Natural Gas Production
Natural Gas Consumption
Posted on 04/08/2013 5:52:13 AM PDT by thackney
The first gas has started flowing from Israel's supergiant Tamar gasfield in the Levant Basin. Where it will go will redraw the Mediterranean energy map and the geopolitics that goes along with it.
The Tamar field stakeholders announced on 30 March that the gas had started flowing, raising the value of Texas-based Noble Energy Inc., which holds a 36% stake, and Israel's two Delek Group subsidiaries, which each hold a 15.6% stake.
For now, the gas is being pumped to mainland Israel, where it will feed the domestic market, but exports should begin in 2-3 years. What Israel has in mind is the European market, via a hoped-for undersea Mediterranean pipeline to Turkey, which has the infrastructure to get it to Europe.
The competition for this prized market is stiff. In total, the Mediterranean's Levant Basin has an estimated total of 122 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil. Lebanon and Cyprus are eyeing the same market for their own Levant Basin gas resources. Cyprus has found gas in its section of the basin, and Lebanon has announced a tender for exploration off its shoreline.
The Greek Cypriot government believes it is sitting on an amazing 60 trillion cubic feet of gas, but these are early days—these aren't proven reserves and commercial viability could be years away. In the best-case scenario, production could feasibly begin in five years. Exports are e ven further afield, with some analysts suggesting 2020 as a start date.
Israel has the upper hand right now in terms of development and production, but it lacks the infrastructure without Turkey.
Israel was originally hoping to lay a pipeline that would traverse both Cyprus and Turkey, but there are too many political pitfalls to this plan (whichwould essentially mean a final resolution to the Turkey-Cyprus spat). The ideal would have been a pipeline that connects all the Levant Basin resources—including Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus and Turkey—but this is the stuff of geopolitical dreams.
In the end, it is shaping up that an Israel-Turkey pipeline is not only possible, but coming to fruition. Earlier this month an official apology from the Israeli prime minister to his Turkish counterpart for some high-level grievances was engineered by US President Barack Obama. It was an unprecedented move by Israel and one that illustrates how important this pipeline is for Israel. An apology was really the only thing keeping Turkey from green-lighting this pipeline project without a backlash at home.
This Israel-Turkey pipeline makes Lebanon and Cyprus nervous. It essentially cuts them out of the equation. Politics for now will keep Lebanon from connecting up to any Israeli pipeline, and Turkey won't have a connector to Cyprus.
Russia's Gazprom, of course, is not keen to lose its stranglehold on the European market. To that end, it's jumped in on Tamar itself, obtaining exclusive rights from Israel to develop the field's liquefied natural gas (LNG). Here's the plan: Russia is hoping to divert Israeli gas exports to Europe by banking on these resources being turned into LNG for Russian export to Asian markets instead. Russia is willing to invest heavily in a $5 billion floating LNG facil ity to this end. In return it gets exclusive rights to purchase and export Tamar LNG. (Gazprom has signed the deal but it still awaits final approval from Israel).
For Israel, this is a windfall. There is an estimated 425 billion cubic meters (16 trillion cubic feet of gas in its Leviathan field, plus the 250 billion cubic meters in the Tamar field, which is now officially pumping. All this gas is worth about $240 billion on the European market, and Tamar gas alone could boost Israel's GDP by 1% annually. For now, the Tamar gas will result in a decline in the price of electricity for Israelis by way of reducing the production costs for the state utility.
For Europe, it will mean newfound power to deal with Russia differently like it did with the recent Cypriot bailout package that came along with a harsh lesson for Russian oligarchs who are seeing their Cypriot banks holdings sequestered.
Joel Rosenburg, please don’t write anything about me...
-——The Greek Cypriot government-——
The recent uproar in the banking business referred to Cypriot banks and depositors. The article refers to Greek Cypriot. It was the Greeks on Cyprus in trouble, not the Turks?
In recent discussions, it had been so long since there was frequent news on the split, I wasn’t sure it still existed.
Natural Gas Production
Natural Gas Consumption
good for Israel, congratulations to Israel, they won’t be in the grip of the Mohammedans for oil, now if the US can only accomplish the same thing
Ditto that. Mr. Rosenburg’s writing are eerily prescient.
