Oil drilling at Leviathan halted
The search for oil at the offshore Leviathan site have failed to turn up any black gold and has been called off for now. However, the project's partners say that there is still a good chance of finding oil at the site
The exploratory oil drilling at Leviathan, which took place 120 kilometers off the Haifa shore at a depth of 6.5 kilometers, sparked a great deal of interest in the market.
While no oil has yet been discovered, the partners – Noble Energy, Delek Group, and Ratio – report that the high pressure and ground structure identified at this depth provided strong indications that oil would be found there in the future, when drilling is resumed with a different rig.
A new exploratory drilling program is slated for a depth of 7.5 kilometers. But since this requires a special rig, the program is likely to resume about a year from now.
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In addition, data collected from the unsuccessful drilling program will be analyzed to form a basis for updated estimates of the site's potential reserves. According to the original estimates, each of the strata at Leviathan could contain as much as 300 million barrels of oil.
No oil yet - the Leviathan drilling rig (Photo: Albatross)
The first attempt to drill for oil began about a year and a half ago but was called off due to high pressure. Mamon revealed that the drilling had been stopped at a point believed to contain oil, but only months afterward did the partners confirm that no oil had been discovered and that they were planning another attempt.
A few weeks after drilling resumed, it was once again stopped because of high ground pressure. On Thursday, the Leviathan partners announced that the drilling was off for good. However, the partners reported, the strata at which the oil drilling had stopped contained significant reserves of heavy gas (gas containing other materials.) They also reported that the temperature was very high and that the underlying strata was very hard ground with very high pressure – signs that point to the presence of oil.
"We continue to believe that there is real potential to find oil at the site," said Noble Energy Vice President Suzanne Cunningham. "We will update our models with the drilling data."
Ratio CEO Yigal Landau also expressed optimism: "Our situation is much better than it was a few months ago. The drilling data is very valuable and will help us plan exploratory drilling that is specifically designed to find oil," he explained.
