Nobel Wants To Pipe Gas For Domestic Use (Cyprus,Israel)

NOBLE Energy, operators of the Block 12 offshore licence, has reportedly renewed a proposal for piping gas from the Aphrodite well for the purpose of domestic electricity generation.

Daily Politis writes that the Houston-based energy company has quoted a delivery price of $9 or $10 per million btus (mmbtu).

That’s significantly lower than the price offered by Itera during the ‘interim gas’ tender procedure. Itera’s offer is understood to have been around $15.5 per mmbtu.

Politis said the cost of electricity generation – and thus the price of electricity to end-consumers – could on paper drop by 15 to 20 per cent if Noble’s proposal were implemented.

Noble envisages extracting the gas with a spar platform, the ‘Red Hawk’, which is currently located in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The gas would be brought ashore via a subsea pipeline, to be built by Noble, and burned to generate electricity for domestic consumption.

Advanced negotiations are said to be underway between the energy ministry and Noble. The proposal has a tight window, because the ‘Red Hawk’ platform is set to be decommissioned in January of 2014.

According to Politis, the US firm is now proposing use of the spar platform for a period up to 20 years. The Americans are said to intend to build a 20 to 24-inch pipeline. This large-diameter pipeline could subsequently be used also for the more ‘permanent’ solution of piping gas to an LNG terminal at Vasilikos for the purposes of export and domestic consumption – allowing Noble to kill two birds with one stone. The total investment cost to Noble would be in the region of $1bn, the paper said.

Noble: Cyprus’ gas world class
04 October 2013
(Note comment section.)
http://www.cyprusgasnews.com/archives/3511

Energy determines standard of living.

It's Cyprus' gas, but Cyprus contracted with Noble, an American drilling contractor whose goal is to position itself in foreign drilling markets, to drill exploration and test wells, and I guess Noble will get paid for their services partially, or maybe completely by a percentage of whatever the wells produce and Cyprus gets to market.

The quicker the gas gets to market, the sooner Noble gets paid. If Noble sells Cyprus on the idea of using more of Noble's drilling services, ie Noble's spar platform and assistance with building a pipeline to get the NG to market,...it's a win-win for Noble.

Click on the keyword "peaceandsecurity" and scroll through some of the articles mentioning gas or natural gas in Cyprus, Israel and the Mediterranean. Everybody/country and his brother is jockeying for position on these gas discoveries.

Genie Energy, another American energy firm, is drilling in the Golan Heights for Israel. The geopolitic$ of "peace and $ecurity" in the ME and the Med is complex, and natural gas figures into it.

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