TEL AVIV, Israel, April 7 (UPI) -- A 2014 agreement to ship natural gas from the Tamar field off the coast of Israel to Jordan was backed by the Israeli government, an operator said Tuesday.

Jordanian companies Arab Potash and Jordan Bromine secured a total gross quantity of 66 billion cubic feet of natural gas from the Tamar field, located off the Israeli coast, last year.


Delek Group said it secured approval for the deal from the Israeli government.

"It should be noted that this agreement includes a number of other prerequisites, which are mainly other regulatory approvals by relevant bodies in Israel and Jordan," the company added.

Jordan in the past has struggled to find a reliable source of natural gas in part because of downstream problems in Egypt. The partners managing Tamar estimate the field holds as much as 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

In December, the Israel Antitrust Authority said Delek and its partners at Noble Energy held a monopoly over all of the gas reservoirs off the nation's coast. Noble said the antitrust ruling set a "harmful precedent" for working in Israel.

Both companies control Tamar and the Leviathan natural gas field, considered one of the region's largest with an estimated 18 trillion cubic feet of reserves.

The U.S. State Department facilitated talks last year that led to the signing of regional deals for gas deliveries from Israeli fields.