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End In Sight For Egypt’s Fuel Subsidies
...nce increased: after averaging $1= E£17.74 during the 2017-18 financial year it has been around $1= E£16.60 in recent weeks. Given that oil products are internationally-traded commodities priced in dollars, these prices largely determine the size of the country’s subsidy bill. Here Egypt has been ma...
Volume: 62Issue: 28Published at Fri, 12 Jul 2019 -
Kuwait Eyes Huge 2019-20 Budget Deficit
...nancial resources. The IMF estimates that debt fell from 20.7% of GDP in 2017 to 14.8% in 2018, but projects this rising to 17.8% this year. The implication is that the IMF expects a new debt law to be issued this year, and credit rating agency Fitch also expects “that it will get passed in time to en...
Volume: 62Issue: 28Published at Fri, 12 Jul 2019 -
UAE Certifies Reactor Operators
...NR awarding Nawah a license to start-up the delayed Barakah-1 unit. This was scheduled for start-up in 2017 and is mechanically complete but awaiting the insertion of fuel rods for trial operations. Three similar plants are nearing completion. FANR cannot provide Nawah with an operating license un...
Volume: 62Issue: 28Published at Fri, 12 Jul 2019 -
Pearl Steps On The Gas In Iraqi Kurdistan
...5mn cfd in 2012 before the onset of arbitration over payments in 2013 halted development until last year’s resolution (MEES, 25 October 2013). Condensate output has stayed around 13,000 b/d and LPG at 10,000 b/d. The $2.2bn dispute was finally settled in August 2017, and both parties are keen to ma...
Volume: 61Issue: 28Published at Fri, 13 Jul 2018 -
China Puts Oil Center Stage Of Middle East Strategy
...omoted to the cabinet and appointed First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense (MEES, 15 December 2017). Progress on the project would advance the deputy PM’s credentials as a potential future Emir. A number of bilateral agreements were reached including an MoU with the China Council for the Pr...
Volume: 61Issue: 28Published at Fri, 13 Jul 2018 -
EIA Hikes 2019 US Output Forecast; Exports AT Record
...tput topped 14mn b/d for the first time in February and 15mn b/d in May. It is now set to breach 16mn b/d from January 2019 and 17mn b/d from November next year. Average 2018 output of 15.14mn b/d would represent a record 2.05mn b/d gain on the 2017 output figure; production is set to soar by a further 1....
Volume: 61Issue: 28Published at Fri, 13 Jul 2018 -
Syria: Key Crossing Open
...rkey have decreased 25% since the closure, with even greater losses from Syria and Lebanon. Kickstarting trade will also prove pivotal to Mr Assad’s immense challenge of rebuilding Syria (MEES, 29 September 2017). The president recently estimated reconstruction costs at $400bn. The seven-year Sy...
Volume: 61Issue: 28Published at Fri, 13 Jul 2018 -
Middle East Downstream Eyes Bunkers Boost From IMO Rules
...ys. The IEA expects additional gasoil/diesel to come from the US, followed by the Middle East, Russia and China. Saudi Arabia has developed some refineries targeting overseas sales, exporting a record 516,000 b/d of diesel in 2017. Similarly, the UAE exported a record 92,000 b/d of diesel last year, al...
Volume: 61Issue: 28Published at Fri, 13 Jul 2018 -
Saudi’s PIF Increases Stake In Local Private Firm Acwa Power
...ma Foreign Holdings. PIF is slated to have a key role in achieving Crown Prince Muhammad’s Vision 2030 economic diversification strategy – aimed at ending the Saudi “addiction to oil” (MEES, 17 November 2017). Acwa Power’s finances and ownership structure are opaque. But disclosures at the time of...
Volume: 61Issue: 28Published at Fri, 13 Jul 2018 -
Algeria: Reserves Slump To 12-Year Low, But Country Has Bigger Problems
...e country’s finances. Instead Algiers has opted for the highly-inflationary path of printing money to finance the country’s expected $19bn 2018 deficit (a cumulative $80bn since 2014 – MEES, 19 October 2017). A temporary ban on a whole swathe of imports is Algeria’s other key ‘alternative’ economic me...
