Noble, Delek asked to commit to Dolphin development

Israel’s Delek Group has informed that it has been given until August 1 to provide a final commitment to developing the Hanna block in the Mediterranean Sea, containing the Dolphin natural gas reservoir.

The company said on Wednesday that Israel’s Petroleum Commissioner has filed the request in response to Delek and Noble Energy’s previous application to the government to recognize the Dolphin natural gas reservoir as a discovery.

The reservoir was discovered back in 2011, some 100 kilometers west of Haifa, and according to Noble Energy’s 2015 annual report, Noble and its partners were reviewing development scenarios for this discovery, including a potential tieback to the nearby Leviathan.

According to Delek’s statement on Wednesday, the Petroleum Commissioner informed that if the license partners provide by August 1, 2016 an irrevocable commitment to develop the Hanna license together with Phase 1 of the Leviathan field as well as a plan of the requested area to be declared as a discovery, they will then be granted a lease during the four months following (namely by December 1, 2016), and this is in order for the development of this lease to be completed by the end of 2019.

Responding to the request, Delek Group said: “The license partners are of the opinion that they have found a discovery that entitles them to receipt of a lease in accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Law. It is the Partnerships’ intention to continue to interact with the Commissioner to obtain a lease and to fix a timetable for development of the field, taking into account inter alia the characteristics of the field and the applicable markets, as is usual in the oil and gas industry around the world, in accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Law.”