Atwood Advantage Starts Tamar Drilling

The drilling ship Atwood Advantage has arrived at Israeli waters has started drilling in Tamar, 100 km offshore. It is the first drilling ship in Israeli waters in three years and its first assignment is the Tamar 8 well which will supply gas to the Israeli domestic market. The drilling is expected to last four months and the investment is estimated at $265mn. When the drilling is completed the vessel might move over to drill Leviathan 5.

However, Leviathan is still awaiting the final investment decision (FID). It has only one big customer, the Jordanian national power company Nepco, which signed a long-term contract to purchase up to 3bn m³/yr for 15 years. Noble Energy, Leviathan's operator said a FID is expected by the end of the year. Experts said that in order to get a positive FID the partners need such agreements to exceed 6bn m³/yr.

The renewal of drilling activity in Israel is great news to the whole Israeli economy," said Yossi Abu, the CEO of Delek and Avner. "Tamar 8 drilling is intended at creating redundancy in the production system and to enable maximum supply from Tamar reservoir during peak demand and that in light of the current production levels and the demand for natural gas.

"We are working toward the promotion of additional gas agreement in the domestic market as well as with neighboring countries and moving toward making Israel a regional energy hub."

Ya'acov Zalel