10 bids for Leviathan export tender to Turkey

Globes     Amiram Barkat

Bidders include Zorlu Group and a joint bid by Turcas Petrol AS and German electricity utility RWE.

More than ten bids were submitted in the tender by the partners in Leviathan for the export of natural gas to Turkey. The bids for the purchase of natural gas ranged from 7 billion cubic meters (BCM) a year to 10 BCM, amounts that could generate $22-31 billion revenue, assuming a 15-year gas supply contract at $6 per million British Thermal Units (mmBTU), the price of natural gas in Israel's domestic market.

Sources inform ''Globes'' that the bidders in the tender include Zorlu Group, which has stakes in independent power producers in Israel, and a joint bid by Turcas Petrol AS and German electricity utility RWE AG.

Noble Energy Inc. owns 39.66% of Leviathan, Delek Group Ltd. units Avner Oil and Gas LP and Delek Drilling LP each own 22.67% and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP owns 15%.

In January, "Globes" reported that the partners in Leviathan had invited several dozen Turkish companies to bid in a gas supply contract from the gas field. The deal would include laying a pipeline to Turkey from Leviathan's proposed floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) ship, which deliver gas to Israeli and regional customers. The price in the bids is the purchase price of the gas from the FPSO. In addition to this price, the bids will be evaluated on the basis of their commercial terms, including the take or pay condition and the capacity of the gas purchased.

Some of the bidders are willing to build the pipeline themselves, while others prefer working in partnership with the Leviathan partners. After reviewing the bids in the coming weeks, the partners will hold separate negotiations with the finalists for signing a gas purchase contract.

Source: http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-10-bids-for-leviathan-export-tender-to-turkey-1000926526

Israel set to become major gas exporter

The Financial Times   John Reed

The Tamar deepwater natural gas platform rises 290m from the seabed off Ashdod, in southern Israel, emerging above the waterline only for the last 50 metres or so.

 

The $3.5bn project is described by its investors Delek of Israel and Noble Energy of the US as the largest private sector infrastructure undertaking in Israel’s 65-year history. The gas from Tamar, which began sending its output onshore in late March, will contribute about a percentage point of the country’s gross domestic product this year.

Israel is on the threshold of becoming a major energy power in the Middle East – with potentially game-changing consequences for geopolitics and economic relations in a volatile region – after a court decision unlocked the path to exports.

 

Executives at Delek and Noble told the Financial Times they are fast-tracking discussions on a range of export options for the much larger, still undeveloped Leviathan field, which lies about 30km to Tamar’s west, and holds an estimated 19tn cubic feet of gas – one of the industry’s biggest recent deepwater finds of its kind.

They are moving forward following a decision by Israel’s supreme court in late October to reject petitions brought by civil society groups and opposition politicians who questioned the right of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to set aside 40 per cent of Israel’s gas windfall for exports without having consulted the Knesset, Israel’s legislature. 

Noble Energy considers pipeline from Israel to Turkey

Reuters

Texas-based Noble Energy will double in size in the next five years, with a big boost coming from natural gas production in the eastern Mediterranean, its chief executive said on Thursday.

"We expect to double in size over the next five years. Double in size in terms of production, double in size in cash flow, double in size in terms of reserves," CEO Charles Davidson told reporters during a visit to Israel.

Noble is leading a number of consortia drilling for and producing gas off the Israeli and Cypriot shores, and it has already discovered an estimated 35 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of reserves over the past few years.

Israel's Tamar field, discovered by Noble in 2009, holds an estimated 10 tcf. It went online on March 30 and can meet the country's gas needs for decades.

The much larger Leviathan field, set to begin production around 2016, is mostly slated for exports.
The discoveries were a welcome surprise in Israel, which has relied heavily on energy imports. Analysts have said the deposits are ideally situated to serve both Europe and Asia.

Nobel, which had a 2012 market capitalisation of $17.6 billion, forecasts end-2013 total production to be 300 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (MBoe/d).

Interview with Charles Ellinas Chairman Of Cyprus Hydrocarbons Co.

Cyprus Mail

Interview with Charles Ellinas, chairman of the state hydrocarbons company KRETYK

* ‘Business as usual’ for oil and gas giants: Cyprus’ financial crisis not a problem
* Noble rebuffed Turkish demands to back away from exploratory drilling
* Six licensed blocks may hold 30 trillion cubic feet of gas - building an LNG first is a must

Q: There appears to be some confusion over the precise role of KRETYK, with reports suggesting some overlap with the duties of the Natural Gas Public Company, DEFA. Could you clear that up?

