Gas production has started at Karish, an offshore field at the center of a maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon, London-listed energy company and the field's licensee Energean said Wednesday.
"Gas is being produced from the Karish Main-02 well and the flow of gas is being steadily ramped up," a statement from the company said. Two further wells are expected to be opened soon.
"I am delighted to confirm that Energean has reached first gas at the Karish field, offshore Israel," said Mathios Rigas, CEO of Energean, according to the statement.
"We have delivered a landmark project that brings competition to the Israeli gas market, enhances security of energy supply in the East Med region and brings affordable and clean energy that will displace coal-fired power generation, making a material impact to the environment."
In response, Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said that "we resisted in the beginning, but now that there is an agreement we have no problem with it."
This comes as Israel is set to sign a U.S.-brokered deal with Lebanon on Thursday demarcating the maritime border between them, and placing Karish within Israel's borders.
Karish - located about 50 miles west off the Israeli city of Haifa - raised tensions between the two countries and drew threats of war from the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
The Lebanese and Israeli delegations are expected to sit together in the same room during the signing ceremony, going against recent reports, and not in separate rooms. However, there will be no handshakes between the Israeli and Lebanese officials, and it is doubtful that photographs from the ceremony will be released, as to avoid an appearance of normalization between the countries.
Karish joins Tamar and Leviathan to become Israel's third offshore rig providing natural gas, with each connected to the mainland by separate infrastructure.
Under the accord with Lebanon, Beirut will have full rights to operate and explore the so-called Qana or Sidon reservoir nearby.