Israeli firm Delek (45.34%) held an unscheduled conference call on 26 October to deny local reports that gas from the under-development 21 tcf Leviathan field is struggling to find a market. Texas-based Noble, operator with 39.66%, also spent much of the firm’s Q3 earnings call on 31 October fielding questions on the project’s progress.

The partners took FID in February, albeit only for much scaled back ‘Phase 1A’ (MEES, 24 February), and are bullish on Israeli gas demand. But Greek firm Energean eyes the same customers for its 3 tcf Karish and Tanin fields. Though yet to move to FID, Energean’s sales deals actually account for a larger share of project capacity than Leviathan’s. Presuming both projects advance, official Israeli estimates have the country’s gas output hitting 2.51bn cfd by 2025 (1.16bn cfd from Leviathan, 0.29bn cfd from Karish/Tanin, and 1.06bn cfd from the 10tcf Tamar field, Israel’s only current producer). (CONTINUED - 1111 WORDS)