Energean CEO: We want to put innovation into energy

“Just as we were the first to bring competition to the Israeli gas market, we now want to bring innovation to the gas and oil business,” Energean CEO Matthias Rigas said at the Globes 2023 energy conference in Tel Aviv yesterday evening.

The Anglo-Greek company, which is traded on the London Stock Exchange and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, owns the production rights to Israel’s Karish, Tanin and Olympus offshore gas fields. Rigas founded the company, which operates mainly in the eastern Mediterranean, in 2007. The company’s market capitalization is currently £2 billion.

Energean bought the rights to the Karish and Tanin gas fields in the wake of the government’s gas outline plan to increase competition in Israel’s natural gas production sector and reduce the price companies and households pay for natural gas. Energean offered the lowest price, signed a long-term contract for the supply of gas and is responsible for lowering prices for Israeli consumers.

Net zero emissions

Israeli innovation can serve, Regas noted, “to move the industry forward towards a vision of net-zero emissions. We want to study solutions on how to make the technology used in our business safer and more successful. Of course, our goal is to generate profits for our shareholders, but we must also support our approach to To be a reliable and responsible energy supplier.”

In his remarks, Rigas referred to the issue of climate change and spoke of “huge investments” by the global oil and gas industry to support the development of renewable energies and reduce the carbon footprint of oil and gas supply companies. Fossil fuels that release billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. “When I sat down and talked with my son and his friends, all of whom are in their 20s, I asked them what is the most pressing problem in the world today, and the almost unanimous answer was the climate crisis,” he said.

He added that Energean announced in December 2021 that it would become a zero-greenhouse gas company in the future, a vision he said “I don’t know exactly how we’re going to achieve it — but I’m sure we’ve got to work toward it.”

“much more than money”

Regarding the Globes Energy 2023 conference, in cooperation with Halliburton, Regas says that he is looking forward to studying Israeli technologies and ideas that will help make a technological revolution in this field. “We want to identify and define new ideas that will make our drilling operations more efficient, for example,” he said. “We’re drilling wells today with a 25% chance of success. Basically, we’re telling investors, ‘Give us your money, and you have a 75% risk of losing it.’ Anything technology can do to improve those odds is going to matter.”

There is a perception that the industry is outdated, Regas said, “but the reality is quite the opposite. By collaborating with Energean and Halliburton, we will be able to test technological developments in action, in the real world.”

He added, “I look forward to hearing, evaluating and investing in ideas that come from the Israeli industry. We are interested in developing a complete ecosystem in which Israeli technology will change the global oil and gas business.”

“The opportunity we offer is about much more than money,” Rigas continued. “We’ll meet dozens of companies here, find cutting-edge technologies and let them get to market. We’ll focus on what will help us improve operational efficiency and propel us on our path to net zero carbon emissions.”

Full disclosure: The Globes Energy 2023 conference was held in association with Energean and Halliburton

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on May 31, 2023.

© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.