WASHINGTON — The United States has assessed that the Levant contains massive offshore reserves of natural gas.   

"The Levant Basin Province is comparable to some of the other large provinces around the world," Brenda Pierce, the agency's energy resources program coordinator, said. "Its gas resources are bigger than anything we have assessed in the United States."

The agency said the Levant was also believed to contain 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The report said the energy could be found and extracted with existing technology.

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