Chevron Moves to Expand Giant Israeli Gas Field

By Charles Kennedy - Feb 19, 2024

Chevron has announced the start of the second phase of development at the Tamar gas field offshore Israel.

Despite the ongoing war with Hamas, the U.S. supermajor is working to increase production at the deposit to 1.6 billion cubic meters daily. The expansion project will cost $24 million.

“Reaching FID for Phase Two of Tamar’s expansion reflects Chevron’s ongoing commitment to partnering with the State of Israel to continue development of its energy resources for the benefit of domestic and regional natural gas markets,” Jeff Ewing, managing director of Chevron’s business operations in the Eastern Mediterranean, said as quoted by The Times of Israel.

The Tamar field is one of the two massive offshore gas fields that put Israel on the global gas map when they were discovered. The field last year produced 10.25 billion cubic meters, up by 18% in 2021.

Chevron had to shut down the field last October, after the Hamas attacks on Israel.

“Chevron Mediterranean Limited was instructed by Israel’s Ministry of Energy to shut in production at the Tamar Production Platform,” the local unit of the U.S. supermajor said in a statement at the time.

Chevron Mediterranean Limited operates Tamar and has a 25% stake in the field, alongside Isramco (28.75%), Tamar Petroleum (16.75%), Mubadala Energy (11%), Tamar Investment 2 (11%), Dor Gas (4%), and Everest (3.5%).

At Tamar, six production wells produce volumes of natural gas ranging from 7.1 to 8.5 million cubic meters per day each. Most of the natural gas processing takes place on the Tamar platform situated 24 kilometers (15 miles) west of Ashkelon. Tamar supplies 70% of Israel's energy consumption needs for electricity generation.

Production at the field resumed about a month later after the government in Tel Aviv deemed the danger of production getting disrupted by Hamas to have been eliminated.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com