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Hi,July 25,2011
New layer of gas discovered at Tamar field off coast of Haifa |
Amount of natural gas and economic implications of discovery at Mediterranean Sea site yet to be determined.
A deeper layer of natural gas has been discovered at the Tamar field, off the coast of Haifa, according to a report published on Thursday by Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration.
The impact of the newly discovered reserve has not yet been analyzed nor released in full. The significance of the newly discovered structure will depend on the amount of natural gas at Tamar and on the estimations of additional layers in other areas of the Mediterranean Sea that have not yet been discovered.
The new reserve, 'Layer D', was discovered beneath 'Tamar 3", and is said to be up to 25 meters wide.
According to the report, Noble Energy - the American partner leading the consortium - is gathering data on Layer D and analyzing the implications of the extent of the reserves at Tamar. It is currently not possible to determine the size and economic implications of the newly discovered reserve.
Noble owns 36% of Tamar, while Isramco Negev owns 28.75% and Delek Group, controlled by Yitzhak Tshuva, has a 31% percent stake through two units with equal shares of 15.6% each, Avner Oil Exploration and Delek Drilling.
The Tamar site is the largest natural gas discovery in Israel and plans on selling natural gas to Israel in 2013.
The Lebanese proposal of its maritime border with Israel that is currently under dispute does not include the Tamar and Leviathan gas prospects.
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Myra, Sarah drilling could start in December |
July 24, 2011 Myra and Sarah license-holder Modiin Energy LP (TASE:MDIN.L) today notified the TASE that the rig for the drilling of the exploratory wells at the licenses will become available in December, after the rig completes three other wells, two in Israel and one in Cyprus.Earlier this month, Modiin Energy's partner in the licenses, Israel Land Development Company Energy Ltd. (TASE: IE) announced that drilling of the exploratory wells by the Noble Homer Ferrington, owned by Noble Corporation (NYSE: NE) well would probably begin in January or February 2012. Today, Modiin Energy said that this rig would be available from December 1.
The Myra and Sarah leases have a best estimate of 6.5 trillion feet of natural gas with a 54% chance of geological success, but the range between the high and low estimates are quite large.
Modiin Energy owns 19.3% of Myra and Sarah, ILDC Energy and its affiliates own 48.4%, drilling operator GeoGlobal Resources Inc. (AMEX: GGR) owns 5% through its Indian unit, Israel Petroleum Company Inc. (IPC) owns 13.1%, and Blue Water Oil and Water Exploration Ltd. owns 8.8%.
Modiin Energy's share price fell 2.1% in morning trading today to NIS 0.046, giving a market cap of NIS 902 million, but ILDC Energy's share price rose 2.4% to NIS 1.13, giving a market cap of NIS 932 million. |
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Are abundant natural resources a blessing, or a curse? This is the sort of question that economic theorists love to play with, usually concluding that, depending on other factors, they can be either or both. Israel, thus far burdened with a crippling dependency on imported oil and gas, has had astonishing success in developing its human resources--so much so that it has flourished economically even in the current global recession. Would it have done even better with adequate sources of domestic energy? Or worse? A formerly theoretical dilemma is poised to become a pressingly practical one.
Trillions of cubic feet of natural gas have been discovered in several titanic fields off Israel's coastline. They promise both an abundance of domestic energy, as much as 200 years' worth by some estimates, and the possibility of the country's becoming a major energy exporter. The total value of the gas is currently worth close to a half-trillion dollars. On the macro level, and from the point of view of ensuring the country's national security, the prospective boon is almost unimaginably beneficial. The question, as always, is what is entailed in realizing it, and how to mitigate any attendant social and political costs.
Begin with the issue of where to locate a gas terminal. Israel's coastline is 170 miles long, the site of several cities and numerous competing uses, including ports, water-desalinization and sewage-treatment plants, military operations, and recreation. Thanks in part to ecological changes in the Nile delta (themselves the long-term effects of the Aswan high dam built in the early 1960s), the coastline is also being eroded and becoming more vulnerable to storm damage. Millions of Israelis, Jews and Arabs, vie for access to the few parks and undeveloped beaches on the seafront.
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