A: We are an oil and gas company, much like, say, Italy’s ENI. There is no overlap with DEFA, because we’ve met with them, and we agreed we have no intention of getting involved in gas sales and distribution in the island. And as far as I’m concerned, when we do bring the gas to the island - hopefully in 2018 - to Vasilikos plant there will be a link there and DEFA will take their gas and off they go. They’ll sell and distribute it and everything else. That’s not our job. DEFA is much like a utility company, much like for water. Gas is also a utility.

KRETYK is responsible for developing, managing exporting and operating gas. The Energy Service at the Commerce Ministry is responsible for licensing, and also polices adherence to the requirements of the production-sharing agreements. The companies involved in the production-sharing agreements have obligations to fulfill. We are not going to be policing that, it’s the job of the Energy Service, and there’s a very good reason for it: it could be that by the third round of licensing we could be strong enough to go into business with someone else and be part of a license. So we can’t be policing ourselves, someone else has to do it.

Israel's Natural Gas Challenges

Simon HENDERSON*        The Washington Institute    PolicyWatch 1978

A top-level Israeli government committee has produced a blueprint for exploitation of substantial natural gas reserves, but solutions must still be devised for a range of technical, commercial, and political problems.

In October 2011, following the discovery of large quantities of natural gas off Israel's Mediterranean coast, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed an interministerial committee to formulate policies for development of the new resources. Last week, the so-called Zemach Committee -- after chair Shaul Zemach, director-general of the Ministry of Energy and Water -- offered its recommendations. The panel's mandate was to offer suggestions on ensuring Israel's energy security, facilitating competition in its emerging domestic natural gas market, leveraging the environmental benefits of natural gas compared with other fuels, and maximizing the economic and political benefits.

BACKGROUND

Natural gas was first found in Israel's waters in 1999, when the Noa field was discovered off the coast of Ashdod. It was judged too small for commercial development, but in 2000, the Mari-B field was found nearby and has been supplying gas to Israeli power plants since 2004. In addition, Egypt began exporting gas to Israel in 2008, though it canceled that contract earlier this year after the pipeline was repeatedly sabotaged in Sinai. In January 2009, the Tamar field was discovered eighty miles off Haifa, with enough gas to supply Israel's domestic needs for fifteen years. And in December 2010, an even larger discovery was made in the Leviathan field west of Tamar. Although its full size has yet to be confirmed by further exploratory drilling, the finding led Israel to begin seeing itself as a significant gas exporter. Further small gas fields have since been discovered.

"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.

The Land of Gas and Honey

Robin M MILLS*     Foreign Policy

Israel's giant new natural gas find will transform the Middle East -- and add more fuel to an already combustible region.

Mother Nature's distribution of oil and gas resources around the world suggests she has a mischievous sense of humor. In the Persian Gulf, South China Sea, and Caspian Sea, large fields lie in disputed zones between unfriendly neighbors.

Now we must add another hot spot to that list. New, giant, natural gas finds promise to transform the energy security and economy of Israel and, perhaps, its neighbors. But these treasures could hardly have been better placed to stir up trouble, complicating three of the world's most intractable conflicts: between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel and Lebanon, and Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The recent sharp deterioration in Turkish-Israeli relations makes disputes over gas even more fraught with danger.

Golda Meir, the feisty, cantankerous, and quotable fourth Israeli prime minister, used to complain that Moses led the Israelites through the desert for 40 years to bring them to the only place in the Middle East without oil. In 2000, after Britain's BG had discovered significant volumes of gas at Gaza Marine, she was proved at least half-wrong when U.S. exploration company Noble Energy found a similar-sized field, Mari-B, in Israeli waters.

Greece and Israel discuss cooperation on natural gas

  
The Jerusalem Post

Greek Investment Minister says his country may become a "transportation hub and services center" for gas found in Leviathan field.

Greece has begun talks with Israel about transporting natural gas to Europe, Greek Investment Minister Harris Pamboukis told Reuters on Monday

"The Israelis have found big quantities of offshore gas in the Mediterranean," Pamboukis explained. "We are trying to see how Greece could be seen as a transportation hub and a services center, since it is on a natural road to the Balkans and Europe."

Pamboukis emphasized that these are only exploratory talks, initiated after natural gas was discovered in the Leviathan field, Reuters reported.

He added that he had been appointed the Greek coordinator for relations with Israel.

Exploratory drilling by the companies investing in Leviathan - Delek Energy, Razio, Isramco and Noble Energy - began in early January. Leviathan is the largest natural gas find in Israel's history, with an estimated 16 trillion cubic meters of gas.

Relations between Israel and Greece warmed in the past year, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu paying the first visit to the country by an Israeli prime minister in August, a month after his Greek counterpart George Papandreou came to Israel.

Source:

http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?ID=205019&R=R1&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter