Surprise! Israeli Natural Gas Fields Much Larger than Expected

Natural gas fields off the coast of Israel were recently revealed as containing far greater reserves than previously expected.

By United with Israel Staff

Energean Oil and Gas PLC, a British-Greek gas producer focused on the Mediterranean, said Monday in a press release, that its Karish North and Tanin fields revealed “significantly” larger than expected natural gas supplies.

“This is an excellent result from the Karish North appraisal sidetrack, confirming in place volumes in the top half of pre-drill estimates and increasing our recoverable volumes in Israel by 0.9 Tcf (25 BCM) of gas plus 34 million barrels of light oil or condensate,” Energean CEO Mathios Rigas said, according to the press release.

“Today’s news delivers upon another commitment that we had made to our shareholders, and the successful results allow us to continue our gas marketing efforts in the region with a goal to fully utilize the capacity of our 8 BCMA FPSO. Our focus now remains on closing the Edison E&P acquisition, in parallel with progressing the Karish development,” he continued.

Before discovering major natural gas fields, which began with the Noa gas field off the shores of Ashkelon in 1999 and the more significant findings in 2009 of Tamar and Leviathan, it was widely assumed that the country lacked natural resources. Finding large sources of natural gas has freed Israel from its dependency of energy sources from abroad and transformed the country into an energy supplier, both domestically and abroad.

Israel is pegged to deliver natural gas to Jordan and Egypt, valued at $26 billion. It is also planning to construct a 2,000-km pipeline to supply Eastern Mediterranean gas to Europe.

In April, when additional quantities of natural gas were discovered around Israel’s waters about 90 kilometers offshore following delays in exploration, the country’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said, “I congratulate Energean on the large amount of natural gas that has appeared in Karish North. This is a prelude, which I am sure will herald further discoveries in the future. If you will it, it is no dream, and Israel will become a regional energy power,” reported The Jerusalem Post.

At that time, Rigas said, “We are delighted to be announcing this significant new gas discovery at Karish North, which further demonstrates the attractiveness of our acreage offshore Israel. We have already signed a contingent contract to sell 5.5 bcm of this new resource, and our strategy is now to secure the offtake for remaining volumes. We continue to see strong demand for our gas, which we believe will be supported by today’s announcement.”

The latest discovery follows exploratory drilling 700 meters north of the original Karish North penetration that took place between mid-March and April and cost $25 million.

According to Energean, the “excellent result” of its efforts yielded an addition of 25 billion cubic meters (bcm) of recoverable natural gas. The company also confirmed the existence of 34 million barrels of light oil or condensate.

Energean is listed on both the London and Tel Aviv stock exchanges. Following the report, stocks rose almost 2 percent on Monday.

According to the Post, “The Karish North field will be developed via a connection to Energean’s floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, located 5.4 km. away and built with capacity to produce 8 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Gas flow is expected to commence in 2021.”