The Israeli occupation’s Environmental Protection Ministry temporarily postponed the start of production at the offshore Leviathan gas field, and the project’s partners said on Tuesday, December 24, they were working with the ministry to bring the field online within a few days.

Leviathan was supposed to begin operations today, but the ministry, which monitors emissions from the project, said at the last minute it needed to receive extra data from the energy companies running the field.

The Leviathan project is lead by Noble Energy and Delek Drilling.

Delek said in a statement that the Environmental Protection Ministry wanted to further validate analysis of the equipment and that the partners were submitting the necessary data. They said they remained "ready and prepared" to start production.

Leviathan production was last week delayed for a couple of days until a court lifted a temporary injunction that had been granted over environmental concerns.