Israel Pauses Leviathan Gas Production

Chevron Corp has declared force majeure at the Leviathan natural gas and condensate field offshore Israel following an order from the government to suspend production, one of the company's local partners said Sunday.

Acting on a "security recommendation", Israel's energy and infrastructure minister on Saturday asked operator Chevron to suspend operations at the Leviathan platform until further notice, NewMed Energy LP said in a stock filing.

Israel's petroleum affairs commissioner separately ordered the Leviathan partners to "prepare for a flexible operating policy for the platform", NewMed's regulatory disclosure said. "Such policy may include, inter alia, temporary suspensions of production, in accordance with periodic situation assessments and ongoing updates received from the security authorities".

Leviathan gas is piped to the domestic market, Egypt and Jordan. The field sold 8.1 billion cubic meters (286.05 billion cubic feet) to the three countries in the first nine months of 2025 with Egypt accounting for more than half (4.8 Bcm), according to NewMed's latest financial statement.

Analysts at Wood Mackenzie said Monday they expect Egypt to increase liquefied natural gas imports to offset losses from the suspension.

The suspension comes just after the Leviathan consortium approved stage 1 of a project to raise production. Expected to start operation in the second half of 2029, the $2.36-billion first stage of the Phase 1B project aims to increase capacity to about 21 billion cubic meters a year, according to a NewMed January 18, 2026. NewMed already announced August 21, 2025 the Energy and Infrastructures Ministry had approved Phase 1B.

Leviathan, discovered 2010 off the coast of Haifa city, started production December 2019 under Phase 1A, which has a capacity of about 12 Bcm per annum, according to NewMed.

The January 18 filing also said all conditions for the entry into force of an amended agreement signed last year between the Leviathan consortium and their current customer Blue Ocean Energy had been fulfilled. The new deal, announced by NewMed August 7, 2025, raises gas exports to Egypt by a total volume of 130 Bcm.

On December 17, 2025 NewMed Energy said the consortium had received approval from Israel's Energy and Infrastructures Ministry for the increased gas exports to Egypt.

Chevron operates Leviathan with a 39.66 percent stake through Chevron Mediterranean Ltd. NewMed, owned by Israel's Delek Group, owns 45.34 percent. Ratio Energies LP, also an Israeli company, holds 15 percent.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com