Israel is preparing to connect a disputed Mediterranean gas field to its national pipeline network, a development that helps the country cement its new role as a supplier to Europe but risks inflaming tensions with Lebanon's Hezbollah, reports The Guardian.

Israel's Energy Ministry said last week it would conduct tests on the platform and natural transmission system in the Karish offshore reservoir, which Lebanon claims as its own. Work is expected to start today, and London-based Energine, which licenses the field, said it was "on track to deliver gas from the Karish development project within weeks".

Discovered in 2013, the relatively small Karish field, along with the nearby Taryn field, is estimated to contain 2-3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 44 million barrels of liquids. Although what can be immediately exported is part of what is needed to ease the global energy crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the operation is still seen as welcome by Israel's Western allies as prices rise and Europe looks for alternatives to Russian supplies. gas sources.

But Lebanon, which is technically still at war with Israel, claims part of the Karish field as its own. Events took a dramatic turn over the summer after Energine brought a production ship to the field in June despite protests from Beirut that the reservoir should not be developed until US-brokered maritime border negotiations, which began in 2020, are completed.

Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement allied with Iran, responded to Energine's move by launching unarmed drones at Karish on July 2, which were shot down by the Israel Defense Forces.