Delek Group's gas subsidiaries announced that the Petroleum Commissioner of the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources announced to the partners in Rachel/349 and Amit/350 licenses its decision with regards to extending the validity of these licenses until 20 March 2014, in accordance with the article 18(B)(2) of the Petroleum Law; subject to posting guaranties by the partners in the licenses in the amount of US$2.5MM for each license.
Delek Group's gas subsidiaries will continue to work to obtain a lease permit in accordance with its rights under the Petroleum Law.
The Leviathan project is located on the Rachel and Amit licenses offshore Israel in 5550ft of water. It has an estimated 19Tcf of discovered natural gas resources.
Earlier this year, Noble Energy, Inc. announced the signing of a non-binding memorandum of understanding regarding the sale of interest in the Leviathan licenses, offshore Israel, to Woodside Petroleum.
Each of the existing Leviathan partners, Noble Energy, Delek Drilling, Avner Oil Exploration and Ratio Oil Exploration, are participating as sellers of a 25% interest in the licenses to Woodside. Noble Energy will convey a 9.66% working interest (WI) and will continue as upstream operator with a 3% WI. Following completion of the transaction, Woodside will become the operator of any LNG development of the field.