Eni Discovers 1tcf Offshore Libya

...t to reach a depth of up to 4,500 meters (15,000 feet) once drilling is completed. Block 38 falls within the giant offshore ‘Area C’, awarded to BP in a landmark 2007 deal (MEES, 4 June 2007). After development plans were disrupted by the 2011 revolution and the ensuing instability, Eni took ov...

Saudi Aramco Plans 50% Gas Output Boost By 2030

...IMBS AT FASTEST RATE SINCE 2017 (BN CFD) *CONVERTED FROM BTU TO CFD UNTIL 2011. SOURCE: SAUDI ARAMCO, MEES.   2: SAUDI ARABIA OIL BURN* PEAKED WELL BELOW 2020 LEVELS LAST YEAR, BUT STILL TOPPED 1MN B/D OVER SUMMER (‘000 B/D) *CRUDE PLUS FUEL OIL CONSUMPTION. PRESUMES ALL FUEL OI...

Aramco's 2020 Capex Cuts Push Back Key Upstream Project Timelines

...ojects, which had been planned to come online last year, are slated to provide 175,000 b/d production capacity.   SAUDI ARABIA SALES GAS* OUTPUT HAS BEEN CONSISTENTLY CLIMBING YEAR-ON-YEAR (BN CFD) *CONVERTED FROM BTU TO CFD UNTIL 2011. SOURCE: SAUDI ARAMCO, MEES. GAS: TANAJIB SE...

Key Russian Investor Takes Over Syria Producer Gulfsands

...,000 b/d Block 26 on the border with Iraq.   *The fields are currently operated by Syrian state firm GPC after Gulfsands was required by EU sanctions to withdraw in 2011.   *Kroupeev has close ties to the Kremlin. Since gaining a majority stake, Gulfsands has reversed previous attempts to di...

First Oil For Libya’s Zallaf

...e 2011 revolution, with the first 10,000 b/d phase of the 50,000 b/d Sinawin project led by NOC subsidiary Agoco starting up late last year (MEES, 6 November 2020). Yet after years of inaction, Zallaf appears to be intent on taking full advantage of Libya’s brightening prospects for peace and po...

Egypt Power: Plentiful Gas, Falling Demand Make Shortfalls A Distant Memory

...mediate aftermath of Egypt’s 2011 revolution when the country was chronically short of gas, and thus fuel flexibility – the plant can also run on liquid fuels – was paramount (MEES, 5 July 2013). The next plant set for start up is also a conventional steam turbine plant commissioned when Egypt was st...

Adnoc Ready To Roll Out Murban Futures Contract

...mand in Fujairah. It can go from Fujairah to Asia, it can go to Africa, it can go to Europe.” With Fujairah emerging as the largest bunkering hub in the Middle East, storage capacity has expanded rapidly “from 3.2mn m³ [20.2mn barrels] in 2011 to more than 10mn m³ in 2018," according to Salem al-Ha...

Coronavirus Set To Crush North Africa’s Tourism Sector

...direct effects on supply chains and investment are factored in (see table). Egypt’s tourism sector was already struggling to recover from the chaos of the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’ when in 2015 disaster struck. Islamic State terrorists blew up a Russian passenger jet over the Sinai, killing all 224 on bo...

Egypt Refiners Hit New Highs

...tput (MEES, 24 January). Jet-kero output was a record 68,000 b/d in January, while at 173,000 b/d diesel was the highest since July 2011. Gasoline output was 98,000 b/d, down from December’s all-time high 103,000 b/d, while 87,000 b/d of naphtha was the highest monthly level since August 2017 (see ch...

Saudi Liquids Burn Edges Up, More Rises To Come?

...eir lowest level since March 2014. Products imports were down across the board, with the kingdom importing no diesel for the first time since January 2011. The upshot was that net-products exports were just shy of December’s record at 1.34mn b/d. And net diesel exports were at an all time high of...

Algeria Oil Project Delayed

...y investment efforts in recent years have focused on EOR at the country’s ageing workhorse Hassi Messaoud field. PTT (24.5%op), China’s CNOOC (24.5%) and Sonatrach (51%) were awarded the Hassi Bir Rekaiz block in 2010, firming-up previously-made discoveries (MEES, 28 July 1997) with a 2011-13 dr...

Spain 2018 Gas Imports: Record 19.5bcm From Algeria But Volumes Slide In Q4

...LF OF 2018: Q4 VOLUMES WERE THE LOWEST SINCE 2011...

Algeria Struggles To Maintain Gas Output Amid Project Delays

...ntract.’ Its expiry in 2011 saw BHP quit Algeria and Sonatrach take over as operator. The latest figures imply that by the 2020 start-up of the Tinhert fields, Ohanet output is expected to be just 5mn m³/day (175mn cfd, 1.8bcm/y). This is borne out by the most recent available Sonatrach data which pegs Oh...

Total Reasserts Position As Dominant IOC In Mena On Back Of Abu Dhabi Deal

...posure in recent years. Regional gas output, peaked at 1.46bn cfd in 2011, but suffered its fourth consecutive annual fall in 2017, averaging less than 800mn cfd. The biggest hit has been from regional conflicts, with no Syrian volumes since 2011 and nothing from Yemen since 2015. Combined output fr...

East Med Deepwater Exploration: In Search Of ‘More Zohr’

...viathan, discovered December 2010 by US firm Noble Energy, for the title of the East Mediterranean’s largest gas discovery. Leviathan and Noble’s other key East Med deepwater discoveries – Tamar the previous year and Cyprus’ Aphrodite in 2011 – were all of ‘lean’ gas (near 100% methane) in Miocene deep-wa...

Iran LNG Plans Hamstrung By Domestic Demand, Lack Of Foreign Cash

...located 32bcm to reinjection in 2014. Of course in 2014 (and 2011, 2012 and 2015) demand for sanctions-hit Iran’s crude was low enough that Iran could afford to slash reinjection and still have enough oil to meet demand. The corollary is that last year as post-sanctions Iran sought to ramp up crude output to...

Majors In The Middle East: 2016, A Year Of Consolidation

...tent of its ultimate stake in the combined asset is unclear.   As for Total’s Middle Eastern gas output, conflict outages in Syria and Yemen mean this is barely half what it was in 2011. And those conflicts are set to continue for the foreseeable future. The primary source of potential additional ga...

Fitch Downgrades Saudi, Increasing Headwinds For $15bn Bond Plans

...reign assets as of end-January falling below SR2 trillion for the first time since October 2011. At $524bn they are 30% below the record $746bn level hit in mid-2014 (MEES, 10 March). The country’s 2017 budget projects a whopping $53bn deficit, albeit down by a third from 2016 (MEES, 6 January). Fi...

EU Crude Imports By Origin & Grade 2011-2015 (‘000 B/D)

Iran, Iraq & Saudi Step Up Battle For Market Share In Asia And Europe

...ked imports from Iran in February. Korean imports of 267,000 b/d were the highest since 2011. For March, the key increment is the 6mn barrels of Iranian crude (just under 200,000 b/d) which has arrived, or is set to arrive in EU ports (see graph p9).  4: EU IMPORTS OF KRG CRUDE* RISE EIGHTFOLD IN 20...