Woodside cancels $2.7bn Israel gas project

Australia’s Woodside Petroleum has pulled out of a $2.7bn deal to buy 25 per cent of offshore Leviathan gas field claimed by Israel.

The decision came after a shift in the project’s commercial priorities.

Remarks by executives from the other companies involved in Leviathan indicated Woodside was retreating because of a shift in initial plans for the field from gas liquefaction – the Australian company’s field of expertise – to exports of gas to neighboring countries via pipeline.

Woodside and Leviathan’s partners had been in talks since late 2012, and signed a memorandum of understanding in February 2014.