Leviathan field to start producing natural gas in 2-3 weeks, operator says

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Times Of Israel

VP for Regional Affairs at Noble Energy says exports to Egypt and Jordan to start soon after wells open for local market

Shoshanna Solomon

Dec. 2 2019

Leviathan, the nation’s largest natural gas field, will start production for the local market this month and exports to Egypt and Jordan soon after, a senior official at the field’s operator said at a Monday conference.

“Within two to three weeks we will open the wells and start to supply the gas,” said Binyamin Zomer, VP for Regional Affairs at Noble Energy, the US oil and gas explorer that operates and holds a 40 percent stake in the field. “Before the end of the year we will start supplying the domestic market, and in the weeks right after that we will export to Egypt and Jordan.”

 

The start of production, some nine years after the field was discovered offshore in 2010, will lead the country to energy independence and is considered a milestone in its economic history. The project, the largest funded by private capital in the nation’s history, will pave the way for Israel to become an exporter of natural gas and is seen to help grease the wheels of regional diplomacy.

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[Valin]

Despite pollution fears, gas flow begins from behemoth Leviathan field

Noble Energy performs gas rig flushing test overnight, and begins extracting gas and sending it to Israel, overruling opposition from locals, environmentalists

Shoshanna Solomon

Dec. 31 2019

The Noble Energy control room on the Leviathan platform on December 31, 2019 (Noble Energy)

Gas began flowing from the mammoth Leviathan offshore natural gas field on Tuesday, after the government gave a final go-ahead to Noble Energy to forge ahead with the project despite vocal protests from residents of the coastal region who are concerned about the pollution emitted by the rigs.

The Environmental Protection Ministry said Monday that Noble Energy and its partners had met all the necessary conditions to begin pumping gas, paving the way for the rigs to begin extracting the estimated 22 trillion cubic feet of gas trapped underground.

 

Early Tuesday morning Noble began a gas rig test that is necessary ahead of starting operations, and later that morning the partners in Leviathan announced the start of natural gas production from the reservoir, the largest energy project in Israel’s history.

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