Israel, Greek Energean company sign deal

Israel signed an agreement on Tuesday to sell two gas fields to the Greek Energean Oil and Gas company, a week after the acquisition was approved.

Energean paid 148 million U.S. dollars to purchase the Karish and Tanin natural gas fields from Israeli companies Delek Drilling and Avner Oil.

Delek and Avner were forced by the government to sell some of their holdings in the country's gas fields in an effort to open the sector to competition.

Under the agreement signed in an official ceremony in Israel, the Greek company will supply gas from the fields to Israel's domestic market.

During the ceremony, Energean's CEO Mathios Rigas and its senior partner, Stathis Topouzoglou, presented the initial development plans for the fields to Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz.

According to the plans, Karish and Tanin ought to be ready to supply gas by 2020 and possibly even by 2019, Rigas and Topouzoglou told the minister.

Steinitz congratulated the signing of the deal. "With the transfer of ownership, this morning the breaking down of the natural gas monopoly has begun," he said according to a statement released by his office.

Steinitz told Rigas and Topouzoglou that he expects Energean to present the final development plans in a few months and promised to speed up bureaucratic processes to support the development of the fields.

Karish was discovered in 2013, two years before Tanin was discovered.

Both fields are located off the Mediterranean shore and have gas resources of around 2.4 billion cubic feet.

Energean is a private company focused on Greece, the Adriatic, the East Mediterranean and North Africa areas. Endit