Tamar Field Flows First Gas

First gas from the Tamar natural gas field offshore Israel started flowing on Saturday.

"Today (we begin) independence in Israeli natural gas. It is an enormous achievement for the Israeli economy and the start of a new era," the Jerusalem Post quoted Yitzhak Tshuva, of Delek Group as saying.

The Tamar partnership is led by Noble Energy, which has a 36% stake, Yitzhak's Tshuva's Delek Group (31%), Isramco (29%) and Dor Alon (4%). 

Tamar is located 90 kilometers off the coast of Haifa and has an estimated 10 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The start of commercial production at Tamar should come as a relief to Israel Electric Corporation, which has faced a shortage of natural gas for the past 18 months that has forced it to purchase more expensive -- and polluting -- fuels for its generating plants, Haaretz said in a report.