Modiin conducted a seismic survey and found that the Gabriella license contains an estimated 110 million barrels of oil and 1.8 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas.
Environmental groups, however, said that the field is too close to a proposed marine nature reserve and threatened to obstruct the drilling, reported rigzone.
Expected to begin production by the end of 2013, the offshore Tamar field contains about 9tcf of natural gas.
According to a government report, the field will meet all of Israel’s natural gas needs for at least a decade.
The company has said that it would raise additional funds to finance the drilling of Gabriella after it incurred huge losses from drilling potential wells in another license, where no gas or oil was found.
