Greece’s Energean sees first gas from Israel’s Karish by Q3

Energean’s floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) for the Greek company’s flagship Karish project offshore Israel is expected to be ready for sail-away by the end of this quarter, Energean CEO Mathios Rigas said on January 18.

He noted that this will kick-start an eventful 2022 with the high-impact drilling programme in Israel beginning in mid-March, first gas from Karish by the third quarter and first gas from North El Amriya and North Idku in Egypt by the fourth quarter. “With our other development projects in Israel, Italy and Greece also on track we are well positioned to reach our medium-term targets of over 200 kboed production, $2 billion annual revenue and $1.4 billion EBITDAX,” Rigas was quoted as saying in a press release.

Looking back at 2021, he said it was an outstanding year for Energean, one in which the Greek company delivered excellent operational and record financial results. “Production came in above initial expectations, and we recognised all-time-high gas prices in Italy. As a result, we’ve generated full year revenues of over $495 million and EBITDAX in excess of $200 million,” Rigas said.

“In 2021, we raised over $3 billion from the debt capital markets to refinance existing borrowings and increase liquidity. In doing so, we extended our weighted average maturity to approximately six years, pushed out commencement of major debt repayment obligations to 2024 and converted floating interest rates to fixed rates. We end the year with over $1 billion1 of liquidity, ensuring we are fully funded to deliver our projects and a sustainable dividend – the policy for which we expect to announce in March with our annual results,” Rigas said.

“On the ESG front, we remain focused on reducing our CO2 emissions intensity and are working towards accelerating our 2050 net zero target,” Rigas said, adding, “As such, we are assessing the feasibility of a number of carbon capture and storage, and eco-friendly hydrogen projects”.