London-listed firm Energean on Sunday began testing pipes between Israel and the Karish offshore gas field, a key step towards production from the eastern Mediterranean site, a source of friction between neighbours Israel and Lebanon.
Israel has maintained that Karish falls entirely within its territory and is not a subject of negotiation at ongoing, US-mediated maritime border talks with Lebanon. The two countries remain technically at war.
Lebanon has reportedly made claims to parts of Karish and the Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah, which holds huge influence in Lebanon, has previously threatened attacks if Israel began production from the field.
In a statement Sunday, Energean said that “following approval received from the Israeli Ministry of Energy to start certain testing procedures, the flow of gas from onshore to the FPSO has commenced”, referring to the Karish floating production storage offloading facility.
The tests, set to take a number of weeks, were “an important step” towards extracting gas from the Karish, Energean said.
Lebanon and Israel have engaged in on-off indirect talks since 2020 to delineate their Mediterranean border, which could allow both countries to boost offshore natural gas exploration.
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