Third pipeline to bring gas from Israel offshore field

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: An energy consortium will build a third undersea pipeline to boost output from the Leviathan natural gas field off the Israeli coast, the companies said Sunday.

The $568 million project was announced by partners NewMed Energy, Chevron Mediterranean Limited and Ratio Energies.

The third subsea pipeline will be laid from the field to an existing production platform located about 10 kilometres (six miles) off the Israeli coastal city of Dor.

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It will boost production capacity from about 12 billion cubic metres to nearly 14 billion cubic metres per year, with first gas flows to start in the second half of 2025.

The offshore gas field, the biggest in Israel’s Exclusive Economic Zone, is located about 120 kilometres (75 miles) west of the port city of Haifa. Discovered in 2010, the field contains exploitable resources estimated at 605 billion cubic metres of natural gas, according to the US-Israeli consortium. It supplies the Israeli gas market as well as Jordan and Egypt.

Yossi Abu, CEO of NewMed Energy, said “the third pipeline project is an initial, significant and important step in expanding Leviathan, the energy anchor in the Eastern Mediterranean”.

“With demand in export markets soaring, expansion of the production capacity and future liquefaction via a designated liquefaction facility will allow us to supply more natural gas to the local, regional and, very soon, also the global market.”