Lead developers in Israel’s offshore Leviathan gasfield have revived a long-running plan to monetise the reserves by building a floating LNG facility and inked deals with two major LNG players to compete on the floater's design.

Partners Noble Energy and Delek Drilling said they had signed two separate interim agreements with Belgian’s Exmar and Tor Olav Troim-led Golar LNG to provide engineering services and planning for a 2.4-2.5 million tonnes per annum LNG facility.

Delek Drilling said its agreement with Golar was for the generic front-end engineering and design of the FLNG facility along with detailed engineering.

Golar, which currently has one FLNG unit Hilli Episeyo in operation off Cameroon and a second LNG carrier under conversion into a floater, has several designs prepared on FLNG units.

Similarly, Delek said the agreement with Exmar is for the dedicated FEED for the Leviathan project and detailed engineering planning for the construction of the facility.

In June Exmar started up its first floating liquefaction facility, firing up the 0.5-mtpa Tango FLNG unit off Argentina under its charter to YPF.

Delek said an FLNG unit will allow the supply of additional quantities of natural gas for export as LNG from Leviathan.

“The Leviathan partners will negotiate with the two providers for the commercial terms and conditions for the construction of the Facility, with an estimated capacity between 2.5 and 5 million tons of LNG per year (approx. 3.5-7 BCM),” Delek said.

The company added it would sign a long-term agreement with either Golar or Exmar for the charter, construction, finance and operation of the facility.

On-off plans to use an FLNG unit to develop Leviathan have been in the work for the past 10 years.

Delek Drilling has a 45.34% stake in Leviathan, with Noble Energy Mediterranean on 39.66% in Leviathan and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) holding 15%.