London — Israel has extended by a month to mid-July the deadline for bids in its second international gas licensing round due to the number of requests for documentation from interested parties.
The round is offering licenses for 19 blocks within five zones as Israel looks to move forward with upstream developments to help feed an offshore gas pipeline to southern Europe.
"Due to the number of requests received from companies that purchased the documents of the competitive process, they are allowed another month to prepare for submission," the energy ministry said.
The round was launched in November by energy minister Yuval Steinitz who said he hoped to attract new international energy companies to the country's already proven offshore.
Any company holding over 20% of an existing production license will not be able to participate in the current bid round following criticism of work offshore Israel to date, which has been dominated by a handful of companies, including the US's Noble Energy and Israeli explorers Delek and Ratio.
Each of the 19 blocks measure up to 400 square km and each zone, consisting of multiple blocks, is as large as 1,600 sq km.
The zones are located in the southern extent of Israel's economic waters, an area which has been previously licensed in part and had previous seismic research and limited exploration activity.
Pipeline to Europe
The new Israeli round follows a first round that began in 2016, which granted six new licenses.
The second round is intended to continue the development of the gas market in Israel, correlated with progress on the planned subsea pipeline between Israel and Europe.
Israel is part of plans to build a pipeline to link its offshore gas resources with southern Europe -- the EastMed pipeline -- under development by Italy's Edison and Greece's DEPA.
The 10 Bcm/year, 1,300 km pipeline would stretch from gas fields offshore Israel and Cyprus via Crete to Greece from where it could link in to the planned Poseidon pipeline to Italy.
Israel and Cyprus's existing finds in the region -- Tamar, Leviathan, Aphrodite and several other fields -- are expected to serve the Israeli domestic market and the Egyptian market.
Any new major gas discoveries offshore Israel would therefore be ideal as feedgas for the EastMed pipeline.
The round is offering licenses for 19 blocks within five zones as Israel looks to move forward with upstream developments to help feed an offshore gas pipeline to southern Europe.
"Due to the number of requests received from companies that purchased the documents of the competitive process, they are allowed another month to prepare for submission," the energy ministry said.
The round was launched in November by energy minister Yuval Steinitz who said he hoped to attract new international energy companies to the country's already proven offshore.
Any company holding over 20% of an existing production license will not be able to participate in the current bid round following criticism of work offshore Israel to date, which has been dominated by a handful of companies, including the US's Noble Energy and Israeli explorers Delek and Ratio.
Each of the 19 blocks measure up to 400 square km and each zone, consisting of multiple blocks, is as large as 1,600 sq km.
The zones are located in the southern extent of Israel's economic waters, an area which has been previously licensed in part and had previous seismic research and limited exploration activity.
Pipeline to Europe
The new Israeli round follows a first round that began in 2016, which granted six new licenses.
The second round is intended to continue the development of the gas market in Israel, correlated with progress on the planned subsea pipeline between Israel and Europe.
Israel is part of plans to build a pipeline to link its offshore gas resources with southern Europe -- the EastMed pipeline -- under development by Italy's Edison and Greece's DEPA.
The 10 Bcm/year, 1,300 km pipeline would stretch from gas fields offshore Israel and Cyprus via Crete to Greece from where it could link in to the planned Poseidon pipeline to Italy.
Israel and Cyprus's existing finds in the region -- Tamar, Leviathan, Aphrodite and several other fields -- are expected to serve the Israeli domestic market and the Egyptian market.
Any new major gas discoveries offshore Israel would therefore be ideal as feedgas for the EastMed pipeline.
