Australia’s oil and gas company Woodside has reached an agreement to buy a participating interest in Leviathan, one of the largest recent offshore gas discoveries worldwide.
The move could see the Australian company play a key role in the potential development of a liquefied natural gas industry in Israel.
The Leviathan project, operated by Noble Energy, is located on the Rachel and Amit licenses 135 km offshore Israel in 1600 m of water. It has an estimated 17 Tcf of recoverable resources and is currently being appraised.
Charles D. Davidson, Noble Energy’s Chairman and CEO , commented, “ Noble Energy is extremely pleased to welcome such a substantial and knowledgeable strategic partner as Woodside. We are confident that their extensive experience in LNG projects will further unlock value in the world-class Leviathan resource.
“The entry of Woodside will bring additional international diversity to the Eastern Mediterranean area, thus highlighting the global importance of the Levant Basin,” Davidson added.
Under the agreement Woodside will acquire a 30% interest in the Leviathan field. The agreement will also allow Woodside to take part in further exploration opportunities in the Leviathan licences.
“We have a proven track record of safe and reliable operations in Australia and being selected as the Leviathan Joint Venture’s preferred partner in a competitive bidding process demonstrates the value of our LNG development capabilities,” Peter Coleman, Woodside CEO said in a statement.
Woodside will be the operator of any LNG development of the field, while Noble Energy will remain upstream operator. Noble Energy targets initial production to the domestic gas market in 2016. A pre-FEED (front-end engineering and design) assessment for an LNG project is underway.
The agreement involves an initial upfront payment of US$696 million.
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Offshore Energy Today Staff, December 3, 2012