August 29, 2010, Updated September 24, 2012

There may be as much as 4.2 billion barrels of oil in deep structures beneath the natural gas structures at the Leviathan prospect, according to a statement by the Israeli partners to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The Leviathan partners say that at their site offshore Israel there is a probability of geological success of 17 percent, of finding three billion barrels gross unrisked mean resources available for production at a depth of 5,800 meters, and an eight percent chance of finding a reserve of 1.2 billion barrels at a depth of 7,200 meters.

The two structures with oil are below a structure with a 50% probability of geological success of having 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The Leviathan partners caution that it is premature to decide whether to drill wells into the two deep structures, and that a decision will be made after critical information is obtained during the drilling to Leviathan’s natural gas structure. This well is scheduled for late October.

The partners also announced the development plan for the huge natural gas reserves located at a depth of about 5,361feet, about 84 miles west of Haifa, in Israel’s north.

The Leviathan partners are Noble Energy with a 39.66% holding, Delek Group subsidiaries Avner Oil and Gas LP and Delek Drilling LP (22.67% each), and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP (15%).

 

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