Always going to be tough when you're bidding against the likes...

Always going to be tough when you're bidding against the likes of ENI, Total and Gazprom.

It's an interesting turn of events and hard to know what the implications will be. I certainly think the fact that the Delek-WPL consortium lost out probably does significantly increase the chance of WPL buying into Leviathan - though as both BB and Madrum said, that's not necessarily a good thing if it means WPL overpays.

Delek and WPL would also have worked together quite closely to put in this bid, which means building ties on both the technical and management levels. Delek will have a good idea of WPL's capabilities, and with Noble also reportedly preferring a western partner, WPL has to be seen as the frontrunner.

The only things likely to trump WPL will be either political pressure or cold hard $$$. And I think the political pressure will actually be fairly pro-WPL so that just leaves the latter.