Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) has lined up US firm General Electric (GE) to build the first of two combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units intended to convert part of the Orot Rabin coal-fired power plant to burn gas. Israel’s Ministry of Energy had decreed that four of six coal-fired units at the 2.59GW Orot Rabin power plant must be shut down or upgraded by 2022 (MEES, 30 March 2018). GE expects that a contract for a first 630MW CCGT unit will reach financial close in June and that it will be awarded a second contract for a similar unit by the end of 2019. Both units will comprise a gas turbine and heat recovery steam generator and each will require a gas supply of up to 85mn cfd. IEC is the key gas offtaker for Israel’s 1.1bn cfd Tamar gas field.
Israel is gradually removing coal from its powergen fuel mix, with gas-fired capacity delivering around 57% of IEC’s electricity in 2018 compared with 54% in 2017. US independent Noble Energy is expected to bring the Leviathan field online in the fourth quarter this year, while Greece’s Energean is due to start up output from the Karish field in Q1 2021 (MEES, 19 April): both are keen to ink more sales deals. (CONTINUED - 206 WORDS)