The natural gas reserves in the Noor gas field in the Shorouk concession area of the Mediterranean Sea are expected to reach over 90 trillion cubic feet, daily Egypt Independent said Sunday, citing unnamed officials from the Oil Ministry.
The amount is three times larger than that of the Zohr field, which is the biggest gas field in the Mediterranean, and one of the biggest in the world.
Following the report, the shares of Israeli companies which are carrying out gas exploration activities in Israel's offshore fields plunged on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), according to local media, as a previously announced $15 billion gas export deal to Egypt seemed shaky.
"At midday [on Wednesday], Delek Group Ltd. was down 3.42 percent, Delek Drilling LP was down 4.46 percent, Isramco Ltd. was down 3.63 percent and Ratio Oil Exploration was down 4.70 percent," Israeli business daily Globes said.
In February, energy partner companies in Israel's Tamar and Leviathan offshore gas fields had announced that they would supply an Egyptian private energy company with 64 billion cubic meters of natural gas over the next 10 years.
On June 20, Eni announced that United Arab Emirates' Mubadala Petroleum, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, purchased a 10 percent stake in the Shorouk concession, which is home to the Zohr gas field.
Eni said it now held a 50 percent stake of the contractor's share through its subsidiary IEOC, while Rosneft held 30 percent, BP 10 percent and Mubadala Petroleum 10 percent.
(Anadolu Agency, 28/06/2018)