Israel’s Leviathan gas field back online after temporary closure last week: Israel’s offshore Leviathan natural gas field which supplies Egypt has resumed production after an emergency shutdown, its Texas-based operator Noble Energy said last Saturday, Reuters reports. Israel’s Energy Ministry initially reported an emergency closure after the platform’s flare system was activated but later said it was a false alarm triggered by the failure of a gas detector. The report does not say for how long or to what extent the shutdown affected supplies to Egypt.

Background: Israel began pumping natural gas to Egypt at the top of the year, after a landmark USD 19.5 bn agreement signed in 2018 between Alaa Arafa’s Dolphinus Holding and the operators of Israel’s Delek Drilling and Noble, which will see Israel ship more than 85 bcm of gas to Egypt over the next 15 years. Leviathan, owned by Delek Drilling and Israel’s Ratio Oil, is one of two fields which supply Egypt and Jordan. It became operational at the end of last year.