JERUSALEM, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The partners in Leviathan, Israel's largest gas field, decided to build a third pipeline linking the production wells to the offshore platform.
According to a statement released by Leviathan project's main partner NewMed Energy on Sunday, the new pipeline will cost 568 million U.S. dollars.
It will allow the expansion of the maximum gas supply capacity from Leviathan to the state-owned transmission system from about 12 billion cubic meters (BCM) to about 14 BCM per year, from mid-2025.
The Leviathan field is located in the Mediterranean Sea, about 120 km off Israel's northern shores. It was discovered in 2010 and began producing natural gas at the end of 2019.
In 2022, the field produced 11.58 BCM of natural gas, nearly half of Israel's total production, according to figures issued by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure.
About two-thirds of the gas produced from Leviathan last year was exported to the neighboring countries Egypt and Jordan, with the rest sold to domestic markets.
The Israeli companies NewMed Energy and Ratio Energy hold 45.34 percent and 15 percent of the Leviathan project respectively, while the U.S Chevron Corporation holds the remaining 39.66 percent.
