TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- A Jordanian power company has agreed to a take-or-pay scheme tied to the imports of natural gas from the Leviathan field offshore Israel, Noble Energy said.
Noble said it executed a gas sale and purchase agreement worth an estimated $10 billion with a Jordanian power company to source about 300 million cubic feet of gas from the Leviathan field offshore Israel for the next 15 years. It's the first such agreement for the Leviathan field.
"While continuing to advance negotiations with additional Israeli industrial and power companies and other regional customers, we are also progressing the other work streams necessary for a final investment decision as early as the end of 2016," J. Keith Elliot, a senior vice president for Noble, said in a statement.
The Israeli government gave its consent to revised operational plans after a previous arrangement was struck down early this year by the Israeli Supreme Court. Noble Energy and its partners working to tap gas reserves offshore were notified in March by the court that a deal with the government was unconstitutional, a ruling consistent with past concerns about competition.
Leviathan and the nearby Tamar field combine for an estimated 28 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, with Leviathan accounting for more than half of the aggregate.
Noble said it expects to start shipping gas from the Leviathan field before the end of the decade. Under a take-or-pay scheme, which commits Jordan to set volumes or payments, Noble said the option remains to raise its uptake under the terms of the agreement.
Gas will move from the Mediterranean to a pipeline to Jordan.
