Monetization Options Eyed For Israel’s Leviathan Field

After recently sizing up the reserve base at Israel’s giant Leviathan field to 17 Tcf, operator Noble Energy is progressing efforts to determine the best monetization option for the offshore resource. An onshore LNG plant of around 15 MMt/y beginning in 2018 is viewed as the most likely development path for Leviathan, although Noble has not ruled out other alternatives including floating LNG. Technip is doing pre-front end engineering and design as well as site selection studies on the land-based facility under a contract awarded in October. These studies, which include the evaluation of three main locations as well as various size and configuration scenarios, should be finished at the end of the first quarter of 2012. Ashkelon on Israel’s southern coast is one possibility, at a location just north of Palestinian-controlled Gaza. Several sites on the Gulf of Aqaba are under consideration as well. This would involve landing the gas at Ashkelon on the Mediterranean coast and piping it overland, paralleling a 254-km pipeline owned by the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Co that was built in 1968 to carry crude oil from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean but is now only lightly used in reverse flow. EAPC operates an underutilized tank farm at Ramat-Yotam near Eilat that represents a potential site, while other locations in the area are also being evaluated by Technip. Locating the plant on the Gulf of Aqaba would provide direct access to markets in Asia by bypassing the Suez Canal, and sources say the extra pipeline costs would offset the fees shippers would otherwise have to pay to traverse this waterway. Download here