Israel’s natural gas companies and Noble Energy Inc.

have signed the first contract to supply 6 bcm  of gas over 18 years, from the Leviathan field, to the country’s two power stations owned by Edeltech group , Bloomberg reported. The flow of gas to domestic and regional markets is set to begin within three to four years from the decision and as early as the end of 2019.

“This deal marks a beginning. We are advancing more agreements with customers in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey,” Yossi Abu, Delek Drilling’s CEO said in a statement. “Development of the Leviathan field will ensure Israel’s energy security and gas export contracts from the site will strengthen the country’s geopolitical position in the region,” he added.

Meanwhile, Greece, Israel, and Cyprus had agreed to examine the possibility to construct a pipeline to transport gas to Europe via Greece, as reserves between 10,000 and 15,000 bcm in the east Mediterranean basin – including Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus – are sufficient to meet both domestic and European markets needs, Ahram Online wrote citing Israeli Energy Minister, Yuval Steinitz.

In addition, there are plans to build a subsea electricity interconnector cable of 1,500 km long to transfer up to 2,000 MW of power generated from the gas fields to Europe via Israel, Cyprus, and Greece.