
A US energy industry expert estimates that international  companies may soon join exploration efforts for oil and gas in  Israel.
The expert, Fred Zeidman, told Globes website that it is very  likely that international firms will join the exploration efforts on Israeli  territory, a year after the 'Tamar' and 'Dalit' discoveries in the Mediterranean  Sea. One international firm is already involved: Noble Energy, which was the  partner of Delek and Isramco in the discoveries. 
Two of Israel's largest  financial groups – Nochi Dankner's IDB group and Ofer Nimrodi's Israel Land  Development – have also entered the sector.
'A crazy rush'
"It  happens all the time," Zeidman said. "We see in the US that the moment a company  discovers oil or gas that can be transported, there's a crazy rush to the region  by other companies, and that's a function of the size of the reserves found.  Around the world, as soon as Noble goes to a place, many other companies follow  in its wake. The prospects here are amazing, and I have no doubt that we'll see  an economic boom, and a rush of more companies to Israel from overseas following  Noble."
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 122 trillion cubic feet  of undiscovered, recoverable natural gas are in the Levant Basin Province in the  eastern Mediterranean region, according to a new report.
The area  includes the coastal areas near Israel, Lebanon and Syria. 
“The Levant  Basin Province is comparable to some of the other large provinces around the  world,” stated Brenda Pierce, USGS Energy Resources Program Coordinator. “Its  gas resources are bigger than anything we have assessed in the United  States.” 
The Levant Basin Province also holds an estimated 1.7 billion  barrels of undiscovered oil, that can be recovered with existing technology.  This is the first time the USGS has assessed the Levant Basin area for  extractable resources.