Page 8 - AfrOil Week 08 2021

AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

With the local Israeli market largely covered to Gaza Strip, with Qatar playing a supportive
by existing flows from the country’s offshore role that will likely include funding to purchase
sites, which also include the 302 bcm Tamar the gas
field, international attention has turned to the Israel’s Leviathan field, located 130 km off
possibility that Leviathan gas could warrant Israel’s coast, already supplies the Israeli domes-
the development of a subsea link to mainland tic market and exports gas to Jordan and Egypt.
Greece and on to Italy. Given the cost of such a Leviathan’s partners Chevron and Delek Drill-
venture, though hooking the field up to the idle ing have been exploring options to expand the
LNG plants at Damietta (10 bcm per year) and project, potentially through a subsea pipeline to
Idku (7.56 bcm per year) in Egypt for onward link up with Egypt’s LNG terminals.
export in liquefied form is a considerably The consortium leading the development of
cheaper and more flexible option. the Leviathan and the smaller Tamar field struck
At present, Israel has export deals with Egypt a 10-year deal worth $15bn last year with Egypt’s
and Jordan that provide for the delivery of 105 Dolphinus to supply 64 bcm.
bcm over 15 years. However, the creation of a
new LNG export route will likely clear the path Back to work
for a future expansion phase of Leviathan as well Separately, Egypt was preparing last week to
as the development of the nearby Aphrodite export its first shipment of LNG from a facility
field, which lies in Cypriot waters. in Damietta to Europe.
The announcement follows the January A spokesman for the Petroleum Minis-
confirmation by Delek that the partners would try Hamdy Abdel-Aziz, told the official news
spend around $235mn to construct a pipeline agency MENA that the LNG Tanker Golar Gla-
that will allow for direct gas exports from Levi- cier had arrived in the port of Damietta to ship
athan and Tamar to Egypt following an agree- the first experimental shipment from the facility,
ment set out in May 2019. which has been idle for eight years.
Under the terms of the deal, national trans- The return of the Damietta facility and the
mission operator Israel Natural Gas Lines country’s other plant at Idku will mark the
(INGL) will construct the new pipe from Ash- revival of Egypt’s LNG push. Egypt plans to use
dod to the terminal of the East Med Gas (EMG) its position on Europe’s doorstep to become a
pipeline in Ashkelon “for the purpose of export major supplier to the continent, which is tran-
to Egypt”. sitioning away from dirtier fossil fuels such as
This development also follows the recent oil and coal. The country is on track to become
news that a deal is anticipated within the next one of the world’s top 10 LNG exporters once it
six months for Israeli gas to be supplied by Delek reaches its full capacity. ™

INVESTMENT
Egypt offers exploration rights to 24 blocks

EGYPT EGYPT’S Petroleum Ministry has announced
a new bid round for crude oil and natural gas
exploration work at 24 blocks. Both local and
international companies are eligible to submit
bids in the round, which that covers 12 blocks
in Egypt’s prolific Western Desert, nine blocks
in the offshore Mediterranean Sea and three in
the Gulf of Suez.
State-owned (NOCs) Egyptian General
Petroleum Corp. (EGPC) and Egyptian Natural
Gas (Egas) are running the tender, which is due
to close on August 1, 2021. Egypt usually runs
two oil and natural gas bid rounds a year.
The ministry launched the tender via its new
digital portal, Egypt Upstream Gateway, accord- Minister Tarek El Molla (Photo: Egyptian Gov’t)
ing to Tarek El Molla, the head of the ministry.
Egyptian authorities hope to portal will help Egypt is attemping to increase its hydro-
facilitate exploration activity by providing carbon production. Its output of crude oil and
potential investors with detailed geological data gas condensate rose to 638,000 tonnes (aboput
for oil and gas fields. The portal was set up in 12 12,800 barrels per day) in 2020, while natural gas
months in co-operation with Schlumberger, an yields reached 6.6bn cubic feet (186.9mn cubic
international oil services company. metres) per day in the same year. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 08 24•February•2021