The Leviathan gas field is a large natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel, 47 kilometres (29 mi) south-west of the Tamar gas field, which is also controlled by Israel and her partners.. The gas field is roughly 130 kilometres (81 mi) west of Haifa in waters 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) deep in the Levantine basin, a rich hydrocarbon area in one of the largest offshore natural gas field finds.
Together with the nearby Tamar gas field, the Leviathan field is seen as an opportunity for Israel to achieve energy independence in the Middle East.
The field began commercial production of gas on 31 December 2019.
The Tamar gas field is a natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. The field is located in Israel's exclusive economic zone, roughly 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Haifa in waters 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) deep. The Tamar field is considered to have proven reserves of 200 billion cubic metres (7.1 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas, while the adjoining Tamar South field has 23 billion cubic metres (810 billion cubic feet). Together, they may have an additional 84 BCM of "probable" reserves and up to 49 BCM of "possible" reserves (reserves having a 10% probability of extraction). At the time of discovery, Tamar was the largest find of gas or oil in the Levant basin of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the largest discovery by Noble Energy.
The Leviathan gas field and the Tamar gas field have some interesting owners:
Chevron Corporation, [who also owns Texaco], acquired Noble Energy in October 2020, and it operates Leviathan with a 39.66% working interest. In a connected tidbit: Protestors In Ecuador also frequently hold an annual Anti-Chevron day, usually held within a week of Chevron's annual meeting of shareholders, due to their rough treatment by Texaco, bought by Chevron, in their bad faith handling of environmental damages to Ecuador.
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Delek, the Israel Fuel Corporation, holds 45.34% ownership;
One of their subsidiaries is Delek Pi-Glilot, a fuel storage and distribution company, who recently hired former Israeli police commissioner Moshe Karadi, who had recently resigned following findings by the Zeiler Commission "that police had grossly mishandled the murder investigation in the Perinian affair." The Israeli police commissioner resigned after an investigative committee severely criticized his actions in a 1999 case involving an Israeli crime family. The Perinian brothers had been arrested for their alleged involvement in the murder of former elite policeman turned hit man Tzahi Ben-Or in 2004. The Perinians allegedly paid off police officers in order to stall the investigations into Ben-Or's and Buhbout's murders.
Delek – The Israel Fuel Corporation, one of the largest chains of filling stations in Israel. Delek Group also owns E&P operations across the Levant, in the North Sea and in the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond the oil industry, it also owns coffeehouse chain Café Joe as well as 70% of the Israeli franchisee of Burger King. Delek Benelux took over marketing activities for Chevron Global Energy Inc. in Benelux, including 869 fueling stations, mostly under the Texaco brand.
Assets including holdings in: Yam Tethys Partnership, Tamar gas field, Leviathan gas field, Tanin gas field, Aphrodite gas field [all of these gas fields are in the Levantine Sea area from the map above.]
On 12 February 2020, the United Nations published a database of 112 companies helping to further Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in the occupied Golan Heights. These settlements are considered illegal under international law. Delek was listed on the database on account of its "provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements" and "the use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes" in these occupied territories. So Delek is actively working to support the further Israeli settlement of all Palestinian territories, with the obvious expulsion of the Palestinian residents as a result of these activities.
The remainder is owned by the Ratio Oil Exploration Limited Partnership. In 1992, Yeshayahu (Shaikeh) Landau and his son Yigal Landau, in collaboration with the Rotlevy family, the late Zvi Tzafriri, and Geologist Eitan Eisenberg, established the “Ratio Oil Exploration (1992)” – Limited Partnership for the purpose of oil exploration in Israel.
Yeshayahu Landau, one of the founders of the Ratio Group, was born in Ukraine in 1927.
During his work at Hiram-Landau, Landau and his partners initiated the building of the largest private power plant in Israel – Dalia Energies. Landau financed the transaction whereby the Ormat Electric Turbine Company built a power plant in Southern California and was a partner in the American company that acquired the plant. In 1992, he acquired an interest in the Union Bank of Israel [Union Bank is Israel's sixth largest bank,] together with the Rotlevy family and additional partners. That's two connections with Southern California - this Electric company and Chevron.