Volume: 61Issue: 28Published at Fri, 13 Jul 2018 -
Egypt Pledges To End Energy Subsidies Within 12 Months
...mbit came as they faced what could otherwise have been some awkward meetings with IMF officials. “Higher than projected” oil prices mean that the country’s fuel subsidy bill hit E£121bn ($6.8bn) for the 2017-18 financial year which ended 30 June, well in excess of the E£108bn figure targeted by Egypt’s IM...
Volume: 61Issue: 28Published at Fri, 13 Jul 2018 -
GCC States Double Down On Gas Development
...antities of crude oil. Big plans have been announced for developing gas resources in the GCC, but as yet drilling activity appears relatively muted, and most projects are years away from fruition. The IEA, in ‘Gas 2017,’ it’s five-year global gas market outlook, takes a cautious approach and sees more th...
Volume: 60Issue: 28Published at Fri, 14 Jul 2017 -
Delayed Projects To Shave Cumulative 80bcm From Algeria’s Gas Output By 2020
...gin production last year or early in 2017. In January, then energy minister Noureddine Boutarfa said that the project would be delivered by the end of 2017; French operator Engie’s website also says that “first gas [is] planned [at the] end of 2017.” But this could slip further, even if it is not af...
Volume: 60Issue: 28Published at Fri, 14 Jul 2017 -
Middle East Drilling Continues Unabated Despite Oil Price Uncertainty
...Drilling in the Middle East rose to an 18-month high in June with 406 active rigs, the most since December 2015’s 409 rigs. The rig count average of 401 for the first half of 2017 is a record for the first six months of any year. Drilling in the region has remained at near-record levels ac...
Volume: 60Issue: 28Published at Fri, 14 Jul 2017 -
Qatar Expansion Plans Shakes Up Race For 2020s LNG Market Dominance
...16 and 2022, according to the IEA’s latest five-year gas market report, ‘Gas 2017,’ released 13 July. With LNG production capacity already expected to exceed the IEA’s LNG demand projection of 460bcm by 2022, Qatar’s plans are expected to contribute to a raft of project deferrals or cancelations el...
Volume: 60Issue: 28Published at Fri, 14 Jul 2017 -
Cairo Advances Energy Sector Privatizations
...nk of Egypt (CBE) have been making to reform the economy.” The IMF says the 2017-18 budget, which was passed largely intact last week, is a “very strong budget… it will place public debt on a clearly declining path to sustainable levels.” Ratings agency Fitch adds in a 12 July release that “Eg...
Volume: 60Issue: 28Published at Fri, 14 Jul 2017 -
Egypt: Has Gas Boost Made Blackouts History?
...st-tracked to “accelerate gas production commitments to Egypt…before peak demand in summer 2017” (MEES, 12 May). With Eni’s 24 tcf Zohr field set to ramp up to 1.2bn cfd from November, Egypt has become increasingly confident of gas availability (MEES, 7 July). According to state gas firm Eg...
Volume: 60Issue: 28Published at Fri, 14 Jul 2017 -
Oman Cuts Power Payout
...Oman’s power regulator says spending on subsidies will fall by 10.6% to OR456mn ($1.186bn) in 2017. The regulator says this is thanks to a rise in revenue from electricity consumers following the introduction of cost-reflective tariffs for large industrial, commercial and government co...
Volume: 60Issue: 28Published at Fri, 14 Jul 2017 -
Oil Market Imbalance Set To Stretch Into 2019
....1mn b/d by the end of the year, the EIA still forecasts record output (see p14). While the EIA has left its 2017 forecast steady, Opec has cut its 2017 forecast for US output by 100,000 b/d from last month. The IEA is more cautious, saying that while “recent price weakness may lead the US shale patch to...
Volume: 60Issue: 28Published at Fri, 14 Jul 2017 -
US Output Growth: Records Tumble But Is A Slowdown On The Way?
...ergy Outlook (STEO), released 11 July. However, whilst the EIA leaves its forecast for 2017 output as a whole unchanged from last month’s report at 9.33mn b/d, it revises down its output projections for every month from December 2017 to the end-2018 limit of its forecast period. For 2018 as a wh...
Volume: 60Issue: 28Published at Fri, 14 Jul 2017