Following this weekend’s Hamas attack on Israel, Chevron, the operator of the Tamar gas field offshore southern Israel, has shut down production at the field on orders from Israel’s Energy Ministry.
In a statement carried by Reuters, the local unit of the U.S. supermajor said, “Chevron Mediterranean Limited has been instructed by the Israeli Ministry of Energy to shut down production at the Tamar production platform.”
Chevron Mediterranean Limited operates Tamar and has a 25 percent stake in the field, along with Isramco (28.75 percent), Tamar Petroleum (16.75 percent), Mubadala Energy (11 percent), Tamar Investment 2 (11 percent), Dor Gas (4 percent) and Everest (3.5 percent).
Tamar has six production wells, each producing between 7.1 and 8.5 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. Most of the natural gas processing takes place on the Tamar platform, located 24 kilometers (15 miles) west of Ashkelon. Tamar supplies 70% of Israel’s energy needs for power generation, according to Chevron.
Chevron has an interest in another gas field offshore Israel, the Leviathan gas field, Israel’s largest ever energy project, after buying Noble Energy.
While Tamar was shut down after the Hamas attack on Israel, the giant Leviathan field continues to operate normally, Chevron said Monday.
Following the shutdown of the Tamar field, Israel will seek alternative sources to meet its energy needs, the Israeli Energy Ministry said.
After Saturday’s surprise attack, Israel declared war on Hamas and began retaliating in the Gaza Strip while cutting off electricity to the Palestinian territories.
Oil prices jumped $4 a barrel in early Asian trading Monday following the weekend attack on Israel and continued fighting between Hamas and Israel.
The spike in prices is the result of the biggest attack on Israel in years, after Hamas fighters infiltrated the country by land, sea and even air in the early hours of Saturday morning and attacked Israeli towns.