Exploring Potential Export Markets for Israeli Gas

Karen Ayat          Natural Gas Europe

Start of production at Tamar

Natural gas began flowing from the Tamar field off Israel's Mediterranean shores on Saturday 30 March 2013 producing 300 million cubic feet per day. When combined with the existing Mari-B volumes of 200 million cubic feet per day, the current daily sales are nearly 500 million cubic feet per day and expected to reach 700 million by the end of 2013. The Tamar field was discovered by Noble Energy in 2009 and was the largest deepwater natural gas discovery in the world in 2009 estimated at the time to contain 9 tcf of gas. Noble made a new estimation upping the gross resource estimate of Tamar to 10 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) as a result of development drilling and continued reservoir analysis and modeling. The updated estimate was confirmed by an independent assessment conducted by Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. 

Previously discovered Mari-B

Mari-B was the first offshore natural gas field in the State of Israel discovered by Noble in March 2000. Noble started gas production from the Mari-B field in 2003. Despite its relatively small size (containing around 1 tcf of gas), the Mari-B field was not only a momentary relief for Israel but played a tremendous role in enabling Israel to shift from heavy fuel oils and coals to gas for its electricity production. Soon after, Israel began importing Egyptian Gas to supplement its local Mari-B gas and meet domestic demand. By the end of 2010, Israel relied on gas for around 40 per cent of its electricity supplied almost equally by its own Mari-B field and Egypt. 

Russia’s Mediterranean Task Force to Comprise 5-6 Warships – Navy Chief

Russian missile cruiser "Moscow"

RIA Novosti

MOSCOW – The Russian Navy will maintain 5-6 warships in the Mediterranean Sea as a task force to defend Russia’s interests in the area, Navy Commander Adm. Viktor Chirkov said on Sunday.
"Up to five-six warships must be present in the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis and control must be exercised through the command of the [Russian] Black Sea Fleet,” Chirkov said in an interview with the Zvezda TV network run by the Defense Ministry.

The Russian Navy’s Mediterranean task force will comprise frigates and cruisers, as well as support vessels, he said.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday a decision to deploy a permanent naval task force in the Mediterranean had been made.

“I believe that we have the capability to form and maintain such a task force,” Shoigu said, citing the success of recent large-scale naval drills carried out by the Russian navy in the Mediterranean and Black seas.

The exercises involved warships from the Northern, Baltic, Black Sea and Pacific fleets, strategic bombers and naval infantry.

Shoigu did not mention, however, a timeline for the deployment of the new task force, which would likely require significant effort to ensure efficient logistics and the proper maintenance of warships in the Mediterranean group.

Turkey Beating Norway as Biggest Regional Oil Driller: Energy

Offshore Oil drilling on Turkey's Black sea cost

Selcan Hacaloğlu & Brian Swint       Bloomberg


Turkey is drilling for oil and natural gas with more rigs than any European country and plans new rules in 2013 to speed exploration of energy supplies for the fastest-growing major economy after China.

The country fielded 26 rigs at Dec. 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and the number has since risen to 34, Energy Ministry officials said yesterday. Turkey has leapfrogged Norway as offshore drilling increased in the Black and Mediterranean seas. Spending on exploration jumped to $610 million last year from $42 million a decade earlier.

With economic growth forecast at 3.5 percent this year and about twice the pace of the most advanced economies to 2017, Turkey is drilling for its own energy to ease reliance on imports from Iran, Iraq and Russia. State-owned Turkish Petroleum Corp. has taken Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) as partners, after neighboring Israel and Cyprus made some of the decade’s biggest gas finds in the past three years.

“If there’s one country that needs energy, it’s Turkey,” said Darren Engels, an analyst at FirstEnergy Capital in Calgary. “Their domestic business doesn’t scratch the surface.”

Turkish Petroleum, which is known as TPAO and has operations in Libya, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Colombia and Kazakhstan, needs to boost domestic output as it pursues a target of supplying all of Turkey’s energy needs by 2023.

China, Russia, U.S. raise Mediterranean naval focus

A Chinese Submarine on Training Duty

Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent      Reuters

Egypt has seen no shortage of empires come and go, from its own ancient civilizations to those of Greece, Rome, Britain and France. Now, it is among the outposts of the latest Mediterranean power: China.


(Reuters) - PORT SAID, Egypt Situated at the northern end of the Suez Canal, the Port Said Container Terminal is one of the busiest in the region, vital for shipments not only to Egypt but also much of Europe and the Middle East.

Like several other key ports in the region - including Piraeus in Greece and Naples in Italy - it is now partially owned by China. The state-owned Cosco Pacific holds 20 percent the terminal, helping make it one of the dominant - if not the dominant - Mediterranean port operators.

Cosco stresses that it is a purely commercial venture and many analysts agree. But few doubt that Beijing has made a wider geopolitical decision to become much more involved in the region.

For the last two years, the People's Liberation Army Navy has sent one or more warships through the Suez Canal to visit southern European ports, the furthest its fleet has ever operated from home.

But China is not the only great power now increasing its involvement in the area. With Russia sending warships to positions off Syria and the United States signaling it too intends to take the region more seriously, the Mediterranean is clearly no longer seen as the strategic backwater many believed it had become.

Turkey, Greece wary of territorial waters claims

H.K. Tzanis             SETimes 

Both countries appear poised to keep discussing the potential dispute amid reports that Greece may unilaterally claim an exclusive economic zone.

Recent and highly publicised gas finds in the eastern Mediterranean between Israel and Cyprus, coupled with cash-strapped Greece's eagerness to better exploit natural resources, has thrust the question of exclusive economic zones into the spotlight.

Over the past couple years Athens and Ankara have moved to mend once tense relations despite long-entrenched opposing views on sea rights in the Aegean. But recent reports in Greek media that the country is preparing to unilaterally delimitate the zones carries the potential for friction.

Turkey's chief foreign affairs official insists, however, that the two countries have "channels" to discuss and deal with any dispute.

At the crux of Athens' standing position on maritime jurisdictions is the landmark UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, of which Greece and all EU member-states are signatories, but Turkey is not.

The convention, in force since 1994, recognises nations' rights to extend their territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles (22 kilometres) and an exclusive economic zone up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) from a defined coastal baseline. To date, neither Turkey nor Greece have officially claimed an economic zone or extended their territorial waters to the full 12 miles in the Aegean.

"Substantial" Cyprus Gas Find Rumoured

 Natural Gas Europe

A "substantial" gas find has been made in Block 12 in the offshore area of Cyprus, several unsubstantiated reports have said.

The rumoured gas find relates to an area currently under licence to Noble Energy Inc in the Cypriot portion of the Mediterranean Sea. Cypriot newspaper Politis has reported that the find is equal to or larger than that found by Noble in the nearby Israeli Leviathan field, which would exceed Noble's initial estimates of 9 trillion cubic feet of gas in Block 12. The newspaper does not name its sources for the story but says that these sources are "reliable".

On Tuesday, Noble increased its estimate for the total gas reserves in the Leviathan field from 16 trillion cubic feet to at least 17 trillion cubic feet and up to 20 trillion cubic feet.

"The reservoir thickness and quality were greater than anticipated," the company said in a statement.
Separately, Israeli news organisation Globes has said that results from the Cypriot Block are imminent. Globes also cite sources who say that the block is likely to contain 8 trillion cubic feet or higher, making it larger than the Israeli Tamar field. Another Cypriot news site, Philenews, has reported that the gas reserves may total up to 13 trillion cubic feet.