Golar LNG and Exmar competing for Leviathan FLNG job

Partners in the Leviathan project located offshore Israel have entered into two separate interim agreements with FLNG service and technology providers Golar LNG and Exmar to perform engineering studies for the construction of an FLNG facility for the project.  

The partners in the Leviathan project are Noble Energy – operator – with a 39.66% interest, Delek Drilling – Limited Partnership with a 45.34%, and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992), Limited Partnership with a 15% interest.

Delek said on Tuesday that the partners were examining various alternatives for increasing the volume of production from the Leviathan reservoir (beyond Phase 1A), which would allow the supply of additional quantities of natural gas for export as liquefied natural gas (LNG) via a dedicated floating liquefied natural gas facility (FLNG), and examining the possibility of construction of an FLNG facility.

On July 29, 2019 the Leviathan partners entered into two separate interim agreements with Golar LNG and Exmar.

The agreement with Golar LNG Limited is for the purpose of performance of an assessment of the compatibility of the generic FEED (Front End Engineering and Design) carried out by Golar LNG for the construction of an FLNG facility for the Leviathan project in the EEZ of Israel, and for detailed engineering planning of the facility.

The agreement with Exmar NV is for the purpose of performance of dedicated FEED for the Leviathan project and detailed engineering planning for the construction of the facility.

The Leviathan partners will negotiate with the two providers for the commercial terms and conditions for the construction of the facility, with an estimated capacity between 2.5 and 5 million tons of LNG per year (approx. 3.5-7 BCM), and operation thereof, including for promotion of receipt of the necessary regulatory approvals.

Insofar as it is found that construction of the facility is the preferred alternative for advancing future development stages of the Leviathan project, the Leviathan partners will engage with one of the providers in a long-term agreement for the charter of the facility to be built, financed, operated and maintained thereby.

Discovered in 2010, the Leviathan, holding around 22 trillion cubic feet of gross recoverable resources, is one of the largest natural gas discoveries in the world. It is being developed using a subsea system that will connect production wells to a fixed platform located offshore with tie-in onshore in the northern part of Israel.

As reported at the beginning of February, Noble Energy launched the jacket for the Leviathan drilling platform offshore Israel. The Leviathan jacket arrived on location, about 10 kilometers offshore, after a month-long trip from Texas to Israel.

The platform jacket was put on a 180-meter barge in Texas, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 28 days, traveling a distance of 11,500 kilometers. The jacket, which took 18 months to build, is 98 meters high and weigh 15,500 tons.

First gas sales from the project are on schedule by the end of 2019.

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