Energean announced on Thursday it will develop a new natural gas field off the coast of Israel at an initial cost of $150 million.
Energean also said it had signed an 18-month, $700 million loan facility with J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley to help fund the development and pay for the acquisition of a minority stake in Energean Israel from private equity firm Kerogen.
The Karish North field, which was discovered less than two years ago, is expected to start production in the second half of 2023, the company said in a statement.
The final investment decision had been expected by the end of 2020.
The field will be connected via a 5.4 kilometre (3.36 miles) pipeline to Energean's 8 billion cubic metre-per-year floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit where the main Karish field is being developed and is expected to start production by year-end.
The first well at Karish North is expected to produce up to 300 million standard cubic feet per day (3 billion cubic metres per year).
