Bahrain Eyes Unconventional Oil For Economic Reboot

...ng Hamad Al-Khalifa in Manama in August 2017.  Manama has been eyeing the potential of its offshore unconventionals for some time. State-owned Bapco’s 2012 Annual Report said it was testing unconventional resources off the South West coast with “potentially significant implications for the Ki...

OMV Set For Adnoc Offshore

...abi, primarily in the downstream sector. OMV is a partner with Mubadala in petchems firm Borealis, which partners Adnoc in the Borouge joint venture, operator of three polyolefins plants at Ruwais, 240km west of Abu Dhabi city (MEES, 17 November 2017). It also has modest upstream activity. It pa...

Libyan Crude Exports At 5-Year High

...LIBYA MORE THAN DOUBLED CRUDE EXPORTS* TO 724,000 B/D FOR 2017. ITS RANGE OF DESTINATIONS IS WIDENING... ...BUT THOUGH CHINA TOOK 65,000 B/D AND THE US 57,000 B/D FOR 2017, OVER 77% STILL WENT TO EU COUNTRIES (‘000 B/D) *FIGURES ARE FOR IMPORTS TO GIVEN COUNTRY. LISTED CO...

Opec Output At 11-Month Low, Overshadows Latest Russian Gains

...Opec production fell to an 11-month low in March as “involuntary cuts” from its weakest members continued to pile up. Output averaged 32.14mn b/d, down 230,000 b/d on January and the lowest since April 2017’s 32.09mn b/d. March was the third consecutive monthly decline and so unsurprisingly th...

Algerian Crude Output: Temporary Dip, Long-Term Decline

...ll over 200,000 b/d. But output last topped this level in 2008. Output fell below 100,000 b/d for 2017, and was just 94,000 b/d in Q4 (see chart). Anadarko also operates the processing facilities for the nearby El Merk and Cepsa-operated Ourhoud fields. Collective output from these fields fell to 33...

Yemen: IOCs Eye Re-Entry Amidst Battlefield Stalemate

...Upstream return looks optimistic given lack of access to export outlets. With the third anniversary of the Saudi campaign against Iran-affiliated Houthi militants in Yemen the conflict looks ever more like a gory stalemate (MEES, 27 October 2017). With violence now largely confined to the Ho...

Iraq Eyes 70,000 B/D Refinery Boost By End-2018

...wnstream rehabilitation has included launching multiple greenfield refinery plans, but foreign investors have largely stayed away. As such, Iraq’s greatest prospects for boosting output in the near-term come from rehabilitating and expanding brownfield facilities such as Basra. In 2017 it brought back on...

Saudi: Ambitious Solar Push Could Spell The End For LNG Import Plans

...ll have spurred on greater measures than a more modest goal. His two most eye-catching domestic measures to-date are the Vision 2030 plan to radically overhaul the economy (MEES, 29 September 2017), and the $500bn “robot city” Neom (MEES, 27 October 2017). But, in terms of concrete progress, the om...

Sonatrach Slashes 5-Year Spending Plan: Is It Finally Getting Real?

...ar’s $75bn for 2017-21 and little more than half the $100bn planned for 2014-18. But muddying the water is that actual spending in recent years has seriously lagged the planned figures. Each plan has presumed that ‘one more year’ of austerity will be followed by four years of higher oil prices and in...

US Seaborne Crude Exports Averaged 1.16mn Between September 2017 And January 2018, China Top Destination ('000 B/D)