Chevron partners greenlight $24m investment to boost gas production at offshore site - THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

18 February 2024, 6:13 pm

Sharon Wrobel  

US energy giant Chevron and its partners in the Tamar reservoir off the country’s Mediterranean coast on Sunday announced a decision to invest $24 million to bolster natural gas production capacity from the offshore field.

The investment is part of a two-phase plan aimed at expanding natural gas production capacity to about 1.6 billion cubic feet (BCF) a day from the Tamar field, located west of Ashkelon, to meet Israel’s energy needs and to export gas to Egypt.

The Tamar partners okayed a so-called final investment decision (FID) needed to proceed with the second phase of the gas production expansion project.

“Reaching FID for Phase Two of Tamar’s expansion reflects Chevron’s ongoing commitment to partnering with the State of Israel to continue development of its energy resources for the benefit of domestic and regional natural gas markets,” said Jeff Ewing, managing director of Chevron’s Eastern Mediterranean Business Unit.

Aphrodite low on list of Chevron’s gas plans for East Med - CYPRUS MAIL

March 6, 2023

Dr. Charles Ellinas

The importance of the East Med to Chevron’s gas plans was made clear at the company’s ‘2022 4Q Earnings Conference Call’ on January 27 and subsequently at its ‘Investor Presentation’ on February 28. Mike Wirth, Chevron’s CEO, confirmed that he considers the region to be of “high priority”.

He specifically referred to the $673 million ‘Final Investment Decision’ (FID) taken in December 2022 to expand Tamar gasfield production capacity in Israel from 11billion cubic metres per year (bcm/yr) to 16bcm/yr, expected to come online in early 2025. This will enable Tamar to meet Israel’s growing domestic demand and increase gas deliveries to Egypt.

Following the Tamar FID, Chevron and its partners approved close to $100m budget for the development of Phase 1B of the Leviathan gasfield. This includes pre-FEED engineering for field expansion, including construction of a 4.6million tonnes/yr floating LNG (FLNG) facility, three years after FID. The expansion will increase production capacity to 21bcm/yr from 12bcm/yr now.

Chevron, partners okay expansion of gas production from Israel’s Tamar field - THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

8 December 2022, 7:51 pm
Sharon Wrobel

Energy firms to invest $673 million in boosting gas production to meet growing demand in Israel and neighboring countries

US energy giant Chevron and its partners in the Tamar natural gas reservoir off Israel’s Mediterranean coast announced Thursday that they have okayed a final investment decision (FID) needed to proceed with the first phase of expanding natural gas production to meet growing domestic demand and boost exports to Egypt.

As part of the FID, the partners in the Tamas natural gas rig, located some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Haifa, are expected to invest some $673 million in a project expanding gas production from the offshore field.

Chevron provided details of a two-stage plan aimed at expanding production to about 1.6 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas from the Tamar field to meet Israel’s energy needs and export gas to Egypt and neighboring countries.

Egypt and Chevron agree to explore new East Med gas deal - REUTERS

June 21, 2022, 10:51 AM GMT+3

CAIRO/HOUSTON, June 20 (Reuters) - Egypt's state-owned gas company and U.S.-based Chevron Corp (CVX.N)on Monday signed a preliminary agreement to explore sending natural gas from offshore Mediterranean fields to Egypt for processing and export.

The memorandum of understanding signed by Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) and Chevron will consider transport, import, liquefication and export of natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean, the ministry said.

Chevron two years ago acquired an about 40% stake in a massive natural gas field in the Mediteranean Sea off the coast of Israel. It also plans to drill its first exploration well in a concession area in the eastern Mediterranean in September, Egypt's petroleum ministry said in a statement.

Winners and losers as energy minister halts gas exploration - THE JERUSALEM POST / GLOBES

DECEMBER 17, 2021
Guy Lieberman

The announcement by Energy Minister Karin Elharrar yesterday that her ministry will not award licenses for natural gas exploration in Israel's Economic Zone in 2022 set off a storm. 

Her predecessor at the ministry, Yuval Steinitz, rushed to react on Twitter, calling on her to "reconsider" the decision, and claiming that "in the green USA of President Biden they are continuing to explore for natural gas in hundreds of areas on land and offshore, as they are in Canada and in most countries of Western Europe."

The Association of Oil and Gas Exploration Industries in Israel was also quick to react, and pointed to the energy crisis in Europe as an example of the need "to continue exploring for further discoveries of natural gas."

Elharrar responded that it was a matter of "one year only", during which her ministry will devote its attention to the most important need at this time, which is renewable energy. In her announcement, the minister stated that her ministry was forming a new department to deal with renewable energy.

