The Tanin gas field ( he, מאגר תנין, "
Crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...
reservoir" or “
Taninn reservoir”) is a natural gas reservoir located 120 km off the coast of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. It is the country's seventh natural gas discovery,
located nearby the much larger
Leviathan gas field
The Leviathan gas field is a large natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel, south-west of the Tamar gas field. The gas field is roughly west of Haifa in waters deep in the Levantine basin, a rich hydrocarbon area in ...
.
On 5 February 2012
Noble Energy
Noble Energy, Inc. was a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration headquartered in Houston, Texas. In October 2020, the company was acquired by Chevron Corporation.
The company was known as Noble Affiliates, Inc. until 2002.
As of December ...
reported that the ''Ensco 5006'' drilling rig (formerly the ''Pride North America'') had struck gas at a depth of 5,500 m.
Preliminary estimates put the potential for natural gas at Tanin at 1.2-1.3 trillion cubic feet.
A subsequent report evaluated the field as containing 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas: 0.6 TCF proven (contingent) reserves and 0.5 TCF prospective.
Tanin is located within the Alon A license, in which three companies are partners: Noble Energy (47%),
Delek Drilling
Delek Drilling LP () is an Israeli energy Oil & Gas partnership in the exploration, development, and production of Natural Gas and Oil. Delek group owned by Yitzhak Tshuva, is the controlling shareholder of the partnership. The partnership is tr ...
(26.5%), and Avner Oil Exploration (26.5%).
It is Israel's third-largest natural gas reservoir.
Due to Noble Energy and Delek (and its subsidiary Avner’s) monopolistic position in the domestic natural gas production market, they were forced by the Israeli government to divest most of their rights in the Tanin and nearby
Karish fields in 2016. The rights were acquired by the Greek exploration company
Energean Oil & Gas
Energean plc is an international hydrocarbon exploration and production company, with a focus on natural gas. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange as well as the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
History
T ...
.
As of 2018, Energean has signed supply contracts with customers in Israel which account for all of the proven reserves in the two fields (at a production rate of 4.2 BCM per year). In March 2019 Energean intends to begin drilling exploration wells in order to assess the viability of the fields’ additional prospective and contingent reserves. In November 2019, Tsabar Gas and Oil, which is controlled by Beny Steinmetz, filed a lawsuit against Energean with the claim that Energean did not abide by its agreements with Tsabar involving Tanin and that Energean had denied Tsabar its fair share.
Gas production from Tanin is expected after the Karish field goes online in 2022 and will be carried out using an
FPSO
A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive h ...
vessel connected by a submarine pipeline to the Israeli domestic natural gas distribution grid.
See also
*
Hydrocarbon exploration
Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth using petroleum geology.
Exploration methods
Vis ...
*
Natural gas in Israel
Natural gas in Israel is a primary energy source in Israel, mainly utilized for electricity production and to lesser degree in industry. Israel began producing natural gas from its own offshore gas fields in 2004. Between 2005 and 2012, Israel ha ...
*
Offshore drilling
Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the te ...
*
Economy of Israel
The economy of Israel is a developed free-market economy. The prosperity of Israel's advanced economy allows the country to have a sophisticated welfare state, a powerful modern military said to possess a nuclear-weapons capability, modern inf ...
References
External links
''Ensco 5006''
{{Resources in Israel
Natural gas fields in Israel