Leviathan Group Approves Second Well
Leviathan Partnership has decided to drill two wells, instead of one, in the giant gas field this year. The new well, Leviathan 7. is 120 km west of Haifa, Israel, and will be done in conjunction with Leviathan 5. The decision was taken following a recommendation by Noble Energy, a 39.66% share holder in the project, and its operator and notified to the Tel Aviv stock exchange March 14.
The partnership has approved a $71 mn budget of the additional well. With the drilling of those two well Leviathan would have fully four drilled wells, though none is neither completed nor connected to a gathering system.
The Atwood Advantage ultra deep water dynamically positioned drillship will drill the two wells. It is now drilling Tamar 8, a drilling that is expected to be completed within the next few weeks.
From Tamar 8 the drillship will move to Leviathan 7 and will drill to a depth of 2,900 metres below see level before moving to Leviathan 5 where it will drill a final depth of 5,200 m below sea level. Then the drillship will return to Leviathan 7 to complete the drill to 5,100 m below sea level. Sea depth at the region is about 1,500 m. The wells will be completed and connected to a gas gathering system in a later date.
The target layers of the drillings are the 25mn-year-old oligo-miocene. Rock samples will be collected and analysed in order to improve the stream modelling of the reservoir and its longevity.
(Credit: Delek Drilling)
"The accelerated execution of the Levithan 7 drilling concurrent with Leviathan 5 well, will enable us to gather more data of Leviathan reservoir in its totality as well as on the potential for further natural gas [discoveries] in the basin," the CEO of Delek Drilling Yossi Abu (pictured above) said in the stock exchange statement.
The announcement comes on the heels of the final investment decision that was taken by the partnership last month with a development budget of $3.75bn.
First gas from Leviathan is now expected by the end of 2019.
Ya'acov Zalel