IBD article today - US oil production exceeds Saudi Arabia, No thanks to Obama.
very cool, thanks for the info
ISRAEL - Country Analysis Note
http://www.eia.gov/countries/country-data.cfm?fips=IS#ng
Analysis Last Updated: March 2013
Given that Israel’s total primary energy demand is significantly higher than its total primary energy production (1.0 quadrillion Btu versus 0.1 quadrillion Btu in 2011) the country relies heavily on imports to meet its growing energy needs.
As of January 2013, the Oil & Gas Journal estimated Israel’s proved reserves of oil at 12 million barrels and its proved reserves of natural gas at 9.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). While neither figure places Israel in the top-40 globally, these totals are significantly higher than they were a few years ago and position Israel to develop its hydrocarbon potential.
Energy exploration over the past several years uncovered significant natural gas resources in Israel, primarily in the country’s offshore areas. The Mari-B field—discovered in 2000—provided the first significant volumes of domestically-produced natural gas to Israel’s markets, but in 2012 production plummeted as the field entered the final stages of depletion. In prior years, the Mari-B field met up to 40 percent of Israel’s natural gas demand.
Israel hopes to begin commercial production of natural gas from the Tamar field (located offshore, near Haifa) as soon as April 2013. The natural gas produced from the Tamar field will be sent to onshore facilities via the existing infrastructure at the Mari-B development site. Until those volumes are secured, Israel agreed to a short-term supply contract for the delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the state-owned Israel Electric Company. Plans are moving forward on a floating LNG project that will draw from the Tamar field—and the nearby Dalit—to produce up to 3 million tons of LNG per year as soon as 2017.
The most significant find in offshore Israel is the Leviathan field, located approximately 80 miles off the coast and situated in water that is more than 5,000 feet deep. Assessments of the Leviathan field indicate that there could be as much as 17 Tcf of recoverable natural gas in place. There is an ongoing debate inside Israel over how much of this potentially lucrative resource should be set aside for exports and how much should be directed to meet internal demand. The operator—American company Noble Energy—expects initial volumes of 750 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) in 2016.
While historically Israel has been an importer of natural gas—most recently through the Arish-Ashkelon pipeline from Egypt—the discoveries of the Tamar and Leviathan fields (among several others) should allow the country to become a significant exporter of natural gas in the next decade. There are competing proposals to develop pipelines and LNG infrastructure to support natural gas exports, but deliberations about how Israel will get its natural gas to market are still ongoing.
Excellent. Israel will have natural gas vehicles as their main source of transportation in no time at all. And once it’s working over there, we’ll start building and buying them here on a large scale.
Israel should create the infrastructure, rather than depend on an increasingly Islamised Turkey.
But, but it will take 10 years before the oil starts flowing from ANWR.
THAT HAS BEEN THE LIB TALKING POINT FOR THE LAST 30 YEARS.
Link please.
US oil production = 7.0 million barrels per day
U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=M
Saudi Arabia oil production = 11.2 million barrels per day
International Energy Statistics, Saudi Arabia, Oil Produciton
http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=50&pid=53&aid=1&cid=SA,&syid=2011&eyid=2012&freq=Q&unit=TBPD
Thanks. From your link:
The U.S. passed Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest petroleum producer in November 2012, according to recently released data of the federal Energy Information Administration.
- - - -
So their source of data, is what I linked above. The US is not producing more oil than Saudi Arabia.
And the idiot Bush didn't use his post-9/11, 90% approval rating to push it through. He didn't even fight for ANWR.
The Work of God continues... God Bless Israel... God Damn Obama...
I guess the discrepancy is “oil” vs “energy” (including gas).
“But, but it will take 10 years before the oil starts flowing from ANWR.”
Yea I always liked that part especially when I tell them I’ll drill a well and have it online selling gas and oil in less than 45 days. Now we do have major gas lines already in place so thats just a polyline run away but I’ll start selling oil from my frac tanks as soon as I get a load. My Walleye well nth of town was selling two loads a day for the first 20 days, thats 185 barrels per load, It’s down to about one every three days now but it’s been almost a year since completion.
Now Israel will soon fight and decisively win the Psalm 83 War. She will destroy her neighboring enemies and devastate Iran.
Then Israel will go on to become one of the most prosperous nations on the planet as the economies of the world collapse.
In their rage, the nations of the world will blame Israel for causing their economies to fall. They will turn on Israel to try to destroy her.
Israel will suffer for a short time. Then her redeemer will come to the rescue and destroy her tormentors.
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