The onshore and offshore gas and oil fields discovered in Egypt in the 1990s convinced Israeli businessman Gideon Tadmor to start drilling for gas or oil. His company, Avner Oil and Gas, later became part of the Delek Group, and they realised they needed expertise for such depths. The small Samedan Oil Corporation provided that expertise and joined the project. In 1999, they drilled their first well, and by 2000, it was producing. It took 10 years to find the Tamar field, about 90 km off the coast of Haifa, which began producing gas in March this year.

Before the review of the USMCA in January 2026, the member countries of Mexico, the United States, and Canada had disagreements. The focus of the US renegotiation is steel and the automotive sector, under the argument of protecting local jobs and industry. Both the US and Canada have accused Mexico of being used by China to evade tariffs and send its products to these countries.