CEO Charles Davidson: We will be able to market more gas regionally at lower capital cost.
Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) CEO Charles Davidson said on Saturday that the company preferred selling natural gas from the Leviathan field to Israel's neighboring countries, such as Egypt and Jordan, and he deemphasized construction of an liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility for the sale of gas to the Far East. The reason is that a gas pipeline infrastructure in the region already exists, which makes regional sales cheaper than building an LNG plant and selling the gas to the Far East.
On Saturday, "The Australian" reported that Noble Energy was asking a higher price from Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (ASX: WPL) for the acquisition of 30% of Leviathan. "Globes" earlier reported that the Leviathan partners want a higher price for the gas field. Davidson said that Leviathan's value had increased.
"We will be able to market more gas regionally at lower capital cost because all of these regional markets are basically using pipes, and in some instances they're connecting the pipes that already exist," said Davidson. He did not rule out an LNG plant, saying, "We still believe we'll have a component of LNG in there, but it will probably not be as many trains. It could be floating LNG, or it could be LNG over in Cyprus."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 24, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013