David Rotlevy, also one of the owners of the Union Bank and an officer-shareholder in Ratio Oil, is a former member of the Palmach. The Palmach (Strike Companies) was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. Its members formed the backbone of the Israel Defense Forces high command for many years, and were prominent in Israeli politics, literature and culture. Palmach units took a major part in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. At the beginning of the war, Palmach units were responsible for holding Jewish settlements (such as Gush Etzion, Kfar Darom and Revivim) against Arab militias.
Following the dismantling of the Palmach, where he served, Rotlevy was transferred to the Intelligence and Signal Corps and participated in its first commanders’ course.
In the 1970s, he entered the civil service, and was elected head of the Tel Aviv District Office of the Israel Bar Association and a member of the Tel Aviv City Council on behalf of the Likud party.
In 1979, he was invited by then-Minister of Finance to take on the position of Economic Attaché in the United States – a position he held for two and a half years and in which he contributed to the development of the economic ties between Israel and the United States, as well as with other countries.
By the way, the Rotlevy family that is also an owner of Ratio, keeps a low profile. However, Ligad Rotlevy is the Chairman of Space Communication LTD, known as SpaceCom, and they run satellites under a U.S. Government contract as well as having ties to NASA. Spacecom Is The Owner- Operator Of the Advanced AMOS Satellite Fleet, providing advanced satellite services to millions of users across Africa, Europe. Operating the advanced AMOS satellite fleet, Spacecom provides broadcast and broadband satellite services with Pan-European, Pan-African, Middle Eastern, Russian, and Asian coverage and cross-region connectivity.
According to the Haaretz.Com online site, the Police are also investigating Ratio due to a complaint by Globus owner Shlomi Shukrun, who claims the arbitration agreement with Ratio, owned by Yigal Landau and Ligad Rotlevy, was conducted amid threats and illegal coercion.
Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) Limited Partnership is based in Tel Aviv, Israel. They are currently in a joint venture with ESSO Guyana Limited operating the Kaieteur block off shore Guyana. Esso Exploration & Production Guyana Limited is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving Texas and was formed on November 30 1999 by the merger of Exxon and Mobil both being the descendants of Standard Oil which was incorporated in 1870 by John D Rockefeller. Being the world’s 7th largest company by revenue it is considered a supermajor in the oil industry with daily production of 3.921 barrels of oil. They are the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world’s oil and about 2% of the world’s energy. So another connection of this natural gas reserves field with the USA.
Yigal Landau is also a Director at “Dalia” Power Energies Ltd. Landau ventured to establish the company’s private power plant in Tel-Tzafit, which, with a capacity of 870 megawatts, is expected to be the largest private power plant in Israel and the investment for its establishment is estimated at a level of USD 1.0 billion. The power plant is expected to house two integrated combined cycle power generation units, fueled by natural gas, each unit ‘s installed capacity is approx. 435 MW. And a Director at Proseed Venture Capital Fund Ltd. The fund invests in start-ups and high-tech companies in the information technology, life sciences and medical device fields.
One of their principal investmenst is in Gaming & eSports Funding; so yet another connection to the dark side of the universe.
After discovery of the Leviathan gas fields in 2010, Lebanon argued that the field extends into Lebanese waters. Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri stated that Israel is "ignoring the fact that according to the maps the deposit extends into Lebanese waters," Agence France-Presse reported on June 9. Israeli Minister of National Infrastructures Uzi Landau responded "We will not hesitate to use our force and strength to protect not only the rule of law but the international maritime law," in an interview. Israel will do what ever it takes to protect the Leviathan gas fields in the Levantine Sea. And unfortunately Gaza also fronts on that sea, and just like Lebanon, they would under internation law have some rights to those deposits. However, they are in a virtual open-air prison at the moment, dodging missiles as well, and so they are ill equipped to fight for those rights.
On 19 October 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to allow major concessions for Gazprom to develop the Leviathan reserves.
The Leviathan reserves are the ones owned by the players I have outlined above. And Gazprom is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was, until 2023, ranked as the largest publicly listed natural gas company in the world and the largest company in Russia by revenue.
On 19 February 2018, The partners in Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan natural gas fields signed $15 billion in deals to export natural gas to Egypt over 10 years. They also recently signed an agreement with Jordan valued at some $10 billion as well.
