Delek Drilling, one of the Alon license partners, announced Sunday morning that it had found "significant traces of natural gas" at the Tanin 1 field.
Work on the site began last August at a cost of some $50 million, which included mainly confirmation drilling to a depth of about 5,500 meters (18,000 feet).
The partnership of the potential reservoir is not releasing any resource reports just yet. The first official report is scheduled for late February and in accordance with Israel Securities Authority directives.
Estimates are that the field may yield up to 1.2 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas, which are some 42 BCM. If the estimates are accurate, the Tanin field has 27% more gas than the Yam Tethys field.
Delek Drilling said in response, "At this point we are conducting stabilization and preservation work on the well in order to allow further tests, including – as planned – logs (electronic, seismic and magnetic) and the analysis of the reservoir's gas, rock and liquid composition."
The comment follows a statement that the discovery of gas traces does not necessary indicate the discovery of gas on the site.
The Tanin 1 field is located some 120 kilometers (75 miles) off the shores of Israel, in the relative proximity to the Leviathan site owned by the Rachel and Amit licenses. In the future, the reservoirs may be connected to one pipeline system in the event that it is laid out.