Israel's Leviathan Gas Field to Restart Operations After Shutdown During Iran Conflict

Israel's NewMed announced on Wednesday that the Leviathan gas field, which supplies gas to Egypt, Jordan and the Middle East, was shut down almost two weeks ago because of the Iran-Israel war, but would be reopened in a few hours.

Since June 13, two of Israel's three natural gas fields, Leviathan operated by Chevron and Karish owned by Energean, off its Mediterranean coastline that provides the bulk of Israel's exports to Egypt or Jordan have been closed.

The older Tamar field was left to operate, primarily for domestic supply.

Israel and Iran reached a ceasefire agreement on Tuesday. Israel's Energy Ministry reported that Energy Minister Eli Cohen, after conducting a security evaluation, had ordered the opening Leviathan and Karish.

The ministry stated that resuming operations on the rigs would "enable natural gas supply to all customers", the resumed export of gas to neighboring nations, an increase in state tax revenue, and greater flexibility when managing the electricity and industry sectors.

Data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative shows that Israeli gas makes up about 15-20% of Egypt's total consumption. Egypt's fertilizer industry had to stop operations due to the disruption in Israel's supply of gas.

Cohen said last week that Israel will resume natural gas sales once its military has deemed the situation safe.

Leviathan is a huge deep-sea gas field that was brought online at the end 2019 and currently produces 12 billion cubic meters of gas annually for Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. This will increase to around 14 bcm by 2026.

Ratio Energies, in addition to Chevron or NewMed is also a Leviathan partner. (Reporting and editing by Barbara Lewis, Jan Harvey, and Steven Scheer)

(source: Reuters)