Energean makes deepwater gas discovery at Karish North off Israel

Offshore staff

LONDON– Energean Oil and Gas plc has made a significant gas discovery with the Karish North exploration well in the deepwater Israeli sector of the Mediterranean Sea.

Preliminary analysis indicates initial gas in place estimates of between 1 tcf (28 bcm) and 1.5 tcf (42 bcm) and high-quality reservoir in the B and C sands.

The well reached an intermediate TD of 4,880 m (16,010 ft) about seven days ahead of schedule. A gross hydrocarbon column of up to 249 m (817 ft) was encountered and a 27-m (89-ft) core was recovered to surface. The company said further evaluation will be needed to refine resource potential and determine the liquids content of the discovery.

Drilling of the initial phase of the Karish North well is complete. As planned, Energean will now deepen the well to evaluate hydrocarbon potential at the D4 horizon.

Once operations are completed on Karish North, thedrillshipStena DrillMAX will return to drilling the three Karish Main development wells. Following this four-well program, the company has six drilling options remaining on its contract with Stena Drilling.

The Karish North discovery will be commercialized via a tieback to theFPSOEnergean Power, which will be located 5.4 km (3.4 mi) away. The FPSO is being built with total processing and export capacity of 8 bcm/yr (775 MMcf/d).

In December 2018, Energean signed a contract withI.P.M Beer Tuvia (I.P.M.) to supply an estimated 5.5 bcm (0.2 tcf) of gas over the life of the contract. The contract is contingent, inter alia, on the results of Energean’s 2019 drilling program and, the company said, today’s announcement significantly increases the likelihood of its conversion into a firm contract.

Inclusive of the I.P.M. contract, Energean has contracted 4.6 bcm/yr (445 MMcf/d) of gas sales, leaving a further 3.4 bcm/yr (330 MMcf/d) of spare capacity in its FPSO.

CEO Mathios Rigas said: “… We are building theEnergean Power FPSO with spare capacity, which will enable us to quickly, safely, and economically develop both Karish North and future discoveries. We have already signed a contingent contract to sell 5.5 bcm of this new resource, and our strategy is now to secure the offtake for remaining volumes…”

04/15/2019