First gas from Mediterranean phased development on track for 2027

September 11, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

London-based oil and gas player Energean is expecting to bring online in less than two years the first chapter of an area in the Mediterranean, containing a string of gas discoveries made in 2022, as part of a phased development off the coast of Israel.

Once the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure granted a 30-year lease in July 2024 for the Katlan area, originally called the Olympus area, including a 20-year extension option, Energean made a final investment decision (FID) for the project, targeting a phased approach through a subsea tie-back to the existing FPSO Energean Power.

According to the company, the first gas is planned for the first half of 2027. The engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract for the subsea scope was awarded to Technip FMC. Energean’s phased development offshore Israel is envisioned to bring gas discoveries online by tying them back to an existing FPSO.

Energean awaits 30-year production license ahead of sanctioning phased gas development offshore Israel

Exploration & Production

The project’s field development plan was approved in December 2023. Given the current environment in the Middle East region and the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, the firm highlights the magnitude of regional geopolitical risk, which remains elevated since October 7, 2023.

As concerns of escalations in the Middle East have intensified the security risk in the region, Energean claims that essential infrastructure systems, such as the FPSO Energean Power offshore Israel, may be targets for missile fire and sabotage operations.

On June 13, 2025, the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure ordered the temporary suspension of production and activities of the FPSO, following geopolitical escalation in the region at the time of the notice.

The unit remained offline until June 25 when the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure instructed the safe restart and resumption of production and operations. Apart from that temporary suspension, the firm underlines that the Karish and Karish North fields have continued to produce with no disruption since the start of the conflict.

Israel-Iran truce sends signal for Mediterranean gas story to continue with FPSO restart

Exploration & Production

Energean signed approximately $2 billion binding term sheet with Dalia Energy Companies in January 2025 for gas sales in Israel, enabling the supply of up to 0.1 bcm/year from April 2026, rising to up to 0.5 bcm/year from around January 2030 and then around 1 bcm/year from June 2035 until 2044 with potential extension, excluding supply in the summer months, June to September, between 2026-2034.

The London-based player also inked a gas sale and purchase agreement (GSPA) with Kesem Energy for the supply of gas to the latter’s new power plant, which is estimated to be operational before the end of the current decade.

The contracted supply is approximately 1 bcm/year from around the middle of the 2030s with limited quantities of gas supplied intermittently before then. This contract represents over $2 billion in revenues and around 12.5 bcm in contracted supply over the 17-year period.

The end of July 2025 saw Energean and Croatia’s Industrija nafte (INA) give the go-ahead for the development of a natural gas field off the coast of Croatia.