Greek oil and gas firm Energean announced Monday its first day of dealings of the Group’s shares on its secondary listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. It is the first London-listed, international oil and gas operator to trade on the TASE.
Delivery of its flagship Karish and Tanin gas development, offshore Israel, remains on track for first gas in 1Q 2021 providing energy security and supplying gas to the Israeli domestic market.
First steel cut for Energean’s FPSO, the only FPSO in the East Mediterranean, scheduled for 26 November.
Drilling of the high potential Karish North well is scheduled to commence in March 2019, with the potential to de-risk up to 1.8 TCF of resources across Karish North and Karish East, the company said in a statement.
It continues to de-risk the wider Israeli portfolio which has 7.5 Tcf of gross prospective resources across the Karish and Tanin leases and Blocks (12, 21, 22, 23 and 31).
Future gas sales contracts, to target both the growing Israeli domestic market and key export markets in the region such as Cyprus.
Energean’s diverse Eastern Mediterranean portfolio includes exploration and appraisal opportunities in Israel, Greece and Montenegro.
“There is strong momentum at Energean as we prepare…to deliver our flagship Israel gas project which will not only deliver significant shareholder value but provide competition and energy security to the Israeli domestic market,” said Energean chief executive Mathios Rigas.
“As such, we are delighted to be the first UK listed international oil and gas operator to list its shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.”
He said Israel is a core component of the portfolio and “we are on track to start producing gas from the only FPSO in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1Q 2021 providing competition and energy security to the Israeli domestic market”.
Israeli energy minister Yuval Steinitz said: “Having Energean in the Israeli Stock Exchange is an important development. It is a positive message to the stock market, but mostly a positive message to the developing energy market of the country, a message that shows that Israel is emerging as a player in the global energy market”.
Energean is building its FPSO with a production and processing capacity of 8 bcma and first steel cut is planned for 26 November. Current gas sales contracts, which account for all of its existing discovered resource, underpin the 4.2 bcma of firm contracts signed to date, leaving 3.8 bcma of spare capacity for the tie-back of additional discoveries.
It wants to sell some this gas to Cyprus but is unhappy that it is excluded from a tender to supply the island via a gas pipeline because the bids relate to LNG infrastructure only Energean has submitted a proposal to the Cypriot government to supply natural gas to the country in Q1 2021 with “no upfront cost and at a very competitive price”.
Energean is seeking approval from Cyprus to build a 200km pipeline from its Israeli Tanin and Karish offshore gas fields and import 0.5 to 1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year to the island.
Nicosia has said the offer was “unsolicited” but not much else.
