Tamar Gas Supply to Israel Halted

Israel is currently without any gas supply from its only offshore field.

Natural gas supply from the Tamar gas field offshore Israel to the domestic market was cut off completely September 21 following a malfunction in one of the two pipelines that pump gas into the Israeli market.

On September 20, gas supply to Israeli customers was cut in a half following maintenance work planned in advance that is expected to last 40 days until the end of October. Noble Energy is the operator of the field and its main partners are Delek Group and Isramco Negev.

The malfunction is a leak from one of the pipelines transporting the gas to the Israeli shore. The repair works are expected to last for 48 hours and be complete September 23. Then partial gas supply from Tamar to Israeli consumers will be resumed.

In the meantime, power generation in a few facilities was converted from pipeline gas to regasified LNG. A few of the electricity generators will switch to coal and fuel oil, for the duration of the Tamar maintenance works.

Tamar is the only source of natural gas to Israel consumers, apart from LNG which is used as a backup, limited in availability.

Israel's dependence on Tamar as its sole piped gas supply have always regarded as the weakest link in Israel's energy security. The Israeli authorities hope to put an end to this situation when Leviathan gas field will come online, probably towards the end of 2019.

Ya'acov Zaelel