The field is located in Israel's exclusive economic zone, roughly 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Haifa in waters 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) deep.

In 1999, Israel's Oil Commissioner granted BG Group preliminary exploratory permits to deep-sea blocks that included the Tamar field.

In December 2000, BG received an exploratory license, in a partnership that included three Israeli industrial companies, Mashav (15.6%, Dor Chemicals (7.2%), and Israel Petrochemical Enterprises (7.2%).

[13] (Israel in mid-2005 reached an agreement to receive gas from Egypt for US$2.75 per million British thermal units ($9.4/MWh), a price that BG stated it was not willing to match.

By March 2012, the consortium developing Tamar had signed deals worth up to a total of $32 billion with six Israeli companies, committing up to 133BCM.

[30][31][32][33][34][35] In September 2021, Delek Drilling signed an agreement to sell the remainder of its holdings (22%) to the Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Energy company for $1.05 billion.

[36][37][38][39] About a year later, billionaire Aaron Frenkel, who was part of the acquisition deal made by Mubadala in 2021,[40] exercised his option to purchase half of the shares (11% of the gas field) for $525 million.

[41][42][43][44][45] This deal also included all the cash flow from the gas field from early 2021 until the date set for the transfer of rights, valued at an additional $75 million.

[51] Production is carried out by eight wells connected by a 93 miles (150 km) long subsea double pipe tie-back to a gas processing platform located offshore Ashkelon.

Communities in the Carmel region brought a petition to Israel's High Court in March 2010, demanding that alternative sites be considered.

In August, Uzi Landau, Minister of Energy and Water Resources, announced that the connection would be to Ashdod, a move that was expected to allow Noble to complete the project by the end of 2012, in line with the original deadline.

[56][57] Through 2009, Egypt increased the price of gas being sold to the Israel Electric Company, and the Israeli joint venture of Noble and Delek Energy, producing from the Yam Tethys field, followed suit.

[58] Higher prices enabled Yam Tethys profits for the third quarter of 2009 to reach new records, prompting several Knesset members to consider the need for revising the country's tax and royalty regime.

[59] During the session, committee member Carmel Shama stated that the government revenue from oil sales, as set in the Petroleum Law (1952), was relevant in an era when exploration risks were high and profits low, which was no longer the case in 2009.

Gideon Tadmor, chairman of Delek Energy, claimed that changing the tax and royalty regime would freeze exploration and development.

On 12 April 2010, in response to the Knesset concerns, Israel's Treasury Minister Yuval Steinitz established a committee to consider the country's fiscal policy regarding its gas and oil resources.

[61] Nevertheless, when Tamar production began on schedule in April 2013, both Landau and Noble CEO Charlie Davidson claimed that the project had been completed in record time.

[65] In February 2014, Knesset Member Shelly Yachimovich issued an open letter to the government, berating it for not setting fair gas prices that could reduce the country's cost of living.

[66] An early promoter of the project was Israeli oil geologist Joseph Langotsky, who named the Tamar and Dalit fields after his daughter and granddaughter.