The East Mediterranean is becoming a growing centre for natural gas as the Egyptian LNG export market revives and plans are considered for floating liquefaction projects offshore Cyprus and Israel, while a further significant discovery has been made by a London-listed exploration and production company.
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Noble Energy and the Delek Group are the main resources holders offshore Israel with a combined 33 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Leviathan and Tamar fields.
Egypt is the dominant player with an even larger offshore asset base in the East Med, including the giant Zohr field that came on stream in late 2017 and enabled the Egyptians to switch from being imports to again being an exporter.
In addition to a growing list of natural gas discoveries, the East Med region has many companies seeking supply contracts amidst under-used pipelines and idle liquefaction capacity, as well as growing domestic demand for gas-fired power.
It was the demand for natural gas in Egypt that had forced the nation to divert LNG feed-gas in 2012 to the domestic market and shut its two export plants at Idku (see photograph) and Damietta, located east of the port of Alexandria.
However, Egypt has been one of the biggest gainers from the increased pace of exploration and production activities and is now ramping up exports.
Cyprus is also building up its natural gas reserves with the ExxonMobil and Middle East LNG partner Qatar Petroleum recently making a large natural gas discovery in Cypriot waters.
Now the E&P company Energean has announced a significant natural gas discovery offshore Israel.
Energean, listed on the London and Tel Aviv stock exchanges, acquired leases in the existing Tanin and Karish fields from Israel’s Delek Group and has now made a discovery in what is now being called the Karish North field.
The company said that its initial estimates suggest to find could be as a big as 1.5 Tcf after a gross hydrocarbon column of 249 metres was encountered.
“Further evaluation will now be undertaken to further refine resource potential and determine the liquids content of the discovery,” said Energean.
The company stated that the Karish North discovery would be commercialised via a tie-back to the “Energean Power” Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit, which is being constructed. The FPSO is built for total processing and export capacity of 8 billion cubic metres per annum, or 775 million cubic feet per day, which will enable Karish North, and future discoveries, to be monetised.
Energean had signed a contract in December 2018 with Israeli company I.P.M Beer Tuvia to supply an estimated 5.5 Bcm (0.2 Tcf) of gas.
The contract is contingent on the results of Energean’s 2019 drilling programme and it now looks set to be converted into a firm contract.
Energean has five exploration licences offshore Israel, and a 25-year exploitation licence for the Katakolo offshore block in Western Greece and additional exploration potential in its other licences in Western Greece.
“We are delighted to be announcing this significant new gas discovery at Karish North, which further demonstrates the attractiveness of our acreage offshore Israel,” said Mathios Rigas, Chief Executive of Energean.
“We are building the ‘Energean Power’ FPSO with spare capacity, which will enable us to quickly, safely and economically develop both Karish North and future discoveries,” he added.
