Leviathan gas platform operator Noble Energy violated its air emissions permit after delaying the transfer of continuous emissions data to relevant government authorities, the Environmental Protection Ministry said on Tuesday.
Houston-headquartered Noble Energy has been informed of the ministry’s intention to commence enforcement proceedings, and the public will be informed of the results.
While the emissions permit was granted in November 2019 and commercial operations commenced on January 12, the ministry said it has only “recently” started to receive continuous data regarding emissions from the offshore platform.
Apparent violations of the permit include a delay in the continuous transfer of data from the platform video camera to a dedicated website, and a delay in connecting continuous monitoring data from the platform flare to a national database.
“The Ministry of Environmental Protection takes these violations seriously; it notes that they harm the ministry’s ability to efficiently oversee pollutant emissions from Leviathan, and thus to have a full picture in real-time of the rig’s impact on the environment,” it said in a statement.
The ministry also cited numerous malfunctions on the platform since it commenced operations, including overnight Saturday, but emphasized that no incident has resulted in abnormal pollution concentrations that would pose a danger to the public.
Responding to the ministry, Noble Energy said: “Since the beginning of the Leviathan development and from the day that natural gas began to flow, there has not been a single occurrence in which the environment has been harmed.
“Noble Energy is committed to complying with all the laws and regulations of the State of Israel and is meeting all of the requirements under all of the permits granted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection. We are reviewing the letter received by the Ministry and will consider our path forward at the appropriate time. We continue to focus on safe and uninterrupted operations and supplying clean burning natural gas to the domestic and regional markets.”
Located 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) off Israel’s shore, the platform is connected via 120-kilometer-long (74.6 miles) pipes to the Leviathan reservoir, one of the largest natural-gas fields discovered worldwide in the last decade and thought to contain up to 605 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, equivalent to 65 years of domestic consumption.
In addition to boosting domestic supply, natural gas from the Leviathan and Tamar gas fields has begun flowing to Israel’s neighbors after lucrative export deals were secured with Egypt and Jordan.