“We are excited to be in the energy industry in the eastern Mediterranean, especially in Israel,” Chevron’s Jeff Ewing told The Jerusalem Post.
Israel could prove to be a new natural gas powerhouse on the global energy scene, said an executive from a gas industry titan in Jerusalem on Thursday, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Jeff Ewing, Managing Director of Chevron’s Eastern Mediterranean Business Unit, spoke about the great potential for the Jewish State to make an impact in the natural gas field during the Jerusalem Post’s annual conference.
“We are excited to be in the energy industry in the eastern Mediterranean, especially in Israel,” said Ewing. “We see great opportunities to grow the natural gas business in the region, which is becoming even more important as natural gas is seen as a key transition in the low-carbon strategy for the environment.”
Chevron bought Noble Energy in 2020, a Houston, Texas-based corporation that holds some 2 million barrels of oil equivalent.
As of 2019, 43% of those reserves were in Israel. With the purchase of Noble Energy, Chevron officially entered the Israeli market.
But Chevron’s interest in Israel goes far beyond the resources it obtained via Noble. Because the Jewish State is a clean tech powerhouse, the gas giant believes that operating in Israel could lead to potential innovation opportunities.
“We are a high tech company, and we are always looking for new technologies to make us more efficient and safer,” Ewing said, after acknowledging Israel’s reputation as a start-up powerhouse.
He told a Jerusalem Post journalist that Chevron has a new venture capital fund that could potentially fund Israeli start-ups in the clean tech and energy spaces.
Chevron hopes to announce partnerships with Israeli companies, from start-ups to more established businesses, in the future, Ewing added.
Referencing the Abraham Accords, Ewing indicated that Chevron sees growing its presence in Israel as a potential opportunity to expand peace agreements in the region through business ties.
While Israel has never been a major supplier of natural gas, the partnership with Chevron could open up new opportunities for the Jewish State.