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Israeli Gas Field Delays Start of Commercial Operations

Israeli Gas Field Delays Start of Commercial Operations: Ratio

(Bloomberg) -- The launch of production at Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field has been delayed pending permits from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

“The flow of gas from the reservoir hasn’t yet begun,” Israel’s Delek Drilling LP, a partner to the project, said Tuesday in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. “The partnership believes that it will begin in coming days, after the necessary permits are received from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.” The statement didn’t elaborate.

Environmental groups concerned about the field’s impact on air pollution and public health have been waging a protest against its operations and last week won a daylong temporary injunction from an Israeli court. They were planning to abandon their homes in towns along the shoreline for the first 24 hours of the platform’s operation.

The Israeli government hailed the discovery of Leviathan in 2010 as a milestone to ensuring energy independence and a tool to bolster its geopolitical influence through major export deals. Delek Drilling LP and U.S.-based Noble Energy Inc. own about 45% and 40% of the project respectively.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Riad Hamade at rhamade@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Michael Gunn

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