Tamar Partners Sign Gas Supply Deal

Tamar gas field partners have agreed to supply natural gas worth $4 billion to units of conglomerate Israel Corp.

In all, Tamar group will supply at least 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas in three, multi-year contracts, Reuters said. Israel Corp previously had a deal to buy Egyptian gas, but Egypt stopped supplying gas to Israel earlier this year.

The Tamar prospect is jointly owned by Noble Energy, Isramco Negev 2, Avner Oil Exploration, Delek Drilling and Dor Gas Exploration.

The largest of the three deals announced on Monday is with private power producer OPC Rotem. Rotem will buy 10.6 bcm of gas from Tamar for 16 years at a cost of about $2.5 billion.

Oil Refineries, Israel's biggest refiner, will pay $1.3 billion for 5.8 bcm of natural gas for seven years, while Israel Chemicals' Dead Sea Works will buy 0.26 bcm between 2015 and 2017 for a power plant it is building.