Israeli Minister of Energy announces new 2018 Offshore Bid Round
JERUSALEM -- Israel launches its second Offshore Bidding Round (OBR 2018) to grant exploration licenses for natural gas and oil in Israel’s economic waters in the Eastern Mediterranean. OBR 2018 builds upon the growing regional importance of the Eastern Mediterranean as a hydrocarbon province, the progress made with the development of the giant Tamar and Leviathan fields, as well as the Karish and Tanin fields in Israel’s offshore waters, and the rapidly improving domestic and export options for monetizing produced gas.
Israeli Energy Minister, Dr. Yuval Steinitz said, “Today we are launching a new and improved bid round for exploration of natural gas and oil fields in Israel’s economic waters. The fact that Israel has become a gas exporter to Jordan and Egypt, alongside completion of the agreement to build an Israeli-European gas pipeline, creates a more attractive environment for international energy companies”.
The Ministry of Energy offers multi-block, multi-license ‘Zones’ to provide companies with an opportunity to explore larger areas of up to 1,000 mi.2, with a diversity of plays and potential targets for gas and oil. The Zones are located in the southern extent of Israel’s economic waters, an area well covered by 2-D and 3-D seismic data and other data.
Research by BEICEP has shown that the yet-to-find in the Eastern Mediterranean (in Israel’s economic waters) is 75 Tcf of natural gas and 6.6 Bbbol in-place, confirming and further developing similar estimates made by the U.S. Geological Survey. This excludes the discoveries made by Noble Energy and its partners in 2009 to 2013, containing over 30 Tcf.
Compared to the first bid round, which took place in 2016, Israel has increased the size of the zones 3 fold. The data package offered in the new bid round is significantly enhanced and includes all the available 3D seismic data in the bidding area. The data prepared for the zones include a geologic summary, along with volumetric and risk assessments.
An additional change from the 2016 bid round is the commercialization opportunities, which have increased dramatically:
- An export deal with Jordan valued at $12 billion
- An export deal with Egypt valued at $15 billion, gas to start flowing in early 2019
- A subsea pipeline between Israel, Cyprus, Greece and Italy is in advanced stages of planning, with the support of the European Union. Gas is planned to start flowing to Western Europe in 2025.
- Domestic demand in Israel is growing and will increase significantly in coming years, as Israel moves to cleaner fuels for power generation and transportation.
To support its oil and gas sector, Israel has opened an Energy Mission in Houston, Texas. The Houston office creates a closer dialogue with the international E&P companies, and E&P companies are encouraged to contact the Energy Mission to find out more about oil and gas in Israel.
Bid submissions are being received up to June 2019, with announcement of the bid winners taking place in July 2019.
