# Implications of Israel Becoming A Major Energy Exporter?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implications-of-israel-becoming-a-major-energy-exporter/601565>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 2, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implications-of-israel-becoming-a-major-energy-exporter/601565 "2011-11-02T00:10:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implications-of-israel-becoming-a-major-energy-exporter/601565/1 "2011-11-02T00:10:22Z")

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Suppose that Israel finds an enormous gas field in its Mediterranean waters. Overnight, Israel goes from being an energy-poor importer to a major exporter. The won’t need to import any oil-everything runs on CNG.  
What would happen to the power balance in the ME?  
Would Israel have the potential to replace Russia as an exporter to W Europe?  
I think it would calm things down-having Israel as a supplier would be more attractive to european countries-what do you think?

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implications-of-israel-becoming-a-major-energy-exporter/601565/2 "2011-11-02T00:46:08Z")

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Um, Israel _has_ discovered an enormous gas field, the Leviathan, and will be an energy exporter. Discussed [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=590980) almost a year ago.

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**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/implications-of-israel-becoming-a-major-energy-exporter/601565/3 "2011-11-03T02:29:06Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> Suppose that Israel finds an enormous gas field in its Mediterranean waters. Overnight, Israel goes from being an energy-poor importer to a major exporter. The won’t need to import any oil-everything runs on CNG.  
> What would happen to the power balance in the ME?  
> Would Israel have the potential to replace Russia as an exporter to W Europe?  
> I think it would calm things down-having Israel as a supplier would be more attractive to european countries-what do you think?

and “Overnight” is quite a stretch. It will take several more years to develop the fields. And remember the world has a LOT of natural gas right now. Exporting the stuff may not be an economic windfall that people assume.