Israel’s NewMed and partners submit $4b plan for Aphrodite gas field off Cyprus
Partners in the field seek to supply natural gas from the Aphrodite field to the domestic market in Cyprus, and to export natural gas by pipeline to other markets, including Egypt
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.
Partners in the Aphrodite natural gas field offshore Cyprus, which include Israel’s NewMed Energy, announced on Sunday that they had submitted an updated plan to the Cypriot government for the development of the reservoir at a cost of $4 billion.
Israel’s NewMed Energy, formerly Delek Drilling (part of Yitzhak Tshuva’s Delek Group), which owns a 30% stake in the Aphrodite field located in Cypriot waters, said the updated plan incorporates instruction from the Cypriot government for the production and processing of natural gas from the reservoir. The partners in the field had been seeking to build a subsea pipeline that will connect the field to an existing processing and production facility in Egypt.
According to the updated plan, the partners will build an independent floating production facility under their ownership which will be positioned above the Aphrodite reservoir. It will have an estimated maximum production capacity of about 800 million cubic feet per day, generated initially through 4 production wells. Natural gas will be exported via a pipeline to the Egyptian transmission system, NewMed said.
The other partners in the Aphrodite gas field, which holds an estimated 124 billion cubic meters of gas, are US energy giant Chevron and Shell, which each own a 35% share. Discovered in 2011, the natural gas field is located about 170 kilometers (some 105 miles) south of Limassol in Cyprus and 30 kilometers (some 18 miles) northwest of Israel’s Leviathan gas reservoir, one of the world’s largest deep-water gas discoveries.
Both Israel and Egypt have emerged as gas exporters in recent years following major offshore discoveries, including the Leviathan and Tamar reservoirs. In June 2022, Israel and Egypt signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Union that will see Israel export its natural gas to the bloc for the first time. According to the agreement, Israeli gas could be supplied via Egypt’s liquefied natural gas, or LNG, plants to the EU.
“We updated the development plan according to the instructions of the Cypriot minister of energy, and look forward to the plan’s approval to allow swift progress in the development of the reservoir,” said NewMed Energy CEO Yossi Abu. “The reservoir’s development is another step in the regional collaborations that are evolving around natural gas in the Mediterranean Basin.”
The partners in the field are seeking to supply natural gas from the Aphrodite field to the domestic market in Cyprus, and to export natural gas by pipeline to other markets, including the Egyptian market and the global LNG market.
