Page 10 - MEOG Week 48

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Change at the top at Delek profits tumble
IsraeL
IsRAEL’s Delek Group this week has announced an 80% drop in Q3 net profits year on year, as the company prepares to kick off production from its key asset, the Leviathan gas field.
The firm’s head, Asaf Bartfeld, also revealed that he would be retiring at the end of the year, with controlling stakeholder yitzhak tshuva’s long-time ally and the company’s current deputy CEO, Idan Wallace.
Given Wallace’s relationship with tshuva, the market should not anticipate a significant change of vision from Delek.
Delek Group owns 45% of the giant Levia- than asset through its 60%-owned Delek Drill- ing subsidiary. It is partnered in the project by Houston-based Noble Energy (39.7%) and local firm Ratio Oil Exploration (15%).
The Us firm recently announced that the field was on track to reach production in December, below budget and ahead of schedule.
Noble said in its Q3 report that production decks had been installed on the jacket during the quarter and that the project was now 96% complete. Work remains ongoing to install the living quarters on the platform as well as rig commissioning.
Noble and local partner Delek Drilling stated
in september that the platforms that would be utilised to develop Leviathan had set sail for the Israeli offshore from texas.
tshuva will be hoping that Leviathan Gas will begin flowing ahead of his departure to ensure his legacy, having played a significant role in the birth of a major gas industry in Israel.
From Leviathan, Noble anticipates selling an average of 22.66mn cubic metres per day of gas in 2020, with output being piped by two 120-km lines to the mainland. At that point, it will join the Israel Natural Gas Lines (INGL) network.
The Us firm also recently completed a deal to acquire a 39% stake in East Mediterranean Gas (EMG), the owner of the EMG pipeline, for $185mn.
the 90-km conduit connects the gas net- works of Israel and Egypt, and had been used in a controversial and opaque three-way deal that saw Egyptian gas supplied to Israel, but the facility suffered repeated attacks in the wake of the 2011 revolution and the deal was unilater- ally terminated by Cairo the following year as a domestic shortage loomed.
Noble said it intended to use the line to fulfil existing gas contracts with flows from Leviathan and tamar to Egypt.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 48 04•December•2019