Iraq’s Tight Margins Take Toll On Foreign Majors

...Iraq gives some of the tightest margins of any Mena oil producer, and it shows. The largest majors operating in Iraq netted barely 250,000 b/d of crude in 2018 (see table). And that was down from around 350,000 b/d in 2017.  This is largely due to Baghdad’s technical service contracts (TS...

South Korea 2Q19 Crude & Condensate Imports ('000 B/D): Middle East Share Up Quarter-On-Quarter But Still Down On 2017 Levels

Qatar Investments Win Trump Approval

...Qatari Emir Tamim Al Thani can be pleased with the results of this week’s trip to the US, where he received glowing praise from President Donald Trump. The emirate has been assiduously courting support from potential allies since its neighbors imposed an embargo in June 2017 and appears to ha...

Algeria Adding Powergen Capacity, But Big CCGT Progress Piecemeal

...kely a long way down the line: 1.44GW Bellara and 1.38GW Oumache are not mentioned in the new 2018 annual report of lead contractor Korea’s Hyundai E&C, but former Sonelgaz head Muhammad Arkab – now energy minister –said Oumache would be operational by 2020 (MEES, 24 November 2017). Korean contractor Sa...

Egypt Refining Projects Inching Forward As Subsidy Cuts Curb Consumption

...rformance of the refinery, to produce light products including almost 50,000 b/d of low sulfur diesel and 12,000 b/d of reformate, which is a key gasoline blending component. The $4.3bn ERC plant was originally scheduled to start up in first quarter 2017, but construction was delayed and at times halted be...

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...

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...

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...