UAE-Israel Ties Deepen as Mubadala Buys Gas Stake for $1 Billion - BLOOMBERG

September 2, 2021, 1:51 PM GMT+3
Alisa Odenheimer

• Delek Drilling will sell 22% stake in Tamar field off Israel
• Deal is biggest since UAE and Israel normalized ties last year

Delek Drilling LP agreed to sell a stake in a natural-gas field to Mubadala Investment Co. for $1 billion, marking the biggest deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates since they normalized ties last year.

Tel Aviv-based Delek’s shares jumped after it said it would sell its 22% stake in the Tamar offshore field to Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi wealth fund with $243 billion of assets. The stock rose 4.8% to 5.02 shekels by 1.48 p.m. in Tel Aviv.

Delek’s Sale of East Med Stake to Mubadala Petroleum Hailed as First Fruits of Abraham Accords - JOURNALOF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY

April 28, 2021
Pat Davis Szymczak

Israel’s Delek Drilling is selling its 22% nonoperated stake in the Tamar gas field offshore Israel to Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum for up to $1.1 billion in what would be, if finalized, the largest commercial agreement since Israel and the UAE signed the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement in August 2020.

Delek announced Tuesday it had signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mubadala Petroleum, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi government-owned Mubadala Investment Co. Delek said Mubadala would pay up to $1.1 billion for the stake,

Delek CEO Yossi Abu said the sale has “the potential to be another major development in our ongoing vision for natural gas commercial strategic alignment in the Middle East, whereby natural gas becomes a source of collaboration in the region.

“We are proud to have signed this MOU following the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement between Israel and the UAE,” Abu said, adding that he “would like to thank my counterparty at Mubadala Petroleum and our clients in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.”

Chevron eyes subsea pipelines to send Israeli gas to Egypt - WORLD OIL / BLOOMBERG

JAN/20/2021

Yaacov Benmeleh

(Bloomberg) --Chevron and other companies helping to develop Israel’s natural gas fields will invest around $235 million in pipelines to export the fuel to Egypt.

The partners in the Leviathan and Tamar fields, which sit off Israel’s Mediterranean coast, signed an agreement under which Israel Natural Gas Lines Ltd. will lay a new subsea pipeline and expand some of its existing ones, according to a statement Tuesday from Delek Drilling LP, a shareholder in both reservoirs.

INGL will build a pipeline between the Israeli coastal cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon, close to the border of the Gaza Strip. Along with the expansion of other lines, it will enable the partners to send as much as 7 billion cubic meters of gas annually to Egypt, Delek said.

The new route will cost 738 million shekels ($228 million) and the expansion work about 27 million shekels, Delek said. The gas firms will pay for 56% of the new pipeline and provide guarantees on the funding that INGL takes on to cover the rest.

7 years on, Tamar natural gas partners make 1st payment to national wealth fund - THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

19 January 2021, 6:11 pm
Sue Surkes 

More than seven years after it started commercial production, the Tamar Partnership has paid its first installment into a sovereign wealth fund aimed at ensuring that some of the profits of Israel’s natural gas bonanza are spent on strategic projects for the nation’s benefit.

The partnership transferred some $15 million at the end of last year, the business daily Calcalist reported Monday, with a further $300 million expected to be paid during 2021, in monthly installments of $25 million.

Now that the payments have started, any future deals the partnership signs will only increase the amount that must be paid into the wealth fund.

On the basis of the idea that Israel’s natural resources belong to all of its citizens, all of the gas companies drilling off the country’s Mediterranean coast are supposed to pay the state 62% on their profits. This is called the government take and includes the wealth fund levy, as well as royalties and corporate taxes, which have been paid all along.

State finds Delek Drilling violated Tamar gas agreement - GLOBES

6 Sep, 2020 17:46
Amiram Barkat

Delek Drilling and Noble Energy were found to have a conflict of interest because they can veto Tamar sales deals in favor of selling Leviathan gas.

The Tamar partners will be required to find a new marketing and sales mechanism for the natural gas from the offshore field according to a precedent-setting opinion prepared by an inter-ministerial committee headed by deputy attorney general Adv. Meir Levin, head of the Israeli Competition Authority Adv. Michal Halperin and representatives from the Energy, Finance and Justice Ministries.

The decision was reached after the minority partners in Tamar (Isramco, Tamar Petroleum and Dor Gas) complained that the majority partners Delek Drilling LP (TASE: DEDR.L) and Noble Energy prevented them signing a deal to sell gas to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) from Tamar because IEC was seeking to buy gas from the Leviathan partners at a higher price.

Noble Energy laying off dozens in Israel - GLOBES

3 May, 2020 15:59
Amiram Barkat

Sources in Israel stress that the layoffs will not affect the flow of gas from the offshore rigs or the service that the company provides its customers.
US energy exploration and production company Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) has begun laying off dozens of employees in Israel as part of its international streamlining plan.

The company, which operates the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields, has several hundred employees in Israel, some on the gas rigs themselves and others in its Israel head office in Herzliya. Sources in Israel stress that the layoffs will not affect the flow of gas from the offshore rigs or the service that the company provides its customers.

