EYTAN HALON
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British-Greek oil and gas producer Energean will supply natural gas worth more than $1 billion to Israel’s Alon Tavor power plant over the next 15 years, the company said on Thursday.
Under an agreement signed with Chinese-Israeli company MRC Alon Tavor Power, the owners of the plant near Afula, Energean will supply approximately 0.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year, or up to 8 bcm over the term of the contract.
“Energean is pleased to be the supplier of natural gas to the Alon Tavor power plant, which is of strategic importance for Israel’s energy and electricity market,” said Energean CEO Mathios Rigas. “The agreement signed today represents a first step toward a long-term collaboration – and joins a long list of natural gas supply agreements from the Karish reservoir to the Israeli market as soon as 2021.”
Supply will commence with the first gas extracted from the Karish gas reservoir offshore Israel, owned and operated by Energean.
“The combination of the gas reform and the historic reform of the Israel Electric Corporation is bearing its fruit,” Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz wrote on Twitter. “Dismantling the monopoly and creating competition, reducing air population and [providing] economic well-being for the State of Israel and its citizens.”
MRC Alon Tavor Power, a partnership between China Harbor Engineering Company’s PMEC and Israeli companies Mivtach Shamir Holdings and Rapac Energy, acquired the power plant in July 2018 for NIS 1.9 billion ($550m.).
Energean currently has firm gas sales and purchase agreements (GSPAs) to supply 5.0 bcm of gas annually into the Israeli domestic energy market, excluding contingent agreements signed with the IPM Beer Tuvia power plant (0.4 bcm/yr), near the southern city of Kiryat Malachi, and Or Power Energies (0.7 bcm/yr) for the Dalia power plant in Tzofit.
Earlier this month, Energean hailed an “excellent result” as it confirmed the addition of 25 bcm of recoverable natural gas from its Karish North field off Israel’s Mediterranean coast.
The new volumes, in line with the company’s best estimates, will be added to the 68 bcm of natural gas and 33 million barrels of light oil or condensate that Energean has already discovered in the Karish and Tanin fields, approximately 90 kilometers from Israel’s shore.
Gas produced from both the Karish and Tanin reservoirs, Energean says, is intended to supply the growing domestic Israeli market and key regional export markets. In July, the company was awarded four new offshore licenses for oil and gas exploration in Israeli economic waters.
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