The energy ministers of Israel and Cyprus have been keen to promote their countries’ ambitions of finding significantly more gas in the eastern Mediterranean following the August discovery by Italy’s Eni of the 30 tcf Zohr field in the Egyptian deepwater bordering Cyprus.

Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz this week said he had met with officials from Eni, Anglo-Dutch major Shell and ExxonMobil amongst others in a bid to re-boot Israeli offshore exploration after almost a year of stasis. “My intent is to reopen Israel’s economic waters for exploration,” Mr Steinitz told reporters on 10 November. (CONTINUED - 758 WORDS)