Karish, Tanin Attract Foreign Investors

Larry Mizel, an American businessman who owns Coleridge Group, has submitted an offer to purchase stakes in the Karish and Tanin fields, with 70bn m³ of reserves, from Delek Group, The Marker, a business daily, reported.

The Israeli government hopes that the sale will create a competition in the domestic gas market, which is now dominated by the Tamar Partnership and Leviathan Partnership.

Last year Delek Group, which owns Delek Drilling and Avner Oil, bought Noble Energy's 47% stake for about $70mn which gave the two gas fields a valuation of $145mn. However, few expect Delek to fetch that sum for the sale of the two assets. According to the regulatory natural gas framework Delek Group has to sell the two gas fields by February 2017 or they will be taken over by a trustee to handle the sale.

Another group showing interest in the assets is the Greek energy company Energean. In the past Energean was rejected by the energy ministry as an upstream partner as it did not meet certain requirements.

Ya'acov Zalel