The Neomed Energy unit of the Israeli Delek Group informed the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that the American company Chevron, which operates the Leviathan gas field, has suspended work on laying a marine pipeline as part of the third pipeline project, following Israel’s escalation of its war on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Israeli newspaper Globes quoted the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange as saying that the suspension will be until April 2025, “depending on the timelines in the contractor’s backlog of orders and the security situation that will prevail in the region.”
Neomed owns 45.34% of the Leviathan field, while Chevron owns a 39.66% stake, and Ratio Energies owns 15% of the project.
delay
This means that the completion of the project will be delayed by at least 6 months, and while NEOMED stated that “there is no impact on the overall value of the partnership’s discounted cash flow from the Leviathan project, it is nevertheless expected to have a material negative cumulative impact on the expected cash flow in 2025.”
The third pipeline project was started by Leviathan Partners in July 2023.
According to Globes, through the project, an underwater pipeline will be extended 120 kilometers west of Haifa, and it is designed to transport gas to the production platform, which is located about 10 kilometers off the coast of Dor Beach.
The project aims to increase Israel’s daily supply of natural gas by 200 million cubic feet. According to the original plan, the gas was scheduled to flow through the pipeline in the second half of 2025, but now, work has been halted until closer to the date the flow was scheduled to begin. .
Export less
Natural gas consumption in Israel increased in 2023 to 24.7 billion cubic meters (13.1 billion cubic meters went to the local economy and 11.6 billion cubic meters for export), thus domestic consumption increased by 3.5%, while exports increased by 21%.
According to the Israeli newspaper, delaying the third pipeline project means that the gas allocated for export will be less, with no decrease in domestic consumption.
Last year, 75% of the gas was exported to Egypt and the rest to Jordan, according to the newspaper.
During the past year, the Leviathan field produced 11.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas, while the Tamar field produced 9.1 billion cubic meters and Karesh 4.6 billion cubic meters, according to the newspaper.
The Leviathan field accounted for 78% of the gas exported last year, while the rest allocated for export was extracted from the Tamar field, while the production of the Karish field was allocated to the local economy.
Regarding local consumption, the newspaper reported that 17% of it came from the Leviathan field last year, 34% from Karish and 49% from Tamar.