Israel Electric buys gas 45% below Tamar prices - GLOBES

23 Feb, 2020 18:19
Amiram Barkat

With the coronavirus outbreak pushing down gas prices, IEC has bought liquefied natural gas for $3.39 and $3.61 per BTU.

Because the coronavirus crisis is pushing down global liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) is buying up LNG at the lowest ever price. Sources inform "Globes" that IEC is buying LNG on the spot market at an average price of $3.50 per BTU, 45% lower than the price paid by the company to owners of the Tamar natural gas reservoir. Every LNG cargo purchased at these prices lowers the electricity rate by 0.1-0.2%, and IEC is planning to buy more such cargoes.

Tamar Petroleum slumps on delayed offering - GLOBES

12 Jan, 2020 13:03

Kobi Yeshayahou

Tamar Petroleum Ltd. (TASE: TMRP) has seen its share price fall sharply today after the company's board decided to postpone a secondary offering of NIS 140 million due to "market conditions." The company's share price is down 12% today and is down 50% over the past year.

Tamar Petroleum was founded by Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) and its energy exploration and production unit Delek Drilling LP (TASE: DEDR.L) in 2017 as a special vehicle to sell its holding in the Tamar offshore gas field after the government insisted Delek sell its stake in either the Tamar or Leviathan fields to prevent it gaining a monopolistic stranglehold on Israel's gas market. After offerings by Delek and Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL), Tamar Petroleum today holds a 16.75% stake in the Tamar field along with Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L) (28.75%), Noble Energy (25%), Delek Drilling LP (TASE: DEDR.L) (22%), Alon Natural Gas Exploration Ltd. (TASE: ALGS) (4%), and Everest infrastructure Fund (3.5%).

Electrical equipment of Israel-Jordan gas line torched - THE JERUSALEM POST

DECEMBER 29, 2019 10:31
Tzvi Joffre

Two electrical transformers servicing a gas transfer station intended to transport gas from the Leviathan natural gas field in Israel into Jordan were torched by unidentified people in Irbid in northern Jordan on Saturday.

According to Sky News Arabia, this is not the first attack against the gas transfer station in Irbid. Gas flow through the station is expected to start in the next few days.

Jordanian citizens and politicians have expressed protest to the planned transfer of gas between the two nations.

On Sunday, Jordan's parliament filed an urgent memo, requesting that a law be drafted to ban the import of gas from Israel, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.

Dozens of activists held a protest in front of the parliament, calling for a cancellation of the gas trade deal.

Will Leviathan cut energy prices, increase competition? - GLOBES

23 Dec, 2019 19:30
Amiram Barkat and Yuval Azulai

Gas is about to begin flowing from the huge offshore Israeli gas field, on time and within budget. But will it benefit Israeli consumers?

The Leviathan natural gas field is set to begin streaming gas to the Israeli coast tomorrow, an event that the government and the reservoir's developers are calling historic. Almost six years since the Tamar field was connected, Leviathan will become the second major gas field connected to the Israeli coast. Nine years have passed since the discovery of the gas and the beginning of the supply, compared with only three years for the Tamar field.

Most of the gas that will begin flowing tomorrow is for exports to the Jordan Electric Power Company, and in another month also to private customers in Egypt. Commencing in another week, gas will also flow to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC). The fact that residents near the coastal terminal will be exposed to potential health damage caused by gas, most of which is for export, is arousing criticism from residents in the Hadera region. However, the flow of gas to Jordan and Egypt has been portrayed by the Netanyahu government as an important geopolitical and political interest. In the name of this interest, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bypassed the authority of the Israel Antitrust Authority director general at the time, and signed in his place, as Minister of the Economy and Industry (after Aryeh Deri, the previous minister, resigned) an exemption for an agreement in restraint of trade for Noble Energy and Delek Group, for the deal to buy the rights to area where the Leviathan reservoir is located.

Netanyahu's signature on the exemption was part of the general arrangement for the gas production sector, referred to as the gas plan. The plan aroused strong opposition at the time, involving the assertion that the state was perpetuating the monopoly of Delek Group and Noble Energy in the Israeli gas market, and forcing electricity consumers to continue paying the excessive gas price that IEC agreed to pay for the gas it was buying from the Tamar reservoir. Netanyahu stood firm against the protest with unqualified support for the plan devised by the professional staff in his government. In an extraordinary step, Netanyahu appeared before the Knesset Economic Committee and the Supreme Court justices to defend the gas plan. They were not impressed by his appearance, and struck down the all-encompassing stability clause in the original plan.

Completion of Leviathan's development is an appropriate time to assess what the gas plan achieved since it went into effect, and where it has failed.

