At least 10 firms bid for Israel-Turkey gas pipeline: Report

TEL AVIV

Bidders include Turkey’s Zorlu Group, which already holds an indirect stake in an Israeli power plant, and a joint bid by Turcas Petrol and German electricity utility RWE. REUTERS Photo

At least 10 companies, including two Turkish energy firms, have presented offers in the tender for the exporting of natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan gas field to Turkey through a pipeline, an Israeli daily reported.

Bidders include Turkey’s Zorlu Group, which already holds an indirect stake in an Israeli power plant, and a joint bid by Turcas Petrol and German electricity utility RWE,  according to Israeli daily Globes.

The daily cited unnamed sources as saying the bids for the natural gas ranged between 7 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year and 10 bcm, “amounts that could generate $22-31 billion revenue, assuming a 15-year gas supply contract at $6 per million British Thermal Units [mmBTU], the price of natural gas in Israel’s domestic market.”

Leviathan is estimated to hold some 540 billion cubic meters of gas, enough to supply Europe for a year. The field is being developed by U.S.-based Noble Energy, which is the project’s lead partner with a 30 percent stake, while the other groups involved are Israel’s Delek Group, Avner Oil Exploration and Ratio Oil Exploration and Australian Woodside, who joined the field by acquiring 25-percent stake in February.

In September, Turcas Board Member Mathew Bryza had announced the company had submitted a $2.5-billion offer to build a pipeline under the sea from Israel to Turkey’s southern province of Mersin.

Globes said the deal would include laying a pipeline between Turkey and Leviathan’s proposed floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) ship, which deliver gas to Israeli and regional customers.

“The price in the bids is the purchase price of the gas from the FPSO. In addition to this price, the bids will be evaluated on the basis of their commercial terms, including the take or pay condition and the capacity of the gas purchased,” the daily reported.

The relations between the two countries, which have been scarred since May 2010 when Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists while storming a ship in a convoy seeking to break an Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, have started to pick up pieces since Israel apologized for the incident a year ago, raising hopes for new energy alliances.