The Tamar natural gas reservoir resumed full production three days late. The Tamar partnership announced that the supply of 50% of the maximum amount of gas had been resumed, and that the supply "would be gradually increased over the next 24 hours until the maximum is reached." This did not actually happen until today however, sources inform "Globes," and the partners did not issue a notice about the delay in returning to full production.
The Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources confirmed the fact, stating, "The planned maintenance work at Tamar took longer, and the flow of natural gas to the economy was increased to the regular amounts today."
The result was that for the past three days (Thursday through Sunday), the electricity sector continued to work on a partial allocation of gas, with other fuel being used instead - diesel and fuel oil, which are more expensive and cause more pollution.
Fortunately, electricity consumption was significant lower than normal on these days, because it was Yom Kippur and a weekend. It is estimated that diesel fuel is six times as expensive as gas, and every day on which diesel fuel was used cost Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) tens of millions of shekels.
The question of who will bear the cost of the six days on which there was no supply of gas and the three additional days on which the supply was less than normal remains open.
The Public Utilities Authority (electricity), which sets the electricity rate, announced last week that the question of compensation by the Tamar partnership for their failure to supply gas was being considered, but that the public should not have to bear the IEC's extra cost for the use of alternative fuel.
Before the Rosh Hashanah holiday, when the planned maintenance work on Tamar began, a malfunction occurred that caused the platform to shut down and a halt in the supply of gas to the economy. A crack was discovered in one of the pipelines connected to the ventilation pipe, which required that the platform shut down until the complete repair of the malfunction. The possibility of soldering the crack was considered, but Noble Energy decided to replace the entire defective part - the safest, but also the lengthiest, option. The replacement part was produced and flown to the platform from Houston, Texas.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on October 1, 2017
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017