Adnoc’s Ruwais At 46% Capacity

...alysts’ call that “we see a ramp-up in the next two months.” Mr Seele noted that there have been problems with the residue fluid catalytic cracker at 417,000 b/d Ruwais West and that he was optimistic the shutdown would be used to improve RFCC reliability. The refinery was shut down in January 2017 af...

Eni: $7bn For Iraq’s Zubair

...ly 270,000 b/d when Eni managed to renegotiate the field’s production plateau target (PPT) from 1.2mn b/d to 850,000 b/d in 2013 (MEES, 31 May 2013). Output hit 400,000 b/d in September 2016 fol­lowing a production capacity increase to 660,000 b/d, encouraging Eni in early 2017 to set production ta...

Drilling Firms Boost Mideast Operations

...ertook that of number two, Halliburton, but a 10% decline, “driven primarily by seasonality across most businesses”, saw it fall to $5.62bn and back into third place.  SERVICES FIRMS 1Q19 REVENUE ($BN): REVENUES DIP QUARTER-ON-QUARTER BUT REMAIN FLAT YEAR-ON-YEAR *GE SUBSIDIARY SINCE JULY 2017...

Sabic Boosts Transparency Ahead Of Aramco Takeover

...grow its petrochemicals footprint. As well as enabling the kingdom to squeeze additional revenue from its oil and gas output, Riyadh sees petrochemicals as driving future hydrocarbons demand growth. Meanwhile, Sabic’s agri-nutrients output has been up and down and metals output has rallied from a 2017...

GCC Gas Burn Increasing To Power Aluminium Smelting

...en, which takes electricity from the second largest Saudi generator, SWCC with 7.81GW generating capacity, and the national grid. GCC aluminium production amounted to 4.8mn tons in 2017, equivalent to 7.9% of global output of 60.8mn tons. To power that output the GCC’s six aluminium complexes ge...

Saudi Government Posts First Surplus Since 2014 In Q1

...rplus being unique for 2019. Indeed, Saudi Arabia does not plan on running a balanced budget until 2023, having decided in 2017 to abandon initial plans to balance the budget in 2020 at the behest of the IMF, which was concerned that the impact that such belt tightening would constrain economic gr...

US Sanctions Hit Iran Hard

...eir return, as the mass protests in late 2017 and early 2018 highlighted (MEES, 19 January 2018). While the political leadership in the country is aware of the deficiencies in the economy, it has proven incapable of implementing suitable policies.     ...

Oman: Khazzan Boosts LNG Exports To Record Levels

...Oman’s LNG exports hit a four-year high in 2017. Since then the 1bn cfd Khazzan field has hit full capacity. With domestic demand lagging, 2018 may see Oman fill up its 10.4mn t/y export capacity for the first time ever. Two years ago, Oman’s LNG sector looked in trouble: output had tu...

PDO To Invest $5bn/Y To Maintain Its ‘Difficult’ Fields

...tential oil and gas capex savings. This would be a 29% cut from 2017’s $5.8bn spend, reflecting Oman’s stretched finances (MEES, 23 March). PDO is a joint venture grouping Oman (60%), Shell (34%), Total (4%) and Partex (2%). It operates Oman’s massive 90,874km² Block 6. This produced 650,663 b/d last ye...

Cyprus Exploration: Crunch Period Nears

...15. 11 Jan13 Total 50%op, Eni 50% July ‘17 well hit sub-commercial gas. Eni farm-in March 2017...

Damietta Restart Key To Zohr Exports-Eni

...G under a deal struck that year between Shell and Egyptian state firm EGPC. For 2017 the plant exported 12 cargoes totaling 780,000 tons, according to the recently-released 2017 report of LNG importers group Giignl. India was top customer with three cargoes (190,000 t); Kuwait and Japan took two ea...

Abu Dhabi Offshore: Dust Settled

...t out expansion in the Gulf as a key element of its expansion plan to 2025. The other key target country is Iran. The $1.5bn is a sizeable commitment for OMV, who already has a presence in Abu Dhabi through its interest in downstream JV Borouge (MEES, 17 November 2017).  ZAKUM: INPEX ‘ASSET LE...

Saudi Crude Exports To Key Customers (‘000 B/D)

...Q1 SAW SAUDI ARABIA’S CRUDE SHIPMENTS TO THE US REBOUND SOMEWHAT FROM THE 30-YEAR LOWS HIT IN 2H 2017...   ...JAPAN, WHICH OVERTOOK THE US FOR #1 IN 2015, EXTENDED ITS LEAD LAST YEAR. CHINA VOLUMES EDGED UP... SOURCE: OFFICIAL IMPORT STATISTICS, JODI, ME...

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Under Fire As KPI Eyes Indian Refinery

...ly appointed minister in December, having previously been chief executive of KPI (MEES, 15 December 2017). Among accusations against Mr Rashidi are claims he caused losses of hundreds of millions of dollars through delays in starting up the Vietnamese refinery. State news agency Kuna said this we...

Sabic and Exxon Kick Off US Petchems JV

...rm Kiewit, the other Taiwan’s CTCI and US firm McDermott. Sabic costs the project at $7.3bn, of which its 50% share will be financed through both internal and via external funding. The firm’s 2017 earnings were $4.9bn (MEES, 27 April). Initial engineering and construction work is scheduled to be...

Saudi Renewable Plans Thrown Into Confusion By SoftBank Power Play

...ar had agreed to invest $45bn with SoftBank (MEES, 26 May 2017), informed state utility Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) that it would partner with SoftBank to create the 2030 solar plan. However, SEC said only that PIF and SoftBank planned to launch a 3GW solar project in the kingdom in 2018. Pr...

Algeria Slashes Oil & Gas Investment

...Algerian state oil firm Sonatrach is finally having to learn to live within its reduced means. Key oil and gas figures for 2017, released by Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, CEO of state firm Sonatrach on 2 May, indicate that the company, which dominates the country’s upstream slashed capex by 8....

Egypt: $4bn Kuwait Relief

...tober 2017). This will afford Cairo some breathing space regarding its debt relief. With the $6bn from Egypt’s key Gulf backers rolled over, Cairo is now slated to repay $13bn to foreign creditors by the end of 2018, Mr Amir says.  The three creditor states rushed to rescue Egypt in 2013 with ma...

Benchmark Crude Prices ($/B)

...18 Q4 2017 Q3 2017 2018 (>3May) 2017 2016 2015 WT...

Iran Oil Shipments To Asia At 1.59mn B/D For Q1 2018 Are Down On 2016 And 2017 Average Volumes (‘000 B/D)