Oman Smashes Records In 2018 With Refining and Gas Push

...om 171,000 b/d in 2017 to 220,000 b/d in the last nine months of 2018 and increasing crude refining capacity from 116,000 b/d to 198,000 b/d. State refiner Orpic announced technical completion in 2017 after years of delay (MEES, 17 February 2017) with a 1Q 2018  ramp up (see chart 1). The upgrade at So...

Mena Nuclear Power Plans Lose Their Glow

...Ruwais, is not expected before the end of 2019. “Nuclear is coming, but there will be a delay,” he announced earlier this month. State nuclear firm Enec originally intended to bring the four 1.4GW Barakah reactors online at yearly intervals over 2017-20. But state nuclear regulator FANR will no...

Kuwait 2019-20 Budget Envisages Bumper Deficit Amid Faltering Oil Prices

...vestment the key culprit. Mr Hajraf says Kuwait will maintain development spending at 17% of the total for 2019-20, some $12.4bn. An admirable aim, but one that ignores reality. 2017-18 was the closest Kuwait got to achieving this with 13%: for 2018-19 Kuwait is on track to invest just $5.5bn in in...

Pakistan Gulf Diplomacy Picks Up Further

...% in 2017), but Islamabad is seeking to secure lower prices (MEES, 31 August 2018). So far, Mr Khan has worked on balancing relations with its critical Gulf trade partners and investors in the face of the GCC rift. Pakistan has already bagged critical aid from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and is ba...

Global LNG Trade Soars To Record 2018

...EAST ASIA’S ‘BIG 3’ LNG IMPORTERS* COLLECTIVELY TOOK A RECORD 181MN TONS IN 2018, UP OVER 13% ON 2017. CHINA SAW IMPORTS RISE A WHOPPING 41%... SOURCE: NATIONAL IMPORT STATISTICS, MEES CALCULATIONS. SEE BELOW FOR FULL CHINA DATA.   ...TO CEMENT ITS GLOBAL #2 POSITION BEHIND JA...

Saudi Arabia November 2018 Oil Data ('000 B/D): Crude Exports Rise To 2-Year High As Record 11.398mn B/D Of Crude Is Supplied To The Market

...CHANGES EXPRESSED IN PERCENTAGE POINT TERMS WHERE ORIGINAL FIGURES ARE PERCENTAGES. *EXCLUDES FIELD LPG (650-700,000 B/D). **NAPHTHA REFINERY OUTPUT INCLUDED IN 'OTHER PRODUCTS TO DEC-2017 (479,000 B/D FOR 2017). ^PRESUMES ALL FUEL OIL CONSUMPTION IS BURNT IN POWER PLANTS. SOURCE: JO...

Algeria State Oil Chief Strikes Conciliatory Tone

...tput,” said Mr Ould Kaddour. Two other significant deals were signed in the closing weeks of 2017. On 20 December Sonatrach signed a $500mn deal with its two partners on the 9bcm/y In Amenas gas field, the UK’s BP and Norway’s Statoil. The agreement, designed to extend commercial production to 2035, wi...

GCC Dependence On LNG Imports Deepens

...Kuwait’s 5.4mn t/y (725mn cfd) Golar Igloo floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) is currently moored offshore Dubai as it awaits routine maintenance during its scheduled downtime. It’s in need of a thorough checkup after being put through its most rigorous year-to-date in 2017, when it...

Oman Rounds Out 2017 With Solid Export Revenue Gains

...Despite a ninth straight budget deficit, 2017 was a decent year for Oman energy. Exports held steady, revenues ticked up, and products output broke records. Despite crude and condensate output falling 34,000 b/d in 2017, and exports dropping 75,000 b/d to 806,000 b/d, Oman’s upstream se...

LNG As A Shipping Fuel: Can Producers Capitalize On IMO 2020 Sulfur Cap?

...ailable on a regional or local level, especially if there are supply problems or in the event of price hikes post-2020. In its 2017 World Energy Outlook and under its New Policies Scenario, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects the upcoming regulation to pressure demand for high sulfur fuel oi...

Egypt Refining Sector Start-Ups Will Reduce Imports, But Bill Will Keep Rising

...tput steady EGPC has only made sporadic upgrades to its refineries, which have been unable to keep up with demand. Demand hit a record 852,000 b/d in 2016. It has since dipped to 815,000 b/d in 2017 but that is in part due to Egypt’s attempts to phase out subsidies. Cairo benefitted in the wake of th...

Saudi Electricity Borrows $2.6bn To Fund Capital Projects As Debts Soar

...tibank of the US; Japan’s Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking; First Abu Dhabi Bank; France’s Natixis; and the UK’s Standard Chartered and HSBC. SEC’s growing debts may impact Riyadh’s long-planned privatization of the company (MEES, 22 December 2017) as might the focus of...

Saudi Arabia’s Shift Up The Value Chain Offsets 7-Year Crude Export Low

...ll in crude export volumes was more than offset by a 28.6% increase in the price of Saudi benchmark Arab Light and the shift towards refined products. Saudi trade data show that oil export revenues for the first 10 months of 2017 were up 22.6% year-on-year at $137bn. This is already above the fu...

KRG’s Creaking Political Edifices Struggling To Cope With Referendum Fallout

...Iraqi Kurdistan’s political scene has been dominated by two parties for more than 40 years, but the fallout from September’s pyrrhic victory threatens each entity. September 2017’s referendum on Kurdistan’s independence provoked a fierce response from Baghdad which has decimated the re...

Services Firms Are Looking Up In 2018: US The Key Driver, Mideast Solid

...2017 saw oilfield services firms shift their focus away from their Middle East operations to North America. Middle East resilience during the 2015-16 slump in upstream spending helped the top three global oilfield services firms Schlumberger, Halliburton and GE subsidiary Baker Hughes ke...

IMF Hikes Growth F’cast

...lcome news,” IMF MD Christine Lagarde says. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook update, released 22 January, pegs global growth at 3.9% for both 2018 and 2019, each up 0.2 percentage points from the previous forecasts made in October, and a rise from growth of 3.2% for 2016 and 3.7% for 2017. Fo...

Algeria Notches Up $11bn 2017 Trade Deficit; Total Since 2015 Hits $45bn

...geria cut its trade deficit by a third to $11.2bn in 2017. But dwindling oil output and higher domestic consumption mean that last year’s 23% increase in oil prices only translated into a 16% increase in export revenue. Export revenue continues to almost exclusively mean oil and gas revenue. Hy...

Iran’s Leadership Moves To Downsize IRGC’s Dominant Role In The Economy

...ash the number of Iranians receiving monthly cash subsidies of $11/person from 71 million to around 41 million (MEES, 15 December 2017). The commission also recommended setting a ceiling of 18% for pay increases; banning increases in tariffs, duties and costs of services provided by some branches of...

China 2017 Lng Imports (Mn Tons): Qatar Volumes Increase 50% From 2016, Share Remains Flat

Thailand LNG Imports ('000 Tons): Qatar Remains Top Supplier In 2017 But Market Share Falls To 60%