The Greek energy company Energean Oil & Gas plc announced the discovery of 28-42 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas in the northern Israeli offshore gas field. This is in addition to the 45 BCMs already discovered. This is a much smaller site than the 281 BCM in the Tamar field and the 605 BCM in the Leviathan field, however consistent enough to allow Energean to become a competitive player in the Israeli energy market. The share price of Energean rose by 7% after the news was released. This is reported by the economic newspaper Globes.
Exploratory drilling began on 15 March and reached a depth of 4,880 meters, and was completed a week earlier than expected. A further evaluation will now be launched to further refine the potential of resources and determine the actual content.
The CEO of Energean, Mathios Rigas, said: “We are pleased to announce this significant new gas discovery at Karish North, which further demonstrates the attractiveness of our gas field off the coast of Israel. We are building the FPSO Energean Power with unused capacity , which will allow us to quickly, safely and economically develop both North Karish and future discoveries. We have already signed a contract to sell 5.5 billion cubic meters (0.2 Tcf) of this new resource, and our strategy it is now to guarantee the transfer of the remaining volumes. We continue to see a strong demand for our gas, which we believe will be further supported by today’s announcement “.
Once the operations on Karish North are completed, Stena DrillMAX will return to drill in Karish’s field. Following this program, Energean will have six other drilling options remaining under the contract with Stena Drilling.
(ITALPRESS/MNA)
