Israeli Competition Authority approves sale of 10% of Tamar gas project to SOCAR - media

BAKU. May 15 (Interfax) - The Israeli Competition Authority has approved the sale of 10% of the Tamar gas field development project to State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR), owned by Israeli billionaire Aaron G. Frenkel, who has owned them since 2021, the Israeli publication Calcalist reported.

According to the publication, approval from the Israeli Energy Ministry's Petroleum Council under is still needed to complete the deal.

"The antitrust permit was issued on the condition that SOCAR will not operate gas fields in areas where it already has exploration licenses in Israel," the publication reports.

The Israeli Competition Authority's website still listed the agreement with SOCAR on the Tamar project as being under review as of May 5, when information on mergers and transactions was last updated.

SOCAR signed an agreement with Union Energy, wholly controlled by Aaron Frenkel, to acquire a 10% stake in the Tamar project on January 31, 2025. Tamar, one of the biggest gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea, is 90 km from Haifa.

The Tamar gas field was discovered in January 2009 and is one of Israel's main sources of gas. According to an independent reserves assessment by NSAI, the field has estimated natural gas reserves of approximately 13.73 trillion cubic feet (389 billion cubic meters).

According to open source data as of March 2024, shareholders are: Chevron Corp. (USA) - 25%, Isramco (Israel) - 28.75%, Mubadala Energy (UAE) - 11%, Union Energy - 11%, Tamar Petroleum (Israel) - 16.75%, Dor Gas (Israel) - 4% and Everest (Israel) - 3.5%.

A consortium of SOCAR, NewMed and BP won a tender for a license from the Israeli Israeli Energy Ministry in October 2023 to conduct exploration in Zone I-6 close to the Leviathan field. The license was issued on March 17 this year. Zone I, which covers approximately 1,700 square kilometers, is located in the northern part of Israel's exclusive economic waters.