Israel’s Ministry of Energy has announced plans to launch the fourth offshore bidding round (OBR 4) for exploration licenses in the country’s exclusive economic zone soon. OBR 4 is part of a multiyear program to encourage the exploration and development of Israel’s natural resources to provide low-cost, environmentally friendly energy to Israel’s consumers and businesses and to develop markets for Israeli natural gas beyond its borders.
As in OBR 2, the Ministry is planning to offer several zones to qualified companies, with each zone comprising approximately four licenses having a total area of up to 1600 sq km. Around 25 exploration licenses (blocks) have been mapped and will be grouped into six clusters. The exact dates of the stages of the bid round and grouping of the licenses in clusters will be determined later.
No decision has yet been made on the winner of the license for natural gas and oil exploration in Block 72 in the third competitive bid round carried out in 2020.
The Ministry will announce the formal commencement of OBR 4 and its delineation in the near future and provide detailed information on its website www.energy-sea.energy.gov.il at that time.