BP and ADNOC suspend talks to buy a stake in an Israeli energy company
BP and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) have suspended talks to buy a 50% stake in Israeli natural gas producer NewMed, citing uncertainty in the region, the Israeli firm said on Wednesday.
In March 2023, BP and the national oil company of one of the Middle East's major oil and gas producers, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), offered to buy a major stake in NewMed in a deal estimated to be worth approximately 2 billion dollars.
NewMed is the largest shareholder in the Leviathan natural gas field in Israel, operated by US energy multinational Chevron. Leviathan, with 22.9 TCF of recoverable gas, is the largest natural gas field in the Mediterranean and one of the region's largest producing assets, NewMed says.
The Leviathan and Aphrodite deposits
The company also holds a 30% stake in the Aphrodite natural gas field, located in Cyprus' exclusive economic zone, with Chevron and Shell as partners with 35% each.
With the deal proposed last year, BP and ADNOC were looking to gain exposure to vast natural gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean.
However, Hamas's attack on Israel in early October and the war that followed threw the discussions off course.
The NewMed team reviewing the offer and the two majors have agreed, “due to the uncertainty created by the external environment, to suspend discussions in relation to the proposed transaction,” the Israeli energy company said in a document filed today on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
BP and ADNOC have reiterated their interest in the proposed transaction, NewMed added.
“The trial will remain suspended until discussions resume or its conclusion. There is no certainty that discussions will resume or that an agreement will be reached in the future, nor on the terms of any agreement,” the company noted.
The Israeli authorities had, among other things , interrupted production at the Leviathan field after the Hamas attack on October 7th and then resumed it approximately one month later, but channeling the natural gas produced through the Israeli hinterland. The production is largely destined for Egypt for its domestic use and for liquefaction.
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new Economic Scenarios articles.
The article BP and ADNOC suspend talks to buy a stake in an Israeli energy company comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/bp-e-adnoc-sospendono-i-colloqui-per-lacquisto-di-una-partecipazione-a-una-societa-energetica-israeliana/ on Wed, 13 Mar 2024 16:44:28 +0000.