LNG

NewMed Energy, the Israeli company with stakes in the East Mediterranean gas fields, has received approval in principle to export more volumes from the prolific Leviathan field offshore Israel.

NewMed Energy, the Israeli company with stakes in the East Mediterranean gas fields of Tamar and Leviathan offshore Israel and with LNG export ambitions, has published its annual results showing pipeline gas continued to flow to the Israeli domestic market and to Egypt and Jordan even after the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023.

Mubadala Energy, the international company headquartered in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, has made one of the largest natural gas discoveries this year with LNG potential offshore Indonesia in the Andaman Sea.

NewMed Energy, the Israeli company with stakes in the East Mediterranean gas fields of Tamar and Leviathan offshore Israel and the Aphrodite field offshore Cyprus and with LNG export ambitions, has reported earnings and the impact of the war in Gaza as well as the state of the moves by UK major BP and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for a stake in NewMed.

Israel has suspended production at the Tamar natural gas field supplying Israel, Jordan and Egypt offshore the East Mediterranean coast and not far from the Gaza strip after the terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians over the weekend that have spread regional instability and affected natural gas prices more than crude oil prices.

UK major BP and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company have made a joint offer to take control of NewMed Energy, the Israeli natural gas company with LNG export plans and a supplier of pipeline gas to Israel, Egypt and Jordan.

Chevron Corp. more than doubled net income in 2022 as oil and gas sales increased at higher prices and LNG export demand soared in the Atlantic and Pacific basins.

Chevron reported annual net income of $35.60 billion for the upstream and downstream divisions combined compared with $15.68Bln in the previous year as well as posting higher quarterly earnings.

For the fourth quarter, Chevron registered $6.37Bbln of profits versus $5.08Bln in the same three months of 2021 to the end of December.

Revenues in 2022 increased by 52 percent to $246.25Bln compared with $162.46Bln in the previous year from key assets in areas such as the Permian Basin, the Eastern Mediterranean and LNG export projects such as Gorgon and Wheatstone in Western Australia and Angola LNG in southwest Africa,

Fourth-quarter revenues jumped to $56.47Bln from $48.13 in the prior-year quarter.

“We delivered record earnings and cash flow in 2022, while increasing investments and growing US production to a company record,” said Mike Wirth, Chevron’s Chairman and Chief Executive.

US production

“The company’s investments increased by more than 75 percent from 2021, and annual US production increased to 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, led by 16 percent growth in Permian Basin unconventional production,” explained Wirth.

The San Ramon, California-based company said worldwide net oil-equivalent production was 3.01 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter 2022 and 3.00 million barrels per day for the full-year 2022.

Chevron added 1.1 billion barrels of net oil-equivalent proved reserves during last year.

“The largest net additions were from assets in the Permian Basin, Israel, Canada and the Gulf of Mexico” added Chevron.

The company also raised its quarterly dividend per share an additional 6 percent, to $1.51 per share, putting the company on track to increase its annual per share dividend for the 36th straight year.

In addition, the company’s board approved a new $75Bln share repurchase program.

Quarterly highlights

“We are well positioned to lead in both traditional and new energy businesses, while delivering higher returns, lower carbon and superior shareholder value,” declared Wirth.

Among Chevron’s quarterly highlights, the company listed the taking of final investment decisions on major integrated chemicals projects in Texas and Qatar for the company’s 50 percent owned affiliate, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC.

Chevron also approved a project to expand the Tamar gas facility offshore Israel.

It additionally announced a “significant” new natural gas discovery at the Nargis block in the East Med offshore Egypt.

The US major is also going forward with the Ballymore project in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico with design capacity of 75,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Chevron increased it carbon-reduction plans with multiple carbon-capture projects, including the Bayou Bend storage project in the US Gulf Coast. It also received permits to assess carbon storage offshore Australia.

NewMed Energy, the Israeli company considering a floating liquefied natural gas plant to further develop the Leviathan gas field in the East Mediterranean, has expanded its activities by signing agreements for an exploration licence targeting gas offshore Morocco in the Atlantic Ocean.

NewMed signed an accord with Adarco Energy Ltd and Morocco’s National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines for natural gas and/or oil exploration and production activity in the Boujdour Atlantique exploration licence.

According to the agreements, NewMed will hold 37.5 percent of the interests in the exploration licence. Adarco will own 37.5 percent and the remaining 25 percent has been granted to Morocco’s ONHYM, the above body’s name in French, Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM).

NewMed’s East Med options include an FLNG facility or a pipeline connections to Egyptian liquefaction plants located east of Alexandria.

Among its assets, NewMed holds the rights to 45 percent of the Leviathan offshore gas field with the other major shareholder in the field being US major Chevron Corp. A smaller stake is held by Israel's Avner.

NewMed, which announced its name change from Delek Drilling in February 2022, also has its stake in the Aphrodite gas field in Cyprus's offshore economic zone waters, making it one of the biggest players in the East Med.

Moroccan potential

NewMed said that the North African kingdom had enormous geological and commercial potential.

The Boujdour Atlantique licence is in the south of Morocco’s EEZ and will be issued for a total of eight years.

According to the work plan, 30 months from the date of the granting of the licence, a geological and geophysical analysis will be performed in the area of interest and an initial exploration drilling is planned after around 2.5 years.

A statement said that the agreements were contingent on receipt of approval from Morocco’s Ministry of Energy Transition and sustainable development and from the Ministry of Finance.

“From one day to the next we are expanding our international operations and becoming a global body in every respect,” said Yossi Abu, Chief Executive of NewMed.

“We have long identified enormous potential in Morocco and the announcement is part of an extensive strategic move that will render NewMed Energy the leading energy body in the East Mediterranean region and North Africa,” stated Abu.

Harry Murphy, Director of Adarco, said his company’s principals have been active in the energy market for many years.

“We are delighted to be entering the Moroccan natural gas exploration sector in partnership with NewMed Energy, a leading energy company which has invested massively in the petroleum industry and has been involved in major discoveries over the past 30 years,” Murphy declared. 

NewMed Energy, formerly Delek Drilling and owner of the largest Israeli offshore natural gas field and a likely future LNG feed-gas supplier, is continuing with the process of being listed on the London Stock Exchange through a reverse takeover of UK company Capricorn Energy.

June 20 (LNGJ) - Energean plc, the UK-listed company targeting 110 billion cubic metres of natural gas in a high-impact drilling programme offshore Israel, has provided an update on the initial results of the Karish gas field KM-04 appraisal well. “Operations at the KM-04 appraisal well have been successfully completed ahead of schedule and below budget, meeting the primary objectives set pre-drill,” said Energean.

   “The KM-04 appraisal well achieved the following: Gas and associated liquids were encountered in the previously undrilled fault block between Karish Main and Karish North and gas was encountered in the A-sands on the flanks of the Karish Main structure. These sands were tested and fluid samples obtained. An oil rim was confirmed in the central part of the field,” it added.