Barclays Capital reiterates its "Neutral" recommendation for Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL), a partner in the Tamar and Dalit natural gas fields offshore from Israel. Although the review does not cover Noble Energy's Israeli partners, presumably favorable developments at Noble Energy will spread to them as well.
Barclays Capital analyst Thomas Driscoll says that Noble Energy has a "very sizable pipeline of development projects" in the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, and Israel, which will require $1.8 billion capital expenditure to develop, but will yield more than 100 million barrels of oil per day by 2015, along with significant free cash flow.
Driscoll says that development work at Tamar will begin in the first half of 2010, with initial production in 2012, possibly reaching 400-600 million cubic feet per day from five wells. The field's natural gas reserves are estimated at 6.5 trillion cubic feet.
Barclays also noted that Noble Energy has several projects that could be larger than the Tamar discovery.
Noble Energy's Israeli partners in Tamar and Dalit are Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) units Delek Drilling LP (TASE: DEDR.L) and Avner Oil and Gas LP (TASE: AVNR.L); Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L); and Dor Alon Energy in Israel (1988) Ltd. (TASE:DRAL) subsidiary Dor Energy Exploration Ltd. Noble Energy and Delek are also partners in Yam Tethys, which supplies gas from its field offshore from Ashkelon.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 1, 2010
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