Chevron, NewMed, Ratio Declare FID on Leviathan Phase Expansion
An earlier deal to double Israel’s gas exports to Egypt led to approval of Leviathan’s Phase 1B expansion by guaranteeing long-term cash flow to finance the project.
The Leviathan gas field platform, 130 km offshore Haifa, Israel, is designed to accommodate new equipment modules to expand gas production and processing up to 21 Bcm/year.
Source: Chevron
Chevron Mediterranean Ltd. (CML) and its partners have taken a final investment decision (FID) to launch the Phase 1B Expansion of the Leviathan gas field to boost natural gas supplies to Israel, Egypt, and Jordan from the Eastern Mediterranean’s second-largest natural gas reservoir, after Egypt’s Zohr field.
The decision follows the signing in August of a deal to double Israel’s gas exports to Egypt, thus extending long-term cash flow guarantees while also obligating Leviathan’s partners to increase production. Israel has described the deal as the largest gas-export agreement in its history.
Leviathan’s partners include Chevron Mediterranean Ltd. as operator (39.66%), Israel’s NewMed Energy (45.34%), and Ratio Energies (15%).
The project targets drilling three new offshore wells, installing additional subsea infrastructure, and upgrading treatment facilities on the existing production platform. The expansion would increase production to approximately 21 Bcm/year from the current 12 Bcm by the end of the decade, Chevron said in a news release.
Chevron’s Growing East Med Presence
Elsewhere in the EastMed, Chevron operates the Tamar gas field offshore Israel which since 2023 has been expanded to raise production to 1.2 Bcf/D, as well as the Aphrodite gas field offshore Cyprus which targets first gas in 2031 with exports directed to Egypt.
In a regulatory filing with the Israel Securities Authority and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on 23 December 2025, NewMed Energy (which partners with Chevron and Shell in Aphrodite) reported the partners had greenlit a $105.7-million front-end engineering and design study of the project’s production system and transmission infrastructure.
Chevron also operates two Egyptian exploration blocks and is in a nonoperated joint venture in an Egyptian offshore exploration block in the Mediterranean.
Export routes for Leviathan gas within the region.
Source: NewMed Energy
“Our decision to invest in the expansion of Leviathan’s production capacity reflects our confidence in the future of energy in the region,” Clay Neff, president of Chevron Upstream, said in the release. “Pragmatic US and regional energy policies are helping to strengthen energy security across the Eastern Mediterranean and foster an environment that encourages investment in the Middle East and globally.”
