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Leviathan receives approval to complete start-up operations
IsraeL
ISRAEL’S Ministry of Environmental Protection has given the go-ahead for start-up operations to proceed at Leviathan, the country’s largest gas field, after emissions from the platform were lower than forecast.
Leviathan gas platform operator Noble Energy received government approval last Thursday to commence full operations at the offshore energy project this week.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection approved the procedure, scheduled to take place on Monday morning, which will see gas flow for the first time from the Leviathan reservoir’s two remaining wells through 120-km long pipes to the reservoir platform, 10km off Israel’s shore.
Gas was transferred from the reservoir’s first two wells to the Leviathan gas platform last Tues- day. Approval for the next stage of the procedure was granted after benzene and carbon emissions from the platform during the first stage were lower than initially forecast, the ministry said.
“yesterday and today, the Environmental
Protection Ministry received complaints from residents regarding the fear of irregular emis- sions from the platform,” the ministry said in a statement. “[Noble Energy]’s reports were reviewed by the ministry. The ministry empha- sises that it examined the data from monitoring stations in residential areas facing the platform, and there was no recorded increase at all in levels of benzene beyond routine amounts.”
The Leviathan reservoir, one of the largest natural gas fields to have been discovered world- wide in the last decade, is thought to contain up to 605bn cubic metres of natural gas, equivalent to 65 years of domestic gas consumption. Lucra- tive export deals will also see gas exported from the Leviathan and Tamar gas fields to neighbours Jordan and Egypt.
The Energy Ministry approved the flow of gas from the Leviathan reservoir on December 19. Energy Minister yuval Steinitz hailed the transformation of the State of Israel into “a gas superpower.”™
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w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 01 08•January•2019