Eastern Mediterranean

QatarEnergy is farming into ExxonMobil’s North Marakia deepwater exploration project offshore Egypt as it further grows its position in the East Med and a share of possible future gas sales to Europe.

East Med gas production, leveraged by Egypt’s position at the mouth of the Suez Canal, is redefining geopolitical relations as North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East strive to create a new distribution hub for energy, legacy, and renewables.

Egypt and Greece have clinched a deal to build the EU-backed EuroAfrica Interconnector subsea cable via Cyprus to bring renewable energy from North Africa to Europe and move Cairo closer to its goals of becoming an energy transmission hub for the East Med.

E&P independent Energean has awarded Halliburton a contract to provide services for drilling up to five wells offshore Israel in collaboration with Stena Drilling.

Chevron is having to drill a fifth production well at Israel’s Leviathan natural gas and gas-condensate field to keep production ahead of rising demand, driven by exports to Egypt’s growing LNG hub.

A fault was identified at the Leviathan platform’s production system. This comes a month after a malfunction was discovered at the project’s subsea pipeline.

Landmark deal called most significant since 1979 peace treaty.

With production set to begin from the large Leviathan field by the end of this year, the Israeli government signed off on the final permits to allow for its first exports. Leviathan contains approximately two-thirds of all the gas resources discovered offshore Israel so far.

One of the largest deepwater gas discoveries of the past decade moves closer to its expected startup at the end of the year, as 24,500 tonnes of topside units have been installed on the Leviathan platform offshore Israel. Operator Noble Energy expects to produce up to 1.2 Bcf/D from 4 subsea wells.

The facility would enable exports from one of the world’s largest gas discoveries to new markets, primarily in Europe and Asia. The Leviathan partners have signed deals to export gas to Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt and Jordan.