Tensions in the Middle East: Chevron shuts down its Leviathan field, jeopardizing exports to Egypt.
We're witnessing a repeat of a pattern seen in June involving natural gas fields in the Israeli Sea. Chevron has declared a force majeure halt to production at the Leviathan natural gas field in Israel after the government ordered a temporary production suspension for security reasons, marking the second time in less than a year that hostilities with Iran have disrupted gas flows in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Israeli Ministry of Energy has ordered operator Chevron to shut down Leviathan following the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran and subsequent retaliatory actions across the region. Partner NewMed Energy said the suspension was decided following guidance from security authorities, noting that regulators have ordered the consortium to adjust operations in line with evolving security conditions, including the possibility of temporary production interruptions depending on the evolving situation.
Energean also confirmed that it has received an order to suspend production at the Karish field.
Leviathan is Israel's largest gas field, supplying Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. In the first nine months of 2025, the field sold 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to these three markets, with Egypt absorbing more than half of that, amounting to 4.8 billion cubic meters.
The closure echoes the disruption in June, when Israel shut down the Leviathan and Karish pipelines during a previous escalation. This disruption forced Egypt to reduce gas supplies to some industrial sectors, including fertilizer producers. Analysts now expect Cairo to increase LNG imports again to compensate for the loss of Israeli volumes.
The timing is ironic. The Leviathan consortium recently approved the first $2.3 billion phase of an expansion project aimed at increasing capacity from approximately 12 billion cubic meters per year to approximately 21 billion cubic meters per year. The field contains approximately 22.9 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and supports a long-term $35 billion export agreement with Egypt that runs until 2040.
This closure will put pressure on Egypt, which will be forced to import more LNG to compensate for the loss of Israeli supplies while waiting to restart domestic production.
The article Tensions in the Middle East: Chevron stops the Leviathan field, exports to Egypt at risk comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/tensioni-in-medio-oriente-chevron-ferma-il-giacimento-di-leviathan-a-rischio-lexport-verso-legitto/ on Tue, 03 Mar 2026 08:00:12 +0000.