State-owned utility Israel Electric Corp. said on July 4 it was near to reaching an agreement to extend a landmark deal to purchase natural gas from the offshore Tamar field to 2030.

Israel Electric (IEC) signed a deal in 2012 to buy its gas from Tamar, making it one of the country’s main energy sources. The sides agreed to revisit the deal in 2021 to make adjustments if needed.

The Tamar partners, including Chevron Corp., Isramco and Tamar Petroleum, said the agreement is to expand the sale of gas by more than $2.2 billion through 2030.

Delek Drilling, which is in talks to sell its 22% stake in Tamar to Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum, was not part of the negotiations with IEC. Delek said in a separate regulatory finding that it would examine its options regarding the deal with IEC.

IEC said it improved the terms of deal and save “hundreds of millions of shekels.”

($1 = 3.2674 shekels)