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Published 01:46 28.07.11Latest update 01:46 28.07.11

The Leviathan natural gas field, for the sake of comparison to natural gas discoveries deep in the Mediterranean Sea, lies 5,200 meters below sea-level, at a water depth of 1,680 meters.

By Avi Bar-Eli



The natural gas discoveries deep in the Mediterranean Sea could be just the start, say researchers at Haifa University, who recently revealed a large number of natural gas seeps in shallow water as well. They suspect there may be a vast amount of gas down there. Whether it can be tapped is another matter.

The scientists have yet to elucidate the source of the seeps, though they suspect it originates in hydrates - methane trapped in ice at the bottom of the sea. Seeps have been detected up to 10 kilometers off Israel's coastline, mainly by Acre, the Tel Aviv area and Ashdod. The depth at some of these points is just 40 to 50 meters, and the seeps were discovered just 10 meters below the seabed.


Yitzhak Makovsky


The Leviathan natural gas field, for the sake of comparison, lies 5,200 meters below sea-level, at a water depth of 1,680 meters.

"The reserves of hydrates are several magnitudes greater than the proved gas discoveries," geophysicist Yitzhak Makovsky of Haifa University's Leon Charney School of Marine Sciences told TheMarker yesterday.

The problem is how to extract the gas, he said.

Shallow water gas originating from hydrates is at the forefront of research these days.

Methane molecules were trapped in ice that lies beneath the seabed, which is a completely different story from the gas produced around the world and in Israel, which lies in reserves trapped in rock, at depths of hundreds and thousands provident fund meters below ground level.

The gas in hydrates is not concentrated in volumes that warrant the vast expense of gas drilling. Yet some believe this chilly source will become a crucial energy tap in the future, once a way is found to extract it.

The gas was found through seismic tests of the seabed up to 20 kilometers from the shore. The sheer number of gas seeps was a surprise and set off quite a noise in academic circles, mainly because of their proximity to the shore.

How much is down there? It's impossible to say, because the origin of the gas and rate of its release are unknown, Makovsky says. The prevailing hypothesis is that the gas is also created at some shallow point, which raises hope it could be tapped in the future, he says. It may flow in small quantities, but its source may be renewable, and its extraction could prove cheap enough to make production economically feasible.

"I can't promise this gas has economic potential," he stresses.

While the scientists search for the origin of the gas, Noble Energy and Delek Group, which is developing the deep-sea Tamar and Leviathan fields, is finding the work useful, though not necessarily because of the hydrates. The group is finding the seismic maps useful in laying pipelines from the fields to the shore: they need to map out a stable seabed route.

For instance, the seeps could attest to porous seabed structures that might not be stable enough for the pipeline to squat on, says Makovsky.

The gas seep findings are also intriguing for entrepreneurs who envision the building of artificial islands off Israel's shore. Again, they need to be sure that any building would be done on stable seabed. Such an artificial island is planned off Herzliya, to house an international airport.

Haifa University President Aaron Ben-Ze'ev comments that a nation wanting to advance its gas and oil infrastructures cannot afford to stand still, and the research into marine resources at the university is an example of what needs to be done.