The consortium drilling the Tamar-1 well offshore of Haifa has received encouraging news from the drilling operator, Noble Energy (NYSE:NBL), which reported today that flow test results showed that the potential size of the original estimate of 3.1 trillion cubic feet has now been increased 60% to an estimated resource potential of 5 trillion cubic feet.
Noble Energy chairman and CEO Charles D. Davidson said, "The test results from the Tamar well confirm our initial analysis that the discovered reservoirs are very high quality. This discovery is clearly of a size for commercial development. We hope to extend the success in Israel by testing Dalit, our second prospect."
Davidson continued, "The implications of this discovery to Israel, Noble Energy, and our partners cannot be overstated, and we all have committed significant resources to better understand its scale and scope."
Delek Group and Isramco were going to report the production test results tommorrow.
The Tamar-1 well is located in approximately 5,500 feet of water and drilled to a total depth of 16,076 feet. Testing procedures yielded a flow rate of 30 million cubic feet per day of natural gas. The flow rate was limited by testing equipment available on the rig. According to Noble, performance modeling indicates the well can be ultimately completed to achieve a production rate of over 150 million cubic feet per day.
Noble Energy owns 36% of the Tamar prospect, Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L) owns 28.75%, Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) subsidiaries Delek Drilling LP (TASE: DEDR.L) and Avner Oil and Gas LP (TASE: AVNR.L) each own 15.625%, and Alon Israel Oil Company Ltd. subsidiary Dor Gas Exploration Ltd. owns 4%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 10, 2009
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