Egyptian media reports that Italian energy company Eni is about to announce a massive offshore gas discovery in the coming few days have been enough to seen energy stocks on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) plunging. With an estimated 2,550 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas, Noor would be three times larger than the Zohr gas field, Globes reports.
At midday, Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) was down 3.42%, Delek Drilling LP (TASE: DEDR.L) was down 4.46%, Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L) was down 3.63% and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP (TASE:RATI.L) was down 4.70%.
Former Egyptian Petroleum Minister Osama Kamal said, “If you remember two months ago we said that more discoveries will follow in this area. Hopefully, this great news will be announced by the President and the minister of petroleum in a few days.”
The Zohr field was officially announced as a discovery in 2015 and made history by becoming on-stream within just two and a half years. Egypt also has liquefaction facilities at Damietta and Idku.
Such a discovery will help Egyptian President Abdel el-Sisi realize his vision of making Egypt a regional energy power. He told Bloomberg earlier this year after Egyptian company Dolphinus signed an agreement to buy $15 billion of gas from the Tamar and Leviathan partners that he had this vision for four years.