Page 9 - GLNG Week 48 2022

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

sources and paving the way to a decarbonised company’s third-quarter results on November
world. Sourcing natural gas from offshore Israel 24 that NewMed was “really keen” to develop an
has the potential to increase security of supply FLNG solution for Leviathan and wanted to start
for Germany.” work “very soon” on a pre-front end engineering
Meanwhile, Yossi Abu, the CEO of NewMed, and design (FEED) study. The goal is to make
stressed the importance of gas to energy markets a final investment decision (FID) on expanding
in Europe and other regions. “For the foreseea- Leviathan’s production capacity from 12bn cubic
ble future, natural gas will be the most signifi- metres per year to 14 bcm per year “as soon as we
cant energy source in the world,” he remarked. can,” he declared.
“NewMed Energy is continuing to promote its Abu clarified his statements in a conversation
international activity. Leviathan is an energy with Reuters later on November 24, saying that
anchor in the Middle East, supplying energy to NewMed wanted to take an FID in early 2023.
Israel and other countries in the region, while He also described the FLNG plan for gas exports
also being able to help in the energy crisis in beyond the near term as “really where we are
Europe.” heading right now.”
In other words, NewMed does appear to be
NewMed leaning toward FLNG? looking beyond Egypt with respect to export
Uniper’s announcement does not seem to be a routes for Israeli gas. It will probably take sev-
sign of immediate changes in the pipeline for eral years to build the FLNG needed to imple-
Israel’s largest gas field. ment such a solution – and certainly in the near
After all, the German company did say in term, it appears to anticipate working more with
early November that its short-term plans for Egypt, as well as another of Israel’s neighbours.
co-operation with NewMed would focus on (“In 2023 we will significantly speed up Levia-
piping Israeli production to Egypt and on mak- than’s expansion and entry into new markets,
ing use of existing gas liquefaction plants. It also while strengthening the collaboration with our
indicated that the partners had yet to decide customers in Israel, Egypt and Jordan,” Abu told
whether to install a new-build FLNG in Israeli Reuters.)
waters further down the road or continue mak- Once the FLNG is in place, however, Israel
ing use of the Idku and Damietta LNG plants. will have another option for sending gas to
Since then, however, NewMed has offered Europe. It will probably still need to collaborate
some hints about its own preferences. Abu with Egypt due to capacity constraints, but it will
said during a conference call discussing his gain flexibility through diversification.™

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