Offshore staff
TEL AVIV, Israel – Delek Energy has provided an update on its E&P activities offshore Israel.
The active entities are Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration, both partners in the shallow-water Yam Tethys producing concession (along with Delek Investments), and the Dolphin, Tanin, Noa, Tamar, and Leviathan programs.
At Yam Tethys, gas supply contracts have been signed over the past nine months with a total value of over $400 million with Oil Refineries Ltd, Hadera Paper, and Delek Ashkelon. A second platform will be constructed at Yam Tethys.
The first stage of the Dolphin 1 drilling program was completed by Sedco in September. Following repairs to the replacement rig Pride North America’s riser system, drilling has resumed at the Dolphin 1 site, and this should be completed by the beginning of December.
On Aug. 30, the partners approved an exploration well on the Tanin prospect, with a budget of $50 million.
Development of the Noa reserve is geared to allow for additional supplies of gas to the Israeli market, mainly to customers that have signed gas supply agreements with the partnership, until supplies start feeding through from the deepwater Tamar field.
The Noa development program included two diagonal wells, Noa 2 and Noa 3, drilled to a planned vertical depth of 1,880 m (6,168 ft) by the Homer Ferrington. Both were completed in September below the budgeted cost. Completion work on the Noa North reserve's development should get under way in the first half of 2012.
Tamar remains on track for production early in 2013. Construction has started on two 16-in. (40-cm) subsea gas pipelines between Tamar and the Yam Tethys Mari-B platform, in order to link Tamar to the existing pipeline to the onshore terminal at Ashdod.
Finally, the semisub Sedco Express arrived at the Leviathan 3 drill site in October, replacing the Pride North America. Drilling of this well should finish shortly, after which Sedco Express is expected to take on two additional exploratory wells.
Thereafter, the rig will probably return to finalize development drilling work at the Tamar area. Operator Noble Energy plans to return to and complete the suspended Leviathan 1 well in 2012.
11/30/2011
