UAE's $1.1bn Israel acquisition "on track": sources

The UAE's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala is still in talks over its planned $1.1bn purchase of Delek Drilling's 22% non-operated stake in the Tamar gas field offshore, sources have told NGW. 

The sale had been due to complete by the end of May, a month largely taken up with warfare with Hamas followed by electoral intrigue. Mubadala would pay up to $1bn unconditionally and a further $1oomn subject to a number of terms.

Delek had to sell in order to reduce its large market share: Israel wants to enhance the competitiveness of its gas sector following its 2015 Gas Framework. Delek still holds a 45.3% stake in the Leviathan natural gas field, the largest in Israel.

Lawfirm Volterra Fietta said in a client note June 10 that the sale would be the largest commercial operation between Israeli and Emirati parties since the 2020 Abraham Accords which marked the normalisation of relations between the UAE and Israel.

Prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu was expected to be forced out of office June 13 when a new government, led by ultranationalist Naftali Bennett, is to be sworn in, but with a slender majority. For the first time it will include an Arab party.