Gas rig operator: Supplies to come back online by Wednesday
Tamar field directors say barring setbacks or test failures, undersea pipeline repairs soon to be completed
Operators of Israel’s sole natural-gas pipeline said Tuesday that work to repair an undersea pipeline would be completed during the coming night and that gas supplies to the country would resume by the following morning.
Officials had been concerned that a fault discovered last week forcing the pipeline to be shut off could lead to a long-term shortage that would cripple the country’s electricity production.
The Tamar gas field operators said that engineers were satisfied with the way work is progressing and that they were keeping to the schedule laid down with government officials.
The company cautioned that the return of supplies is dependent on the completion of all necessary checks and the absence of unexpected delays.
The Energy Ministry said that at first the gas supply will be introduced at half its normal rate and that the flow would reach full supply by Thursday, the financial daily The Marker reported.
On Friday, it emerged that a failure had been caused by a crack in a pipe some 24 kilometers (15 miles) off the coast of Ashkelon that services the Tamar gas field. The actual Tamar field is about 90 kilometers west of Haifa.
Following the discovery of the large field, Israel had switched much of its electricity production from coal to gas, which is cleaner and cheaper.
The Energy Ministry’s director general, Shaul Meridor, told Israel Radio on Sunday that Israel had tapped into a strategic reserve to ensure that there were no immediate power shortages. He said two other gas fields were expected to come online in 2019-2020, making Israel less dependent on Tamar.
The shortages were expected to have a significant impact on electricity production, with power plants required to use alternative sources of fuel, such as coal and diesel, for longer periods of time.
The use of alternative fuel sources would also likely lead to a hike in electricity costs for private consumers, according to the business daily Calcalist.
The Energy Ministry noted that there was no signs of pollution in the sea due to the crack in the pipe.
The Times of Israel Community.