Partners in the mammoth Leviathan gas field off Israel’s Mediterranean coast this week approved a decision to spend $51.5 million on preparation of a new floating LNG (liquified natural gas) terminal, according to Reuters.
Annual production capacity of the facility is estimated to reach approximately 4.6 million tons of LNG.
The largest energy field in the history of the Jewish State, Leviathan began in 2019 to supply natural gas to domestic customers in Israel and to Egypt and Jordan.
The partners who hold rights in the project are NewMed Energy (45.3 percent), Chevron (39.7 percent) and Ratio Energies (15 percent).
The partners also approved $44.9 million to fund performance of front-end engineering and design (FEED) for Phase 1B of the development of the Leviathan gas reservoir.
The partners in the project are expanding the reservoir’s infrastructure and building the future floating LNG terminal with an eye towards deliveries of LNG to Germany, in accordance with the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed last year between NewMed and Uniper, according to Offshore Energy.
The expansion of the reservoir’s production system is to include design of subsea structures and necessary changes on the production platform, NewMed said.
The consortium aims to increase the total gas production capacity by an additional 9 bcm per year to reach approximately 21 bcm per year.
Israel and Egypt have already signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to deliver Israeli gas through Egyptian LNG plants to the European Union.
The group has warned, however, that it will still take three years from the final investment decision before gas starts flowing to Egypt’s LNG facilities. The floating LNG terminal will follow that.
