Greek oil and gas exploration company Energean plans to invest up to US$1.5bn in the construction of its own production system in the eastern Mediterranean (Israel) to tap gas resources from the Karish and Tanin gas fields that it acquired from the Delek group in December 2016. The company is seeking a financial partner to develop the fields, whose resources are estimated at 2.4 tcf (nearly 68 bcm). Energean will submit its plan to develop the fields to the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources by mid-2017 and plans to make a final investment decision (FID) in December 2017. Gas production could start as early as 2020.
As part of a comprehensive agreement reached with the Israeli government in August 2015, Noble and Delek, which were developing the giant Leviathan offshore gas field, were forced to sell their interests in the undeveloped Karish and Tanin fields.