Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Woodside to pay more for smaller Leviathan stake | Globes

Woodside to pay more for smaller Leviathan stake

Woodside Petroleum is prepared to acquire 25% of the Leviathan natural gas field, instead of 30%, for a higher price than previously agreed.

6 January 14 19:09, Amiram Barkat and Hillel Koren
 
Sources inform ''Globes'' that Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (ASX: WPL) is prepared to acquire 25% of the Leviathan natural gas field, instead of 30%, even as it has agreed to pay more, although the final price has not yet been decided. The two changes have greatly increased Leviathan's value, assuming a deal is closed. They will also increase the stakes of the two Israeli partners in the gas field Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP (TASE:RATI.L), and strengthen their position in any future decision making. Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) of the US is Leviathan's third partner.
Last week, "Globes" reported that Delek controlling shareholder Yitzhak Tshuva told a closed-door company meeting that the Woodside deal was very close to being signed, a year after Leviathan's partners signed the letter of intent with the Australian energy company. Following the report, Delek stated that the negotiations were not over, nor was there any assurance that a deal would be reached requiring the transfer of rights.
However, sources say that the gaps between the parties are narrow, and that there was a strong probability that a deal would be reached on the main issues within days. In addition to a smaller stake in Leviathan and a higher offer, Woodside is prepared to pay a premium if gas contracts are signed with countries in the Middle East, such as Egypt and Turkey.
In the letter of intent from December 2012, Woodside agreed to acquire 30% of Leviathan for $1.25 billion in cash. $696 million would be paid when the deal was signed, and the rest would be paid later. Woodside also agreed to pay up to $1 billion more if gas was exported at a price above the floor price. The offer reflected a value of $4.7-5.1 billion for Leviathan, not including the premium.
An agreement with Woodside will enable Israel to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Far East, probably via a floating LNG vessel. In an interview with "Globes", Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said that the company was bringing to the deal its customer base in China and other countries. The cost of shipping LNG to the Far East would raise the end price by up to $1.30 per million BTU, but swap deals could offset the tyranny of distance by selling Israeli gas to customers in the Mediterranean Basin in exchange for changing the addressee of future gas shipments.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 6, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014


Link to source: http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000907421

Monday, January 6, 2014

Leviathan partners sign first gas export agreement with Palestinian power firm | Jerusalem Post

Leviathan partners sign first gas export agreement with Palestinian power firm

01/06/2014 00:50

The drilling partners behind Israel’s large gas reservoir have sealed a $1.2 billion sales agreement with the Palestine Power Generation Company.

Officials from Delek and the Palestinian Authority
Officials from Delek and the Palestinian Authority Photo: Chen Galili
The drilling partners behind Israel’s large Leviathan gas reservoir have sealed their first export deal for the basin – a $1.2 billion sales agreement with the Palestine Power Generation Company.

According to the agreement, signed at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem on Sunday, PPGC will buy around 4.75 billion cubic meters of gas for a period of 20 years, to fuel a future power plant in Jenin with a 200-megawatt capacity.

Attending the signing ceremony on Sunday was Palestinian Energy Minister Dr. Omar Kittaneh, as well as executives from the reservoir’s stakeholders: the Delek Group, Noble Energy and Ratio Oil Exploration.

“This is a dual historic event: the first contract to supply gas from the Leviathan reservoir, which is Israel’s largest natural gas reservoir, and the first contract to export gas for the sale of natural gas to a company in the Palestinian Authority,” said Gideon Tadmor, chairman of Delek Drilling and CEO of Avner Oil Exploration. “The Leviathan project is expected to have a significant positive impact on the Israeli economy and on its geopolitical positioning.

We hope that following the signing of the contract today, more export contracts will be signed with neighboring countries.”

The Leviathan reservoir, located about 130 kilometers west of Haifa, contains about 537 b.cu.m. of natural gas, which is expected to begin flowing in 2017. Leviathan’s smaller, 280-b.cu.m. neighbor to its east, Tamar, began generating gas for the Israeli domestic market in March 2013.

Houston-based Noble Energy owns 39.66 percent in Leviathan, while Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration – subsidiaries of the Delek Group – each own 22.67% and Ratio Oil Exploration holds 15%.

Construction time for the power plant in Jenin will take about 30 months and cost around $300 million, the Leviathan partners explained. To date, the Palestinian Authority consumes 8% of Israel’s total electricity demand, with an annual increase in demand of about 6%, the partners added.

The company behind the PPGC facility belongs to a variety of shareholders, with the main investor being the Palestine Electric Company (PEC) – a publicly owned firm traded on the Palestinian Securities Exchange since 2004. The company’s ownership is made up of 33% public shareholders and 67% private shareholders, according to the firm.

PEC is the 99.99% owner of the Gas Power Generating Private Limited Company – responsible for Gaza’s sole power plant – and established the PPGC in the West Bank in 2010, company data said.

An additional major stakeholder in PPGC is CCC, a company that specializes in the construction and operation of energy projects, the Leviathan partners explained.

“I believe that a strong and stable economy between the parties will lead to peace and stability in the entire region – and everyone will benefit from economic prosperity and growth,” said Yitzhak Tshuva, controlling shareholder of the Delek Group, at the signing ceremony. “Peace is a joint venture, economic cooperation, mutual trust and respect. Economic cooperation such as the agreement that was signed today will help to bring the nations closer and will contribute to laying the foundations for peace.”

The first export agreement between the Leviathan developers and a foreign buyer occurs following a long wave of uncertainty surrounding the country’s natural gas exports.

Disagreement on export quantities among Israeli government officials and members of the public delayed the export process from moving forward.

Following a year of discussions, the Zemach Committee – led by then Energy and Water Ministry director-general Shaul Zemach – recommended capping exports at 53% in August 2012. After an uproar among environmentalists ensued, the government eventually settled on a 40% cap on June 23, 2013.

Yet Knesset members across the board, led by MK Shelly Yacimovich (Labor), were dissatisfied that the authority to determine gas export quantities was not in the hands of the Knesset. A petition she filed to the High Court of Justice ultimately met rejection on October 21, 2013.

While an export policy was at long last in place, the question still remained to whom the partners would be selling the gas. On Sunday, however, the stakeholders began to provide answers.

“We believe that the potential for oil and gas exploration in the economic waters of Israel has not yet been fully realized, and therefore we intend to continue, together with our partners and with the entire natural gas industry in Israel, with the exploration activity,” Tadmor said.

Lawson Freeman, vice president for the Eastern Mediterranean at Noble Energy, praised what he called a “historic agreement.”

“We hope to be in a position, soon, to sign additional Leviathan agreements for the supply of natural gas to the domestic market and for export projects,” Freeman said. “We continue to work toward developing the Leviathan field as soon as possible.”

With the signing of this specific agreement, Tshuva said that he hopes to see the creation of new jobs as well as further cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians on a business level.

Yossi Abu, CEO of Delek Drilling, echoed Tshuva’s comments, adding that “natural gas acts as a bridge to peace” and Leviathan therefore brings “good news” to the entire region and the world.

“I hope in the future also citizens of neighboring countries can benefit from the development of the gas reservoirs discovered in recent years,” Abu said. 

Link to source: http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Leviathan-partners-sign-first-gas-export-agreement-with-Palestinian-power-firm-337174