarters of Noble Energy in order to assuage concerns over government policy and to reassure the company's management that the natural gas framework will be approved in the near future. Mr. Steinitz is interested in reducing the likelihood that Noble Energy will turn to international arbitration, a step that would delay the development of new natural gas export projects and worsen Israel's energy security.

Mr. Steinitz was also supposed to take part in an energy conference alongside US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.

"I am going to tell to the chiefs of the energy companies that there is not insignificant potential of discovering new gas fields... There are more Leviathans and Tamars awaiting to be discovered," commented Mr. Steinitz.

Ya'acov Zalel