Israel’s NewMed Energy has announced that the planned expansion of the Leviathan gas field has been delayed by six months, with works now expected to resume in April 2025.  

This postponement comes as the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict intensifies. 

NewMed Energy owns a 45.34% stake in the field, with Chevron Mediterranean as the operator with a 39.66% stake. The remaining 15% is held by Ratio Energies. 

The delay affects the installation of the third subsea transmission pipeline, which is pivotal for increasing the gas supply capacity to Israel Natural Gas Lines' (INGL) system from approximately 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) to around 1.4bcf/d.  

This expansion is part of a broader strategy to enhance the Leviathan field’s total gas production capacity to up to roughly 21 billion cubic metres annually. 

In a statement, NewMed Energy said: “Chevron Mediterranean, the operator in the Leviathan project, announced that due to escalation of the security situation, the work on laying the subsea pipeline as part of the Third Gathering Pipeline Project has been suspended until April 2025 or thereabouts, depending on the performing contractor's time tables and work schedule, and on the regional security situation.” 

Two months prior to this announcement, the partners had committed to a $429m (NIS1.61bn) investment for the front-end engineering design phase and the initial procurement of long lead items.  

This investment was a step towards realising the increased capacity, and the partners were also considering the addition of a fourth subsea pipeline, which would potentially raise the daily production capacity to approximately 2.35bcf. 

Situated in the Levantine Basin, the Leviathan gas field is around 130km west of Haifa, Israel, in waters 1,645m deep.  

According to GlobalData, the field boasts proven and probable gas reserves of 16.27 trillion cubic feet and condensate reserves of 35.8 million barrels.