Wood Group wins US$120m Leviathan contract

WOOD GROUP has been contracted to perform the topsides front-end engineering and design (FEED) and detailed engineering work for Israel’s huge Leviathan gas field.

Delek Group revealed on 22 June that its project partner Noble Energy had been approved to spend US$120m on the FEED study. Noble Energy confirmed that it had selected Wood Group Mustang to carry out the work, in an email sent today to The Chemical Engineer.

The development of the project – which promises to transform Israel into a regional exporter of energy – had been held back after the country’s Supreme Court struck down a deal on fears it handed too much power to the developers.

Noble Energy says the decision to issue the FEED contract for the production platform “builds on the recent momentum to advance the project towards a final investment decision and achieve our mutual goal with the Israeli government to deliver natural gas from Leviathan as quickly as possible.”

The Israeli government has shown strong support for advancing the Leviathan project, having now approved the development plan, platform location, and pipeline connection in Northern Israel, the spokesperson wrote.

The timing of the final investment decision will depend on completion of work in four key areas, including regulatory approvals, technical work, financing, and finalising gas sale agreements. The company is working “diligently to compete these” she added, noting the project partners have already agreed contracts to sell 100m ft3/d of gas to Israel’s domestic market.

The field, which was discovered in 2010, was considered the largest in the Mediterranean Sea until Eni made a massive discovery of its own last year.