Israeli Natural Gas Partners Announce New Drilling Plans

JERUSALEM--The partners in two large Israeli offshore natural gas fields said they will soon begin drilling in another nearby field.

The new field, Eran, which is located off Israel's northern coast is estimated to contain about 684 billion cubic feet of gas, a much smaller amount than the partners' nearby Tamar and Leviathan fields.

The partners, which include Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. (NBL), and Israeli companies Delek Drilling Ltd. Partnership (DEDRL.TV), Avner Oil Exploration L.P. (AVNRL.TV), and Isramco Negev 2 L.P. (ISRAL.TV), said they plan to spend $122 million on drilling in Eran. That budget doesn't include production tests.

The recently-discovered fields of Tamar and Leviathan, are expected meet all of Israel's natural gas needs for at least three decades, as well as make Israel an exporter of gas. Although the companies involved, and the Israeli government, have expressed interest in selling gas to neighboring countries, including Jordan and Egypt, no contracts have been signed.

The Tamar field, which began production in March, contains about 9 trillion cubic feet of gas, and Leviathan has about 19 trillion cubic feet of gas. The new drilling plans are the latest development in Israel's growing energy production sector.

At 1215 GMT, shares of Isramco were up 0.016 shekels, or 2.59%, at ILS0.634 ($0.174); shares of Delek Drilling were up ILS0.61, or 3.94%, at ILS16.08; and shares of Avner were up ILS0.09, or 3.41%, at ILS2.732, in a higher Tel Aviv market.

Write to Sara Toth Stub at [e-mail]

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