Israel Gas Output, Exports At Record Levels

27 Nov 2020 Issue: 63 / 48 By: Peter Stevenson

Israel’s exports to Egypt hit 300mn cfd for Q3 as compression facilities came online. Coupled with record domestic demand this enabled the key Leviathan field to ramp up to three-quarters of its 1.2bn cfd Phase-1 capacity. But a further major boost will require infrastructure additions, as well as oil prices over $50/B.

Israel’s gas output surged to a record 1.804bn cfd for Q3 as the early July start-up of compression facilities at the northern end of the EMG pipeline to Egypt enabled deliveries to leap from an average of just 50mn cfd for the first half of 2020 to over 200mn cfd for July and just short of 400mn cfd for August and September. For Q3 as a whole, official data shows that Israel exported a record 500mn cfd of gas while also supplying a record 1.305bn cfd to the domestic market. MEES number-crunching based on Jodi data indicates that 328mn cfd went to Egypt and 171mn cfd made its way to Jordan.

The new compressors at Ashkelon also enabled initial gas deliveries from the Tamar field to join existing Leviathan supplies. Leviathan exports to Jordan began upon the giant 23tcf field’s start up at end-2019 (MEES, 3 January), with Egypt shipments following two weeks later (MEES, 17 January), albeit at low initial volumes. (CONTINUED - 1618 WORDS)