Israel’s NewMed Energy, previously known as Delek Drilling, is “really keen” to develop a floating LNG terminal as part of the expansion of the large Leviathan gas field operated by Chevron.
NewMed recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Germany’s Uniper to examine the possibility of supplying LNG to Europe.
Germany currently has no LNG import facilities but the country will have at least six FSRUs installed by the end of the next year as it looks to boost energy security and ditch Russian pipeline gas supplies.
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.
NewMed’s chief Yossi Abu said during the company’s third-quarter results call on Thursday that the firm, as a Levithan partner, is “really keen” to develop a floating LNG terminal under the second phase of the project.
He said that the company plans to start pre-FEED work “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.
Earlier this year, the US energy giant signed a preliminary deal with state-owned EGAS to send natural gas supplies from its offshore Mediterranean fields to Egypt’s liquefaction and export plants.
Chevron has a 25 percent operating interest in the Tamar gas field just east of Leviathan as well.