Noble Energy, the operator of the giant Leviathan Gas field in Israel, has been given a nod by its partners to enter into a front-end engineering design contract for work for the offshore production platform for the field.
Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration on Wednesday said they have authorized Noble Energy to enter into a $120 million deal for the production platform FEED, as approved in the previously announced development plan.
While the partners did not say who the FEED contractor was, it has been reported that Wood Group Mustang has been selected for the job.
The approved Plan of Development (POD), submitted earlier this year, envisions a subsea system that connects production wells to a fixed platform located offshore with tie-in onshore in the northern part of Israel. The fixed platform’s initial capacity is anticipated to start at 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (Bcf/d) and is expandable to 2.1 Bcf/d.
Noble’s partners also said on Wednesday that the partnership is working to close other agreements for the purchase of equipment and/or services related to the Development Plan, as approved, and they expect to sign off on them in the near future.
“In this way, the Leviathan Partners are continuing to work to complete the required actions in order to obtain a Final Investment Decision (FID), based on the Development Plan, in Q4 2016 and for that purpose are advancing negotiations at various stages with potential customers, both in the local market and for export, to sign contracts for the supply of natural gas from the Leviathan field,” the Israeli partners said.
First gas from the Leviathan field is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Noble Energy operates Leviathan with a 39.66 percent working interest. Other interest owners are Delek Drilling with 22.67 percent, Avner Oil Exploration with 22.67 percent, and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) Limited Partnership with the remaining 15 percent.