Leviathan Partners eye large expansion of natgas fields for Israel and export

One of the partners said that the Israeli Leviathan project, which involves the offshore natural gas field, has submitted to the government a multi-billion-dollar plan for the expansion and boosting of production.

NewMed Energy's plan, which it submitted to the Energy Minister’s Petroleum Commissioner, calls for drilling three additional production systems as well as expanding the processing facilities at the platform. This will increase the total gas production capability to 21 billion cubic meters (bcm), a cost of $2.4 billion.

Leviathan is a huge deep-sea gas field that came online in 2019. It produces 12 billion cubic meters of gas annually for Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.

This will increase to 14 bcm by 2026, when a third pipeline is completed.

NewMed stated that a second stage would involve the drilling of more production wells, and the possible laying of a fourth pipe between the platform and the field, and increase the maximum daily production by 2 bcm per year, to a total production of 23 bcm.

The partners want to sign more than 100 billion dollars worth of new deals with customers in Israel as well as abroad.

NewMed stated that partners had already approved a budget for equipment of 505 million dollars.

Yossi Aba, CEO of NewMed Energy said that the Leviathan reservoir was the strongest and most stable energy hub in Mediterranean. The expanded production capacity is expected to meet the growing demand on the domestic market. It will also strengthen regional ties, and Israel's position as a provider of energy.

Chevron, Ratio Energies and others are also partners in Leviathan. (Reporting and editing by Tomaszjanowski)

(source: Reuters)