Union Vitality, managed by Israeli businessman Aaron Frenkel, has accomplished the allocation of 48.3% of the shares it holds within the Tamar offshore gasoline discipline, to the State Oil Firm of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR). The deal, which is able to give SOCAR a ten% stake in Tamar, is price an estimated $1.25 billion.
The deal, revealed by “Globes” and signed six months in the past by Union Vitality and SOCAR, is now being accomplished after the receipt of regulatory approval by the Petroleum Council and Israel Competitors Authority. As a part of the deal, SOCAR will maintain its 10% stake in Tamar by means of a 48.3% holding in Union Vitality and three% of Tamar Petroleum (TASE: TMRP), an funding firm by which SOCAR has acquired roughly 17.9% of Frenkel’s holding, by which previous to the sale he held a 24.99% stake. SOCAR joins the opposite companions in Tamar, which embody the US vitality main and discipline operator Chevron (25%) and the Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala (11%).
The deal brings Azerbaijan and Israel nearer collectively
The Tamar gasoline discipline, which is 90 kilometers west of Haifa within the Mediterranean, was found in 2009 and manufacturing started in 2013. The reservoir’s present manufacturing capability is 10.3 billion cubic meters (BCM) yearly and its gasoline reserves are estimated at 291.5 BCM. The companions within the reservoir, together with Frankel, Tamar Petroleum, Mubadala and Chevron, are Isramco and Dor Fuel. SOCAR is a state-owned vitality firm that manages Azerbaijan’s oil and gasoline trade based mostly within the nation’s capital, Baku. The transfer has a geopolitical dimension that successfully brings Azerbaijan and Israel nearer collectively.
Frenkel constructed his direct place within the gasoline reservoir by means of an choice cope with Mubadala Petroleum, which he exercised in December 2022, in addition to by buying a stake from the Harel insurance coverage firm and Israel Infrastructure Fund (IIF) in September final 12 months. Along with the acquisition of the shares in Tamar Petroleum, the price of Frankel’s funding within the reservoir was NIS 3.4 billion – an funding made primarily with financial institution financing.
In the newest deal that Frankel undertook, he paid about $280 million (over NIS 1 billion) a couple of months in the past for 3.5% of the rights within the reservoir that he bought from IIF, which gave the reservoir a worth of over $8 billion (about NIS 28 billion on the time of the deal). This was a comparatively small and strange deal relating to the reservoir; as this worth is sort of double the worth of the reservoir within the 2021 deal, by which Delek Drilling (now NewMed Vitality) offered 22% of the rights to Mubadala for $1.1 billion, based mostly on a worth of about $5 billion for the Tamar reservoir (NIS 15.8 billion).
Frenkel himself just lately instructed “Globes” in regards to the funding in Tamar. He stated, “That is an funding that was created as a part of the response to the Abraham Accords. I entered into it because of the great relations I’ve in Abu Dhabi and the UAE. We sat there with senior individuals on the prime who stated: How can we flip the signing on paper (within the Abraham Accords) into one thing concrete? We knew that Yitzhak Tshuva (controlling proprietor of Delek Drilling) was obliged to promote holdings within the Tamar reservoir by December 2022. So that they (Mubadala) purchased in and gave me an choice, however I used to be the one who initiated the curiosity.”
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Mubadala purchased 22% of Tamar and supplied Frenkel an choice to purchase half its holding within the discipline (11%). He went on to buy one other 3.5% stake, and on the identical time bought about 24.99% of Tamar Petroleum, which owns 16.75% of Tamar. “I immediately and not directly personal a stake of about 18.7% of Tamar,” he stated, “and since I’m one of many controlling homeowners of Tamar Petroleum, you might say that I affect 31.25% of the reservoir.”
Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on June 25, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
