This gas discovery has been known about for several years. Israel has granted drilling rights to Texas based Noble Energy and partners Delek Drilling, Avner Oil Exploration and Ratio Oil Exploration. The first production deal is to send natural gas to Jordan and will bring in up to $15 billions over a number of years.
I was told some time 35 to 40 years ago that the reason we were fighting in Vietnam and Israel in Lebanon was that there were off shore oil deposits of some size. I had a Secret clearance back then and knew some people with interesting contacts.