At the end of December 2010, a huge natural gas discovery was confirmed in the Eastern Mediterranean inside Israel?s territorial waters. It is called the Leviathan gas deposit in the Levant Basin and marks a major development for Israel, with the potential for making Israel an energy exporter over the next decade. Natural gas was first discovered off Israel?s coast in 1999, but the quantity was so small that until recently, Israel was still planning on importing natural gas from Russia. The Leviathan field, discovered by a consortium led by Houston-based Noble Energy, is the world?s largest offshore gas find in the past decade and makes Israel now among the ranks of the world?s largest gas reserve holders in the world. [Possibly, the Leviathan field may contain a world-scale oil deposit as well.]