The partners in the Leviathan natural gas field will promise to operate under a multiyear plan to promote Israeli jobs, according to their license from the Ministry of National Infrastructures. The partners - Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL), Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG), Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP (TASE:RATI.L) and, shortly, Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (ASX: WPL) - will undertake to employ a minimum number of Israelis in every part of the project - development, production, operations, and maintenance - and increase the number every year.
"The plan will state, as much as possible, numerical indices for increasing the proportion of skilled Israelis, including senior workers, out of the total number of skilled workers employed in this activity throughout the operating period of the license," states the license. The partners in Leviathan will also train skilled Israeli workers.
The partners in Leviathan will invest $10-15 billion to develop the gas field, which will be managed by Noble Energy of the US and Australia's Woodside.
The full text of the license will be published today. It regulates the relations between the partners in Leviathan during the estimated 30-40 years of the gas field's life span. The license includes a chapter on promoting the employment of Israelis, a chapter that did not appear in Delek and Noble Energy's licenses for the Tamar and Yam Tethys's Mari B gas fields. More than $4 billion was invested in developing those gas fields, but they employed only a negligible number of Israelis in the development stages.
Noble Energy currently employs many Israelis on Tamar's offshore production and delivery systems to the coast. In the past year, the company also expanded its participation in training programs for Israelis in the oil and gas industry, including collaboration with the Ruppin Academic College.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 27, 2014
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