Avner Oil Exploration Partnership : Leviathan partners urge Israel government to resolve regulatory uncertainty

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Partners in Israel's offshore Leviathan natural gas field called on the government to quickly resolve the regulatory uncertainty that remains after the Supreme Court struck down on Sunday an agreement the sides reached on the project's development.

The government last year reached a deal with Texas-based Noble Energy (>> Noble Energy, Inc.) and Israel's Delek Group (>> Delek Group Ltd.) that would leave them in control of Leviathan, the country's largest gas field, while forcing them to sell smaller, yet sizable, assets.

The companies noted that the court opposed just one section of the deal - a government concession not to make any regulatory changes in the gas sector for a decade - and that it found no problem with other commitments, like current tax rates and export quotas.

"In order to allow us to meet the framework goals, primarily the development of Leviathan by the end of 2019, we call on the government to create stable conditions in a short time frame," the companies said in a statement.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Steven Scheer)

Stocks treated in this article : Noble Energy, Inc., Delek Group Ltd., Delek Drilling Limited Partnership, Avner Oil Exploration Ltd. Partnership, Ratio Oil Exploration Ltd. Partnership