Shares of Greek company Energean, owner of the Karish and Tanin natural gas reservoirs in Israel, began to be traded on the Tel Aviv Stock exchange on Monday. This makes it a dual-listed company - Energean has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since March 2018. "Energean feels at home in Tel Aviv, and is becoming an Israeli company today. I want it to be the people's share," Energean CEO Mathios Rigas said.
The company will be included in the TA 90 and the TA Oil and Gas indices on the fast track. Energean will begin gas production in the Karish-Tanin project in 2021 under the timetable set for the development program, which will guarantee a supply of gas for the Israeli market and contribute to Israel's energy security.
Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz said, "Above all, this is further unequivocal evidence of the enormous success of the gas plan. Two years ago, when I decided that Delek and Noble Energy should sell Karish and Tanin, everyone said it would not happen, that they could not be sold within 14 months. Karish-Tanin was sold within six months, and is already in the development stages. The gas monopoly has already begun to fall apart - prices in the new contracts have fallen because of competition. The gas plan is working out better than in my wildest dreams two years ago, when we decided on it."
Drilling at Karish will begin in March 2019. The amount of gas in northern and eastern Karish is estimated at 1.8 TCF. Energean has additional gas exploration licenses in Israel in blocks 12, 21, 22, 23, and 31 with 7.5 TCF in gross prospective resources, including more prospects in Karish and Tanin.
Rigas said that future gas sale contracts would be aimed at both the local market in Israel and at exports to key markets in the region. He also mentioned the investment and development plan in projects and licenses held by the company in Greece and Montenegro.
Rigas also announced that production at the only floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit in the region, which would be used to produce and handle the gas, would begin on November 26, 2018 - earlier than expected. Energean says that the FPSO will have a production and handling capacity of 8 BCMA (billion cubic meters of gas per annum), and that the company's existing contracts are for 4.2 BCMA, leaving 3.8 BCMA available for use in future discoveries.
"We are proud to be the first UK company listed for trading on the TASE, thereby fulfilling our promise to shareholders and investors about the date when the company listed its shares, and to expand Energean's oil and gas investor base. Israel is the core of Energean's activity, and we are on the way to beginning gas production at the only FPSO unit in the Eastern Mediterranean region in the first quarter of 2021. Given all of this, it is natural for us to expand access to the Israeli market," Rigas explained.
Shares in Energean, which were listed at NIS 29.88 each, are currently at NIS 29.13.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 31, 2018
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