The Petroleum Council of Israel has approved the acquisition of 100 percent of the Karish and Tanin natural gas fields by Energean Oil & Gas from Delek Drilling and Avner Oil for $148m, Reuters reported.

The agreement occurred in August, and is being implemented as part of the Israeli Government’s Gas Framework Strategy. The Israeli government required Delek Drilling and Avner, to sell off some assets in an effort to open the sector to competition. Furthermore, Energean it will submit to the Israeli authorities a development plan for both fields within six months, as the company plans to start production in 2020, informed Offshore Engineering Today.

The Karish and Tanin fields, discovered in 2013 and 2011 respectively, have 2C gas resources of about 2.4Tcf. The development of Karish and Tanin is expected to involve about $1b in  investments.

The Karish and Tanin field development plan (FDP) is the third global FDP that Energean is committed to over the next few years with development programs being prepared for the Epsilon in North Aegean Sea and West Katakolon in Western Greece/Ionian Sea, with combined 2P reserves of about 25m barrels. Katakolon was approved to move into development by the Greek Government in late November. Moreover, the company anticipates investments of around $1.3b exploration and development, including Karish and Tanin, over the next few years until 2021.