Israel limits natural gas production at Leviathan due to pipeline fault

The Government of Israel has limited the natural gas production from its largest natural gas field – Leviathan – to about 60 percent of its production capacity due to a pipeline fault.

The operator of the Leviathan field, Noble Energy, was told that full production from the wells would not be possible until an investigation and necessary tests were completed.

Leviathan, located in the Mediterranean Sea, has four wells with a daily production capacity of about 300 million cubic feet each.

According to the Ministry, a fault was discovered in pipeline segments located close to one of the wells.

The fault is described as a vibration detected by an underwater robot. In order to minimise vibration, natural gas production from the wells has been reduced.

The ministry also stated that the fault did not cause any pollution of seawater, nor damage to the rig and engineering facilities.

The field, which started flowing natural gas in December 2019, was discovered in 2010 and contains about 500 billion cubic metres of natural gas.

Noble Energy started exporting gas from the Leviathan field to Egypt last month.

Source: Offshore Energy Today