Noble gears up for another Leviathan development well

Atwood Oceanics’ drillship Atwood Advantage

The operator of the giant Leviathan gas field offshore Israel, Noble Energy, will drill another development and production well at the field, the Leviathan-7.

Noble Energy holds 39.66% stake at the Leviathan gas field. Its partner Avner Oil Exploration has 22.67% interest, Delek Drilling owns 15%, and Ratio Oil Exploration has 25.65% interest.

The Final Investment Decision (FID) for the project was taken in late February by the operator Noble and the Israeli Delek. The Leviathan field will be developed using a subsea system that connects production wells to a fixed platform located offshore with tie-in onshore in the northern part of Israel. First gas from the field, located in the Mediterranean Sea, is planned for the end of 2019.

Soon after the FID move, on Monday, March 13, the Leviathan field partnership made a decision to drill the Leviathan-7 well in the area of the I/14 Leviathan South lease, 120 km west of Haifa.

According to Delek’s statement on Tuesday, Noble Energy recommended that the partnership drill an additional development and production well in the Leviathan reservoir, as an integral part of the Leviathan reservoir production wells, in the framework of the development plan.

The statement explained that, by drilling the Leviathan-7 well in a batch with the Leviathan-5 well, it will be possible to streamline and reduce the cost of the drilling of these two wells.

The Leviathan-7 will be drilled as a development well and later connected as a production well to the Leviathan project’s production system.

Noble Energy has received the approvals required from the country’s Petroleum Commissioner and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, including the one for a drilling plan for the first stage, for a piping permit, and for a pre-drilling environmental impact assessment survey.

The well will be drilled with the Atwood Oceanics-owned drillship Atwood Advantage, which is currently working on the Tamar-8 development and production well. The drillship, which is under a fixed term with Noble until August 2017, started operations on the Tamar field last October. The Tamar-8 well is expected to be completed, including completion and connection to the production system, in the coming weeks.

 

Drilling schedule 

 

Since the Leviathan-7 will be drilled in a batch with the Leviathan-5, the two wells will be drilled in the following order: at the first stage, the upper part of the Leviathan-7 well will be drilled to a depth of approx. 2,900 meters below sea level; at the second stage, the drilling rig will be moved to the Leviathan-5 well site, where it will drill this well to a final depth of approx. 5,200 meters below sea level; at the third stage, the drilling rig will be returned to the Leviathan-7 well site, where it will drill the lower part of this well to a final depth of approx. 5,100 meters below sea level.

Both of these wells will be completed and connected to the production system on another date. The drilling is expected to start immediately after completion of the Tamar-8 well, and to take approximately seven months in the aggregate, excluding their completion and connection to the production system.

The Leviathan-7 well will target the Oligo-Miocene layers. Water depth at the site is 1,630 meters and the final depth planned for the well is approx. 5,100 meters below sea level.

The cost of the well, which is included in the budget for development of the Leviathan project, is $71 million, excluding the cost of completion and connection to the production system of the Leviathan reservoir.

As previously reported by Noble, completion activity for all four producer wells, including two previously drilled, is anticipated in 2018.

Offshore Energy Today Staff