Israeli Leviathan Natural Gas Field Halted Production

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): The Israeli government has directed Chevron Mediterranean, a subsidiary of Chevron, to cease work at its Leviathan offshore natural gas project. This is due to security concerns related to a possible intensification of hostilities with Iran.

Chevron Mediterranean was instructed to cease operations at the field until further notice in the notice issued by the Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructures. The company probably won't be able to start up again until it receives any new directives from the Ministry. It should be mentioned that Chevron Mediterranean works with its partners Ration Energies and NewMed Energy to run the project.

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With 22.9 tcf of recoverable gas, Leviathan is the largest natural gas resource in the Mediterranean. In December 2019, field production started. Pipelines transport the output from four subsea wells to an offshore platform. The platform's gas is routed into the national grid of Israel, which distributes it to natural gas customers in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel.

The partners filed a proposal to the Israeli government in February of this year with the goal of greatly increasing the field's size and output. The entire gas production capacity will be increased to 21 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually under the new proposal.