Jerusalem, 7 November, 2022 (TPS) — The British-Greek energy company Energean announced the discovery of 13 billion cubic meters of natural gas off the coast of Israel on Monday.

The gas was found in a gas field known as Zeus-1. Zeus is one of nine gas fields in an area collectively known as the Olympus bloc.

“The Zeus exploration well, block 12, offshore Israel, has made a commercial discovery with preliminary estimates indicating that the structure contains 13.3 bcm of recoverable natural gas resources,” Energean said in a statement.”

The statement noted that the find exceeds pre-drilling estimates of 10-12 billion cubic centimeters (bcm)

The statement also said that the adjacent Athena gas field holds 11.75 bcm of natural gas, which is 3.75 bcm more than previous assessments.

The discovery will be welcome news in Europe, which has been diversifying its energy sources since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Israel will provide the European Union with natural gas shipped via Egypt under the terms of a trilateral agreement signed in June. The Israeli gas will be converted into liquified natural gas (LNG) at Egyptian facilities before being transferred to Europe. Israel does not have its own LNG facilities.

Energean said it now plans to conduct drilling in the Hercules field.