MEOG: Chevron suspends Leviathan work

US energy giant Chevron, which operates Israel’s Leviathan gas fields off the Mediterranean coast, has decided to temporarily halt planned infrastructure work for expanding the reservoir amid intensified fighting and fears over rocket or missile strikes.

NewMed Energy, formerly Delek Drilling (part of Yitzhak Tshuva’s Delek Group), which owns a 45.3% stake in Leviathan, said Chevron informed the partners in the field that plans for the laying of an underwater transmission pipeline were suspended until April 2025 because of the worsening security situation.

Leviathan, one of the world’s largest deep-water gas discoveries, contains an estimated 22 trillion cubic feet (623bn cubic metres) of gas located around 120 km west of the port city of Haifa at a water depth of 1.7 km.

Leviathan is operated by Chevron Corp. (39.66%), with local firm Ratio Oil Corp. (15%) holding the remaining stake. Chevron also operates and holds a 25% stake in the Tamar gas field, also off Israel’s Mediterranean coast.

The move to halt the work plans comes after the Leviathan partners on August 1 approved a $429mn investment to cover the front-end engineering design (FEED) of the asset’s Phase 1B expansion project to expand the production capacity at the natural gas reservoir.