Aramco Steps Up Multi-Billion Dollar Refinery Upgrade Strategy

...erica and Asia, and in late 2014 a clean fuels upgrade program was completed which reduced the sulfur levels in gasoline and diesel by more than 98% to 10 parts per million (MEES, 2 January 2015). Aramco is looking to upgrade its domestic refining fleet as part of broader plans to boost its liquids-to...

Algeria’s First Bid Round In A Decade: Will It Be A Major Success?

...Algiers is close to wrapping up its first bid round since 2014. It hopes to attract some of the largest international players, including possible country entries for US majors Chevron & ExxonMobil, and a re-entry for BP, with Asian and Gulf NOCs also a strong possibility. But one of the co...

Iraq Approves Mansuriya Gas Award

...riod. Mansuriya was originally awarded in 2011 to a consortium led by Turkey’s TPAO. Development was halted following attacks by the Islamic State across the province in 2014. Disagreement on commercial terms subsequently pushed Baghdad to take over the field in 2018 (MEES, 3 August 2018). Chinese state fi...

Egypt Output Gains Threatened By Mounting Receivables

...erating costs with substantial drilling and investment needed just to keep output stable. As such, several firms suffered near death experiences (indeed, some went bust) when oil prices tanked in 2014-15 and again in 2020. Having not fully recovered from the previous slump, spending and drilling were sl...

Majors’ Russia Exit Puts Spotlight On Mena Portfolios

...om its role at the onshore Wafra field located in the Saudi-Kuwaiti Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ), where it partners Kuwaiti state firm KGOC in a 50:50 JV. Last year represented the field’s first full year of production after being completely shut-in between late 2014 and February 2020 (MEES, 14 Ja...

Yemen’s Two-Month Truce Revives LNG Export Hopes

...vernment’s “demand for adjustment of revenue shares.” According to a 2018 report by Yemen’s ministry of planning, the country’s share of Balhaf’s gas sales reached $753.5mn in 2014 while Mr Pouyanné says that the “cash flow per year of Yemen for TotalEnergies” was “around $1bn” in 2015. With some 80% of Ye...

Saudi Arabia Pledges To Invest Oil Export Windfall In Economic Reforms

...P in the first quarter of the year growing at the fastest pace since 2011. Unsurprisingly, the surge has been driven by resurgent oil markets, as the fallout from Russia’s 24 February invasion of Ukraine has pushed oil prices above $100/B for the first time since 2014. The kingdom launched its Vi...

Sonatrach: A Return To Libya?

...andon its exploration activities on the Libyan side of the Algeria-Libya border in 2014 due to a deteriorating security situation. It had made a number of promising discoveries close to existing infrastructure up until that point (MEES, 11 June 2012 & MEES, 22 February 2013). Sonatrach holds 50% of Ar...

Neutral Zone Crude Output Ramps Up

...ich restarted in February after having been shut-in since 2014 (MEES, 28 February). The first exports of Khafji crude oil (28.5°API, 2.85% sulfur) were then made in early April (MEES, 10 April). Some 1mn barrels was delivered to China’s Shuidong, while another 1mn barrels was offloaded to another ve...

Algeria: Exports Down, Revenue Down, Outlook Dire

...tober 2014’s 171mn cfd. Volumes have bounced back slightly so far in April but at 572mn cfd are still the second lowest in the past five years (barring March). Algeria could regain some demand from both Italy and Spain later in the year when its oil-linked piped gas prices begin to fall with lower oi...

Adnoc Eyes Unconventional Riches As It Launches Second Bid Round

...rge new ones. The firm has broadened its partner-base considerably since 2014 as it replaced expiring multi-decade concessions. Last year’s bid round saw existing partners secure further acreage, but Thailand’s PTT was the only new partner brought in to the emirate. Previously Adnoc officials have fl...

Saudi Government Posts First Surplus Since 2014 In Q1

Oman: Khazzan Boosts LNG Exports To Record Levels

...0,000 tons from Oman, the highest volume since Q1 2014 (see data, p14). South Korean imports fell slightly in the Q1 compared with Q1 2017, down 290,000 tons to 1.2mn. The last three years have seen Oman move away from its almost exclusive dependence on the two import markets. In 2012 and 2013, So...

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Under Fire As KPI Eyes Indian Refinery

...rtamina for refineries in their countries, which would process some Kuwaiti crude oil. However, the projects have not progressed since as the parties have yet to agree terms (MEES, 13 June 2014). Most recently KPI has taken a 50% stake in the $7bn Duqm export refinery project in Oman, with OOC. The 23...

Algeria Slashes Oil & Gas Investment

...8% to $8.1bn last year. Algeria faces mounting economic challenges: its foreign reserves halved between end-2013 ($195bn) and end-2017 ($97bn), whilst the country notched up an $11bn trade deficit for 2017 taking the total to a cumulative $45bn for the three years since oil prices tanked in late 2014...

Oil Boost Raises Hopes In Libya, Perhaps Falsely

...Libya’s oil production ended April at about 760,000 b/d, up 50% from just over 500,000 b/d at the end of March, and the highest output since early December 2014. But such is the volatility of crude output in Libya that average production for the month of April as a whole, at 565,000 b/d, was th...

Iran: Condi Splitter Launch Promises Gasoline Self-Sufficiency – But When?

...January 2016. State refiner NIORDC expanded gasoline units at existing refineries with the aid of Chinese contractors and bulked out the fuel with additives from petchems plants – a practice that was halted because of growing pollution concerns (MEES, 25 April 2014). Gasoline imports fell to al...

Mena Renewables: Capacity Growing But At Half The Global Pace

...          2016 MW % MW % 2015 2014 20...

OPEC, Will It Have To Cut Deeper For Longer?

...15 2014 S Arabia* 9.98 -0.08 10.06 +0.02 -0.42 9....

South Sudan Looks Beyond Total For Block B

...me to nothing (MEES, 22 August 2014). Reports have suggested that the UK’s Tullow Oil, heavily involved in exploration in neighboring Uganda, was the latest candidate for the empty stake in the block. PRODUCTION CHALLENGE  Whatever happens with the blocks, it will not affect South Sudan’s pr...