The partners in Israel’s largest offshore gas field, 22 tcf Leviathan, are in negotiations with lenders as they hope to cover their share of the field’s development costs, estimated at $5-6bn.
Operator US firm Noble (40%), Israeli firms Delek (45%) and Ratio (15%) are looking to drum-up $3.5-4bn between them.According to Bloomberg, the partners are in talks with Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, HSBC, BNP Paribas, JPMorgan Chase and Natixis to cover about 65% of the development costs. The partners are not flush with cash and Delek last year began selling off assets in the US and Europe to fund its share of development while Noble, a mid-size US-focused independent, in November last year sold part of its stake in Cyprus’ 4.2tcf Aphrodite field to the UK’s BG for $165mn (MEES, 27 November 2015). (CONTINUED - 131 WORDS)
