Chevron Partners Agree to Boost Gas Production of Israel Tamar Gas Field

The Tamar gas platform off the coast of Israel. (Chevron)

Chevron and partners in the Israeli Tamar natural gas field agreed on Sunday to boost natural gas production capacity from the offshore field.
The gas field is a significant energy source for Israel and supplies Jordan for domestic consumption and Egypt for exporting the surplus to Europe.
The investment is part of a two-phase plan to expand natural gas production capacity from the Tamar field to about 1.6 billion cubic feet (BCF) daily.
Managing director of Chevron’s Eastern Mediterranean Business Unit, Jeff Ewing, said that reaching the final investment decision (FID) for Phase Two of Tamar’s expansion reflects Chevron’s ongoing commitment to partnering with Israel to continue the development of its energy resources for the benefit of domestic and regional natural gas markets.
Chevron stated that the second phase includes restarting the compressors in the onshore station in Ashdod based on a previous decision to invest in a third pipeline between the field and the drilling platform.
The two phases of the Tamar expansion are scheduled to be completed in 2025, at a total investment of $673 million.
For its part, Tamar Petroleum said in a statement that the new investment amounts to about $24 million.
On October 9, Israel suspended production in the Tamar gas field, which produced 10.25 billion cubic meters of gas in 2022, 85% of which was used in the local market, and 15% was exported to Egypt and Jordan.
On November 13, the field resumed part of its operational operations after a hiatus that lasted about five weeks.
On October 10, Chevron halted natural gas exports through the East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) pipeline between Israel and Egypt and said that it would import it through an alternative pipeline that passes through Jordan.
The EMG pipeline runs from the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon, some 10 kilometers north of Gaza, to El-Arish in Egypt, connecting to an onshore pipeline.
According to Bloomberg, the gas fields off the coast of northern Israel were operating at total capacity to compensate for the loss of production in the Tamar field.
At that time, natural gas prices in Europe witnessed an increase of more than 40%, to $59.2 per megawatt/hour, due to the repercussions that affected the supplies of the European continent, Jordan, and Egypt, as a result of halting the Tamar field.
However, it returned and declined after the return of production.