Houston-based Noble Energy, which operates this platform in the Tamar field off Israel’s coast, has resolved an antitrust dispute that had stalled expansion of Tamar and development of another Mediterranean field, the Leviathan (Noble Energy photo) less
Houston-based Noble Energy, which operates this platform in the Tamar field off Israel’s coast, has resolved an antitrust dispute that had stalled expansion of Tamar and development of another Mediterranean … more
Photo: Noble Energy
Houston-based Noble Energy, which operates this platform in the Tamar field off Israel’s coast, has resolved an antitrust dispute that had stalled expansion of Tamar and development of another Mediterranean field, the Leviathan (Noble Energy photo) less
Houston-based Noble Energy, which operates this platform in the Tamar field off Israel’s coast, has resolved an antitrust dispute that had stalled expansion of Tamar and development of another Mediterranean … more
Photo: Noble Energy
Noble starts up massive Leviathan project in Israel
Noble Energy started production early Tuesday on the massive Leviathan natural gas project offshore of Israel, achieving a major milestone for a discovery made nearly a decade ago.
The Leviathan startup by the Houston oil and gas producer puts Israel on the path of becoming a natural gas exporter after decades of relying on energy imports and coal-fired electricity. The Leviathan is the largest known natural gas field in the growing Eastern Mediterranean region that’s attracting other top oil and gas players, including the Texas energy major Exxon Mobil.
“This is a project that’s been about a decade in the making and it has very significant benefits for the environment, economies and the energy security for the region,” said Noble President Brent Smolik in a phone interview from Israel. “It’s a great day here in Israel. It’s changing the country and it’s changing this part of the world. We’re just proud to be part of it.”
Noble aimed to bring Leviathan online before the end of this year and just narrowly succeeded with the New Year’s Eve startup. The nearly $4 billion project was delayed a bit in December until a judge lifted an injunction that threatened to stall production because of environmental concerns.
While the project will help replace coal with cleaner-burning natural gas, environmental concerns about emissions from the Leviathan platform were raised by people living nearer the coastline as well as those who would rather Israel focus on renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar power.
“We had to make the regulators comfortable,” said Keith Elliott, Noble’s senior vice president for offshore. “They needed their time to take one more look at things, and we understand that. We had complete confidence in the outcome.”
The project eventually could represent nearly 20 percent of Noble’s worldwide oil and gas production, according to the company. Noble already is producing natural gas from the smaller Tamar project offshore of Israel. Leviathan’s production should outpace Tamar during the latter half of 2020.
Apart from Israel’s own energy needs, Leviathan also will supply large volumes of natural gas to Egypt and Jordan.
Israel has long been the odd-man out, energy-wise, in the Middle East, home to some of the world’s biggest oil producers. That changed just over a decade ago when Noble discovered gas in the Tamar field about 50 miles off the Israeli coast, in waters more than 5,000 feet deep. Noble followed that in 2010 with another discovery in the larger Leviathan field, about 30 miles southwest of Tamar.
Since the 2010 discovery, Israel spent much of the subsequent years developing an energy regulatory framework essentially from scratch. That regulatory setup eventually required Noble to decrease its ownership stake in the projects. As a result, Noble owns about 40 percent of Leviathan while its main Israeli partner, the Delek Group, holds about 45 percent. Israel’s Ratio Oil Exploration holds the remaining 15 percent.
The first phase of the Leviathan project ended up costing $3.6 billion, less than the projected $3.75 billion.
The project will eventually produce up to 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, and a subsequent phase is expected to increase volumes up to 2.1 billion cubic feet a day in the years to come.
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