Chevron has suspended work on a subsea pipeline for the third phase expansion of Israel’s Leviathan gas field due to the ongoing conflict in the region, project partner NewMed Energy announced on Tuesday.
The suspension, expected to last until at least April 2025, will delay the project’s completion by a minimum of six months, NewMed Energy told the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
NewMed Energy, which holds a 45.34% stake in Leviathan, stated that while the delay would not significantly impact the project’s overall discounted cash flow, it “is expected to have a material negative cumulative effect on the expected cash flows in 2025”.
Chevron, the project operator with a 39.66% stake, had initiated the third phase expansion in July 2023. The planned subsea pipeline, located 120 kilometres west of Haifa, was designed to increase Israel’s daily natural gas supply by 0.2 billion cubic feet (BCF).
The expansion delay is likely to reduce Israel’s gas available for export. In 2023, Israel’s natural gas consumption rose to 24.7 billion cubic metres (BCM), with 13.1 BCM for domestic use and 11.6 BCM for exports. Domestic consumption increased by 3.5%, while exports surged by 21%.
Last year, 75% of Israel’s exported natural gas went to Egypt, with the remainder going to Jordan.
The Leviathan field, Israel’s largest, produced 11.1 BCM of natural gas in 2023, compared to 9.1 BCM from the Tamar field and 4.6 BCM from Karish.
