1. Iraq Seeks To Reboot Northern Oil Sector

    ...e Angolan state firm on 2 February officially agreed to return to northern Iraq where it has a 75% operating stake (NOC 25%) at the Qayara and Najma fields (see map). Current output is negligible. but at its peak Qayara produced 20,000 b/d (MEES, 27 January 2017). Sonangol was awarded 20-year te...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018
  2. Iraq Drilling Hits 3-Year High, Abu Dhabi Sets New Record

    ...rrying about any commitments to Opec to limit output (see p9). However, Iraq’s rig count remains at little more than half of the record 96 seen in the first half of 2014 before Islamic State overran large swathes of the country. The UAE is another country where Total, in its 2017 results and 2018 ou...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018
  3. Iran Eyes More West Karun Gains As Investment Concerns Deepen

    ...eds $200bn investment, of which 65-75% ($130-150bn) would be from international firms. But to date, the only post-sanctions deal remains June 2017’s $4.8bn agreement with France’s Total and China’s CNPC for Phase 11 of the South Pars gas field (MEES, 23 June 2017). At the time, the managing di...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018
  4. Iranian Oil Exports Hit Pre-Sanctions Levels As European Share Grows

    ...Iran produced an average of 3.79mn b/d of crude in 2017, up 10.5% on 2016, with output reaching 3.83mn b/d last month. Not surprisingly export volumes are also up. Buyers of Iranian crude and condensate took just over 2.50mn b/d last year, edging above 2.47mn b/d for 2011, the year before US-le...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018
  5. Adnoc Plans $3.1bn Ruwais Upgrade To Free Up Murban For Export

    ...Processing Upper Zakum instead of Murban would’ve raised $275mn more in 2017. Abu Dhabi state Adnoc has awarded a $3.1bn contract for a long-planned Crude Flexibility Project (CFP) to enable its Ruwais West refinery to process 420,000 b/d of Upper Zakum crude, freeing up more valuable Mu...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018
  6. Egypt: Increased Gas Availability Boosts Petchems Producers

    ...d, with Eni’s giant 24tcf Zohr field the most recent addition (MEES, 15 December 2017). Canada’s Methanex, operator (50%) of the 1.26mn t/y EMethanex methanol plant at Damietta on the Mediterranean, has received full gas allocations since late-2016. A lack of gas forced it to shut down for se...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018
  7. Saudi Arabia Awards 300MW Sakaka PV, At Record Low Pricing

    ...dders range from the Masdar/EDF low to US¢3.27/kWh (MEES, 6 October 2017). PRICING CONCERNS  That Repdo shortlisted second lowest bidder Acwa and third lowest bidder Japan’s Marubeni with Saudi firm Khaled Juffali for the Sakaka project suggests the agency feels that solar PV pricing has re...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018
  8. Opec Steadies Production In January

    ...yadh is set to grow in 2018. January’s collective output was 560,000 b/d above the grouping’s nominal 31.92mn b/d production target – based on the agreed upon 32.5mn b/d plus Equatorial Guinea which joined in 2017, less Indonesia, which suspended membership in November 2016. Opec has never hit the ta...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018
  9. Saudi War Aims Stumble (Again) In Fragmented Yemen

    ...With Salih dead and UAE-backed forces attacking Aden, Yemen is ungovernable. The harder Saudi Arabia pushes for military victory, the more it jeopardizes a settlement.  On 2 December 2017, long-time strongman and former president Ali Abd Allah Salih abandoned his Houthi allies and called fo...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018
  10. Major Threat For Opec With Offshore Exploration Boom

    ...e years to come. This the same message that the IEA has been seeking to drive home since late 2015,  as it warns that “the recent spectacular decline in upstream oil and gas investment” presages “major concerns about the prospects for the adequacy of supply” (MEES, 21 July 2017). Based on ex...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018
  11. Will 2018 Be Year Of Recovery For Egypt Independents?

    ...vestment. Egypt oil output slumped to a 35-year low of 629,000 b/d in 2017, with output from the Gulf of Suez, where smaller firms predominate, falling even more rapidly (see charts and MEES, 1 December 2017). Signs that 2018 will see an uptick in spending come from capex plans of Canadian-listed Gulf of...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 09 Feb 2018