Chevron, NewMed Energy approve budget for Leviathan FLNG

US energy giant Chevron and Israel’s NewMed Energy will invest $51.5 million for the pre-FEED work on a floating LNG producer as part of the expansion of the large Leviathan gas field.

NewMed’s chief Yossi Abu said in November last year that the company and its partners planned to start pre-FEED work on Leviathan FLNG “very soon” in order to take a final investment decision “as soon as we can.”

Leviathan, located about 130 km off the shores of Haifa, contains about 22.9 Tcf of recoverable gas, according to NewMed.

Production of natural gas from the first phase of 12 bcm began in December 2019 and the gas supplies go to Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.

NewMed has a 45.3 percent share in Leviathan and Ratio 15 percent. Chevron, which bought Noble Energy in 2020, has a 39.66 percent operating stake in Leviathan.

4.6 million tons of LNG

Now the Levithan partners approved budgets for 2023 regarding Phase 1B for the development of the Leviathan reservoir with the aim of increasing the total gas production capacity by an additional 9 Bcm per year to about 21 Bcm per year, NewMed Energy said in a statement.

According to the firm, the Leviathan partners are promoting a future construction of an FLNG facility with an annual production capacity of about 4.6 million tons of LNG.

The approved budgets include the sum of $44.9 million for the performance of pre-FEED and commencement of FEED, for expansion of the Leviathan reservoir’s production system, including the design of subsea infrastructures and of necessary changes on the production platform, it said.

Also, the Leviathan partners approved $51.5 million for the performance of pre-FEED for the FLNG facility in a competitive process between international groups specializing in the design and construction of FLNG facilities, NewMed said.

Last year, NewMed and Germany’s Uniper, the developer of Germany’ first operational FSRU-based facility in Wilhelmshaven, signed a memorandum of understanding to examine the possibility of supplying LNG to Europe.

The deal between Uniper and NewMed includes delivering Israeli gas to Egyptian LNG terminals for onward supply to Germany, or a floating LNG export project off Israel based on the development of Phase 1B of the Leviathan project.

Germany started importing LNG in a record time and already has two FSRU-based LNG terminals in operation and one in commissioning phase.

The facilities in Wilhelmshaven, Lubmin, and Brunsbuettel will be joined by three more terminals by next winter.

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