Noble expects rapid gas build-up at Tamar offshore Israel

April 5, 2013
Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL) says all five of the Tamar field deepwater subsea wells offshore Israel are online, and collectively producing 300 MMcf/d of gas.

Offshore staff

HOUSTON – Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL) says all five of the Tamar field deepwater subsea wells offshore Israel are online, and collectively producing 300 MMcf/d of gas.

This, combined with the partners’ existing volumes from the nearshore Mari-B facilities, brings total current sales to nearly 500 MMcf/d, with levels expected to build to 1 bcf/d during the summer demand peak.

Initial sales started on March 31 as natural gas flowed from the subsea wells to the shallow-water Tamar platform, and from there to the Ashdod onshore terminal.

Charles D. Davidson, Noble Energy’s chairman and CEO, said: “In just over four years from discovery, theTamar project is fully operational and delivering significant volumes of natural gas to Israel. The project is a technological and commercial milestone for Noble Energy and our partners.

“This is the third major global project we have brought online in the last 18 months and it will make a significant contribution to our continuing production growth. Building on this success, we are working with the government and our partners to sanction the next phase of development at Tamar and the domestic phase of Leviathan.”

Reserves at Tamar have been upgraded from 9 tcf to 10 tcf, following results of development drilling and ongoing reservoir analysis and modeling.

The development includes five subsea wells, each capable of flowing 250 MMcf/d of natural gas through what is claimed to be the world’s longest subsea tieback (more than 90 mi, or 145 km, to the platform near the existing Mari-B structure). The platform is tied into the existing pipeline that delivers natural gas to the Ashdod onshore receiving terminal.

4/5/2013