Exmar wins Chevron's Leviathan FLNG prize

摘要

A winner has emerged in the long-running contest to provide a floating liquefied natural gas vessel for Chevron's Leviathan gas field offshore Israel, although there is no certainty that the project will move ahead. The news came as the field partners rubber-stamped a plan to invest almost $250 million to drill and bring on stream a new subsea well at Leviathan. Deployment of an FLNG vessel on the 22 trillion cubic feet deep-water gas field has been studied for almost a decade, with an earlier newbuild proposal ditched by former operator Noble Energy in 2013. The concept resurfaced in 2019 when it was revealed that Belgian player Exmar and New York-listed Golar LNG had begun a design contest to supply an FLNG vessel. They submitted commercial bids in June 2020, a few months before Chevron acquired Noble. This acquisition slowed the decision-making process, but a decision has now been made. According to Leviathan partner Delek Drilling, on 6 July, the field stakeholders and Exmar signed an amendment and an addendum to an earlier agreement and will continue to collaborate on an FLNG proposal.