Cyprus-Forum.com

[ARMENIAN CYPRIOT]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday that Israel will defend gas fields it has discovered in the Mediterranean.

"There is no doubt these resources are a strategic objective that Israel's enemies will try to undermine, and I have decided that Israel will defend its resources," Netanyahu told an economic conference in Jerusalem.
The premier has also adopted the findings of a committee that recommended taxes be nearly doubled for exploration companies to ensure a "proper balance is struck between the needs of Israeli citizens and those of investors."

Under the changes, taxes on company profits will be raised from around 30% to between 52% and 62%.

Israel has discovered two major offshore gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan, which lie 130 kilometers (80 miles) off the northern port of Haifa.

US company Noble Energy estimates that Tamar's reserves of natural gas are eight billion cubic meters (280 billion cubic feet), while those of Leviathan field were put at 450 billion cubic meters (16 trillion cubic feet).

The gas is located on the continental shelf off Israel, but Lebanon claims that any of these deposits lie partly in the south of its exclusive economic zone.

Israel and Lebanon are technically at war and have not defined their maritime boundary.

In December, Israel and Cyprus signed an agreement that defines their sea border and allows the neighbors to forge ahead in the search for energy sources in the eastern Mediterranean.

The agreement between Cyprus and Israel, an ally of Greece, has angered Turkey, which does not recognize the Greek Cypriot government and recognizes only the northern occupied part of the island. (AFP)