Chevron confirms routine maintenance work date for gas platform off Israel

Chevron Mediterranean Limited, a subsidiary of the U.S.-headquartered oil major Chevron, has disclosed a date for one-day scheduled maintenance work at its gas production platform offshore Israel.

Chevron plans to undertake scheduled maintenance at its Tamar production platform on February 21, 2024. According to the company, natural gas will be controllably released from the platform through the flare boom to perform the work safely.

“Flaring does not pose any environmental or health risk to the community and is an industry-standard safety device used to relieve pressure and help keep our equipment and plants operating safely,” highlighted Chevron.

This announcement comes after the firm greenlighted the decision to invest $24 million in the development of the second phase of the project in a bid to boost natural gas production to about 1.6 billion cubic feet a day from the Tamar field.  

Jeff Ewing, Managing Director of Chevron’s Eastern Mediterranean Business Unit, stated: “Reaching FID for Phase Two of Tamar’s expansion reflects Chevron’s ongoing commitment to partnering with the State of Israel to continue development of its energy resources for the benefit of domestic and regional natural gas markets.”

The work on the second phase, just like the laying of a 150-kilometer pipeline from the Tamar field to the platform, which is part of the first phase, is expected to be wrapped up in 2025. These two phases come with a total investment of $673 million.

Recently, a new sales agreement for gas exports to Egypt was inked with Blue Ocean Energy for the Tamar gas field, which was discovered in January 2009 and developed within four years to meet local needs after Egypt stopped supplying Israel with natural gas.

The Tamar project partners are Noble Energy, now Chevron Mediterranean Limited (25%), Isramco (28.75%), Tamar Petroleum (16.75%), Mubadala Energy (11%), Tamar Investment 2 (11%), Dor Gas (4%), and Everest (3.5%).

Located 90 km west of Haifa, at a depth of 5,000 meters below sea level, Tamar covers an area of 100 km2 and encompasses six production wells, which produce volumes of natural gas ranging from 7.1 to 8.5 million cubic meters per day each.

The lion’s share of natural gas processing takes place on the Tamar platform situated 24 km west of Ashkelon. This field supplies 70% of Israel’s energy consumption needs for electricity generation, according to Chevron.

Following the rekindled conflict between Israel and Palestine, which started on October 7, 2023, during a major Jewish holiday, Chevron had to shut down the Tamar platform, which was restarted later on. The impact of this situation on oil and gas prices will most likely remain limited.

However, the potential for this conflict to widen into regional hostilities should not be ignored as the death toll keeps rising. Thus, a two-state solution is perceived as the best and only solution to ensure a lasting peace in the region.