Karish North Gas Field, Israel

Karish North gas field is located in the south-east part of the Mediterranean Sea, offshore Israel.

The field is fully owned and operated by Energean Israel, which is owned by Energean Oil and Gas (70%) and Kerogen Capital (30%).

The gas produced by the field will be supplied to Israel’s domestic gas market. It will also supply approximately 0.2tcf of gas to the I.P.M Beer Tuvia power plant being developed at Be’er Tuvia, Israel.

Karish North gas field location

The Karish North field is situated within Energean’s Karish lease located adjacent to the Karish Main field.

The Karish lease lies in the Levantine basin, which spans across 474,000km² within the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus and Syria.

The Karish lease, along with the Tanin lease, was acquired by Energean from Delek Group in 2016.

Karish North gas field discovery and reserves

The Karish North gas field was discovered by the Karish North exploration well in April 2019. The well was spud in March 2019 by the Stena Forth DrillMAX drilling rig to a total depth of 4,880m. It was the first exploratory well drilled in Israel since 2013.

The well encountered a gross hydrocarbon column of 249m, discovering the presence of high-quality reserves in the B and C sands. Preliminary analysis of the discovery well indicated estimated gas reserves of between one trillion cubic feet (tcf) and 1.5tcf.

Energean plans to conduct further drilling activities to assess the presence of hydrocarbons at the D4 horizon. The field will undergo further evaluation for analysing the resource potential and the extent of liquids content.

Karish North gas field development details

The Karish North gas field is planned to be developed as a tie-back to the Energean Power FPSO, which will be located 5.4km away. It will process the reservoir fluids and gas from the fields to the shore.

The produced gas will be transported through a 90km pipeline from the FPSO to the shore.

Details of the Energean Power FPSO

The FPSO will have a gas production and processing capacity of 775 million metric cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) and a liquids storage capacity of 800,000 barrels (bbls).

The FPSO will be spread moored with 14 mooring lines, which include a chain top section, a polyester rope in the middle, and a chain bottom section that will be linked to a suction pile anchor.

The mooring lines will be made of Cabral 512 polyester ropes organised in bundles of 2×4 and 2×3 within a water depth of 1,750m.

Hull construction of the FPSO is on-going at the COSCO yard in China, while topsides construction and integration will be performed at the Sembcorp Admirality Yard in Singapore.

Stena Forth DrillMAX details

The Stena Forth DrillMAX is a sixth-generation harsh environment Class 3 drilling rig with a mono-hull drillship design. The dynamically-positioned drillship is capable of drilling at a water depth up to 10,000ft with a drilling depth of 35,000ft.

The drilling rig is equipped with a NOV dual hoisting and drilling tower and Cameron MUX  control system. It has previously operated in the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Mexico.

Contractors involved

HPR will supply the mooring lines for the Energean Power FPSO, while Lankhorst Ropes will supply the ropes.

Stena Drilling was responsible for undertaking the drilling activities at the Karish North gas field and will drill three development wells in 2019 at the Karish Main field.