Saudi Budget Deficit Swells To Largest Since 2021

...er the same period, despite capital investments falling by $1.8bn to a two-year low of $7.4bn. These all combined to push the budget deficit up to $15.7bn, which was the highest quarterly figure since 4Q 2021’s $18.2bn. Indeed, it is the worst start to the year since 2016, at the height of the 2014...

Gulf Rig Count Surges As Services Firms Eye More To Come

...WN ON 2014-2019 LEVELS   3: ABU DHABI’S RIG-COUNT HIT A 3-YR HIGH 56 FOR APRIL WITH THE 42 ONSHORE RIGS WITHIN FIVE OF 2019’S RECORD   4: QATAR HAS BEEN STEPPING UP GAS DRILLING AS NORTH FIELD EXPANSION WORK GATHERS PACE SOURCE: BAKER HUGHES.   5: KUWAIT’S RI...

Tatneft Libya Find

...opped to two for much of 2022 with port and field shut-ins, relative stability in recent months has seen drilling activity bounce back with Baker Hughes recording 14 active rigs for April, within three of the post-revolution high of 17 hit in early 2014....

UAE President Khalifa Bin Zayed Passes Away

...Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi, passed away on 13 May at the age of 73. Sheikh Khalifa had been president since November 2004 and was the eldest son of the UAE’s founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Since suffering a stroke in January 2014...

Eni’s Zohr Boosts Egypt Gas Output To New Highs

...PLORATION                 Russian state firm Rosneft, 30% partner at Zohr (Eni 50%op, BP 10%, Mubadala 10%), revealed in its 2020 annual report, released last week that “the drilling of a prospecting well” on the Shorouk block which houses Zohr is planned by July next year. Part of the original block awarded to Eni in 2014...

Yemen Set For Output Boost Following Petsec Transaction

...gistered Octavia Energy Corporation listed by Companies House was dissolved in 2014. Nevertheless, Yung Holdings is listed as having Yemen operations. In 2016, Yung Holdings purchased Calvalley Petroleum (Cyprus) Ltd, which is the operator of Block 9 (50%) alongside Indonesia’s Medco Energi (25%) and Ho...

India Oil Demand Hit By Covid As Saudi & Opec Import Share Falls To Record Low

...th Saudi Arabia’s market share falling to a record low 14.4%. Opec’s Q1 market share of 64.3% was also a record low, whilst the Mideast share of 56.2% was just fractionally higher than the record quarterly low set in 2014 (see chart).   *In volume terms, the 595,000 b/d that India took from Sa...

Yemen Takes Delivery Of Saudi Products Shipments

...started in 2019 and is currently running at around 10,000 b/d (MEES, 15 January). A planned second phase 400MW expansion was awarded to India’s BHL for $436mn in 2011 with work beginning in 2014 (MEES, 9 August 2013). The project was financed by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Sa...

Can Iraq’s New Government Weather The Economic Storm?

...l price, Iraq will burn through its fiscal buffers and we will see more social unrest.” “The biggest threat right now, and the one that can derail everything a whole lot faster, is denial,” Mr Tabaqchali says. “They are talking like this is 2014-2016 again and the difficult times will pass. So my...

Qatar Slumps Into Recession

...git growth up until 2014, it too has seen its performance decline in recent years, dropping to just 1.3% growth last year. Like its neighboring petrodollar economies, Qatar has been struggling to diversify, despite having its own National Vision 2030. Although the share of oil and gas in the ec...

IOCs Face Mixed Picture In The Mena Upstream

...e region looks set to slide further. Meanwhile, its overall Mena liquids output fell, ExxonMobil is pressing ahead with expansion work in Abu Dhabi. After its stake at the Adco (now Adnoc Onshore) concession expired in 2014, ExxonMobil’s Abu Dhabi output collapsed from 306,000 b/d to just 16...

Tamar Shutdown Highlights Israel Upstream Risk

...3 May during a protest against the continued blockade of Gaza, the worst violence the region has seen since July and August 2014, when Israel launched a ground offensive on Gaza. Whilst Israel’s defense ministry says some 90% of rockets were intercepted by Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ defenses, four Is...

Iran Threat To Nuke Deal As Exports, Revenues Face Collapse

...uters ship-tracking indicates a record 800,000 b/d. If correct this would be an all-time high, eclipsing the previous record of 798,000 b/d set in April 2014 and the more recent July-August 2018 highs of 770-775,000 b/d. That said, more generally Chinese imports from Iran are down: 475,000 b/d for 1Q...

Iraq Rig Count Hits 73 For April, Highest Since 2014 Oil Price Slump

Qatar Plans For 2019 Drilling To Fuel Massive LNG Expansion

...ceeded 14mn tons in Q1 2018 for the first time since Q1 2014, although March data is not yet available for India and Taiwan. The increase was driven by China, which imported a record 2.92mn tons, up 1.1mn tons year-on-year, as its insatiable appetite continues to grow. South Korea also saw a 780,000 to...

Saudi Petchems Sector Gets Oil Price Boost As Sabic, Sipchem Eye Expansion

...ar. And combined net income fell short of the bumper returns in 3Q 2017, which neared $9bn for the first time since crude prices plunged in late 2014 (see chart). State-led Sabic, the biggest Saudi petchems firm by far, attributed its Q1 income boost to higher average selling prices and sales vo...

Egypt’s Western Desert: Is Capex Boost Enough For Output Rebound?

...e second half of 2014. But the rebound in oil prices over the past year has seen key regional producer Apache double capex to $156mn for 1Q 2018 from the low of $78mn plumbed in 3Q 2016. With spending having averaged $154mn for each of the last three quarters, up from $83mn for the same period a ye...

Blow To Nuclear Deal Forces Opec Output Reappraisal

...5,000 b/d. This is due to the startup of the first 50,000 b/d unit of the Hammar Mishrif Degassing Station facilities (DGS North). This consists of four units for a total 200,000 b/d and is being installed by South Korea’s Samsung under an $840mn 2014 contract (MEES, 4 April 2014). Completion was due for 20...

Sonatrach Buys Italian Refinery In Bid To Plug Products Shortfall

...ficit shrink to ‘just’ $490mn for Q1, the nearest Algeria has come to breaking even on trade since oil prices tanked in late 2014. Export revenue rose 19.9% year-on-year to $10.72bn, with oil and gas revenues up 19.6% at $10.03bn (almost 94% of the total) – a seemingly impressive gain but actually less th...

Saudi Oil For Sudan

...man did not specify whether the oil in question was crude or refined products. Sudan’s crude production fell to just 75,000 b/d in early 2018, from 115,000 b/d in 2014 (MEES, 16 March). The country has been suffering a fuel crisis for several months, leading recently to increasing social unrest. If cr...