Israeli energy investors worry that the Noor gas field could be a gamechanger: Reports of that the Noor gas field in the East Mediterranean coast off of North Sinai could hold reserves 3x as much as Zohr sent Israeli energy stocks down on Wednesday, according to Haaretz. Israeli gas shares fell by about 4% on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in mid-day trading, the newspaper noted. “Israeli energy investors might be concerned that developing Noor could stymie plans by Israeli companies to export gas extracted from in Tamar and Leviathan, two fields in Israeli territorial waters in the Mediterranean.” Leviathan operators Delek and Noble Energy were reportedly close to acquiring a stake in East Mediterranean Gas in a bid to begin exporting gas from the field to Egypt for processing before re-exporting the gas to Europe. The new discovery is also significant as Leviathan isn’t productive yet, and the longer that remains the case, the less Egypt will need it as it moves forward with developing new fields.

Then again, maybe not: Egypt is positioning itself as the premier regional energy hub, whether that’s on natural gas or electricity (through the ongoing grid upgrade and interconnection programs). And surplus hydrocarbons sloshing around could be catalysts for domestic manufacturing, as Basil El Baz suggests with his planned USD 10.8 bn Tahrir Petrochemical Corporation. In this sense, the more gas available to Egypt, the better.