By Pesach Benson • July 6, 2026
Jerusalem, 6 July, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure announced Monday that it has opened a fifth competitive process for Natural Gas exploration in Israel’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), offering five new clusters spanning roughly 7,100 square kilometers, the ministry said.
The move is part of a broader strategy to deepen Israel’s role as an energy supplier.
“Natural gas is a strategic asset that strengthens our economic and political position in the world in general and in the Middle East in particular,” Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Eli Cohen said. “Therefore, my policy is to Expand natural gas exploration, bring international energy giants to invest in Israel, and increase natural gas output, for the local economy and exports.”
The ministry said the selected areas were chosen following geological analyses and seismic surveys collected over several years, alongside the removal of environmentally sensitive zones from consideration. Officials estimate hundreds of additional billion cubic meters of undiscovered natural gas may lie offshore, with the possibility of further finds in previously unexplored geological layers.
The process, whose rules were formulated with the assistance of the Competition Authority, is designed to prioritize new market entrants. Proposals will be scored based on the quality of companies’ work plans, including surveys and drilling commitments, as well as signature grants (upfront payments made for exploration licensing rights). The previous, fourth competitive process brought signature grants worth roughly NIS 56.7 million ($18.9 million) into state coffers.
Bidding for the fifth process is expected to close toward the end of 2026, with licenses to be awarded in early 2027.
The current initiative builds on the fourth competitive process, in which six exploration licenses were awarded to a consortium including Azerbaijan’s SOCAR, Britain’s BP and Israel’s New Med Energy, with seismic survey work expected to begin in the coming months. It also comes amid expansion of production capacity at the Tamar and Leviathan reservoirs, completed in early 2026.
It further follows Israel’s signing of its largest natural gas export agreement to date — a deal with Egypt valued at NIS 112 billion ($37.4 billion), of which the Israeli treasury is expected to collect NIS 58 billion ($19.3 billion). To date, the state has collected more than NIS 35 billion ($11.6 billion) in taxes and direct royalties from the natural gas sector, with annual revenue of about NIS 5 billion shekels ($1.67 billion) in recent years.
The ministry projects total state revenue from natural gas could reach hundreds of billions of shekels over the coming decades.
Ministry Director General Yossi Dayan said expanding supply, rather than increased regulation, is the key to lowering costs. “The right way to ensure competition and reduce prices is by expanding supply, not through burdensome regulation,” Dayan said, adding that the process would “strengthen Israel’s energy resilience and its regional and international status for years to come.”
Chen Bar Yosef, director of the ministry’s Natural Resources Administration, said the timing reflects shifting conditions in the Mediterranean. “Given the changing atmosphere in the Mediterranean Basin, the need to increase natural gas sources for the region’s economies, and the desire to strengthen Israel’s energy security, we are launching an additional competitive process for natural gas exploration,” Bar Yosef said.