Haaretz: Tamar partners eye big expansion of offshore gas field

The Tamar gas field may be upgraded at a cost of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, including the construction of an underwater pipeline to a plant in Egypt run by Spain’s Union Fenosa Gas, the partners that own and operate the field said Thursday.

The partners are considering expanding production with three new wells and upgrading a production platform near Ashkelon, with the aim of doubling the field’s capacity to 20 billion cubic meters annually, said Delek Group, which owns Tamar together with Noble Energy of Texas and Israel’s Isramco and Dor Alon.

The pipeline is contingent on the partners signing a supply deal with UFG, it said. Delek said the expansion program is to be in place by 2017.

Shares of Delek Drilling and Avner, the two Delek Group units with stakes in the Tamar field, rose by 1.1% to 19.20 shekels ($5) and 0.8% to 3.43 shekels, respectively, in Tel Aviv Stock Exchange trading Thursday.
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