Egypt to begin gas imports from Israel by mid-January 2020 - REUTERS

DECEMBER 22, 2019 / 12:46 PM

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Egypt will begin importing natural gas from Israel by mid-January 2020, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio on Sunday.

“(The exports) will begin in the middle of next month and perhaps even earlier,” he said.

Israeli gas exports to Egypt will gradually reach 7 billion cubic meters, a senior industry source, who earlier in the day disclosed a mid-January starting date, said on condition of anonymity.

Steinitz said Egyptian petroleum minister Tarek El Molla had spoken to him two days ago and congratulated him on signing export permits for the gas.

Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings reached a landmark deal last year with the Israeli companies operating the Israeli fields Leviathan and Tamar.

Noble Energy Closes on Acquisition of Interest in the Eastern Mediterranean Gas (EMG) Pipeline - YAHOO FINANCE

November 6, 2019

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Noble Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NBL) (“Noble Energy” or the “Company”) announced today that the Company and its partners have closed on the acquisition of a 39 percent equity interest in the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Company S.A.E. (“EMG”), which owns the EMG Pipeline. The pipeline will be used to transport natural gas volumes into Egypt under the Company’s gas supply agreements with Dolphinus Holdings (“Dolphinus”). Noble Energy’s net acquisition investment in the EMG Pipeline totaled $185 million, and the Company’s effective interest in the pipeline is 10 percent.

J. Keith Elliott, Noble Energy’s Senior Vice President, Offshore, stated, “The closing of the EMG acquisition will support delivery of natural gas from the Tamar and Leviathan fields into Egypt, and represents a major milestone toward Egypt’s goal of becoming a regional energy hub. This acquisition, combined with our recently announced Dolphinus gas sales contracts offtake increases, provides further confidence in both the long-term export market and growing cash flows from our Eastern Mediterranean assets.”

Israel to increase natural gas exports to Egypt, companies say - REUTERS

OCTOBER 2, 2019 / 9:47 AM

Reporting by Tova Cohen and Ari Rabinovitch

(Reuters) - Israel will significantly increase the amount of natural gas it plans to export to Egypt under a landmark deal, energy companies in Israel said on Wednesday.

Partners in Israel’s Leviathan and Tamar offshore gas fields signed a deal last year to sell $15 billion worth of gas to a customer in Egypt in what Israeli officials called it the most significant deal to emerge since the neighbors made peace in 1979.

Under the amended agreement, the companies said the amount to be sold from the Leviathan field will nearly double to 60 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas over 15 years. Exports from the nearby Tamar field will be reduced to 25.3 bcm from 32 bcm over the same period.

One source in the Israeli energy industry estimated the value of gas to be exported was now $19.5 billion — $14 billion coming from Leviathan and $5.5 billion from Tamar.

Texas-based Noble Energy, Israel’s Delek Drilling and Ratio Oil own Leviathan. Noble, Delek Drilling, Isramco and Tamar Petroleum are leading partners in the Tamar field.

Israel Electric set to sign new Tamar gas deal - GLOBES

23 Sep, 2019 18:26
Amiram Barkat

The gas price in the new agreement has been lowered to $4.30 per BTU for 18 months.

Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) is close to signing a new agreement with the owners of rights in the Tamar natural gas reservoir. The gas price in the new agreement has been lowered to $4.30 per BTU for 18 months, after which the agreement with IEC will be renegotiated. In effect, the agreement renews the competition between the Tamar and Leviathan reservoirs, because it enables IEC to buy gas from Tamar at a lower price than it obtained from Leviathan. The agreement is also an achievement for the Public Utilities Authority (Electricity), because it improves the terms in comparison with the previous agreement between IEC and Tamar, which the Public Utilities Authority refused to approve.

Leviathan won out over Tamar in a tender published by IEC for the purchase of variable quantities of gas beyond the minimum that it is obligated to buy from Tamar. The holders of rights in the two reservoirs offer the same price - $4.79 per BTU, but IEC management preferred Leviathan to Tamar.

Tamar partners in talks to amend Israel Electric gas deal - REUTERS

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019 / 3:05 PM

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A number of partners in the Tamar natural gas field off Israel’s coast have offered utility Israel Electric (IEC) [ISECO.UL] a discount on a new gas supply deal.

The offer came from three of the six members of the group — Tamar Petroleum (TMRP.TA), Isramco Negev (ISRAp.TA) and Dor Gas Exploration, which own some 49% of the project, Tamar said in a regulatory statement in Tel Aviv.

Earlier this year, state-run IEC signed a gas supply deal with the Leviathan field, which is also off Israel’s Mediterranean coast and set to begin production later this year.

Tamar said it would give a total discount of $70 million.

Any changes to the deal would require approval by all the Tamar partners, including Noble Energy (NBL.N), Delek Drilling (DEDRp.TA) and Everest Infrastructure. Noble and Delek are also partners in Leviathan.

IEC declined to comment.