Nuclear Accord To Herald New Chapter In Iran Relations With Total

...e nuclear talks began in 2013, with the first coming in February 2014 (MEES, 7 February 2014). PETCHEM PROPOSALS Iran is also looking to extend its energy cooperation with France to the mid and downstream sectors, Mr Zanganeh said, as well as the manufacture of oil and gas equipment for do...

Lebanon: Political Intransigence Blocks Upstream Progress

...oved incapable of making important decisions on the country’s future. This includes a nomination for the post of President – a position that has been vacant since May 2014. In addition, two decrees crucial to opening up a potential bid round for acreage in the country’s offshore have failed to move fo...

Algeria’s Upstream Challenges In Four Graphs

...emingly written earlier) 2014 report says “the engineering, acquisitions, construction and preparation to have [BMS] operating will be completed in the first half of 2015, and first production is expected around July.” Again, production appears to have not yet begun. Cepsa has since 2011 been owned by Abu Dh...

New Suez Canal Begins Testing Ahead Of 6 August Grand Opening

...ninsula which borders the canal has seen hundreds of people killed since President Sisi came to power. The $8.5bn project was locally funded through investment certificates launched by Egypt’s central bank (MEES, 19 September 2014). An average of 49 ships per day traversed the canal during the fi...

Saudi Petchems Firms Double Profits In Q2

...lling prices of products for Q2 compared to the prices from the corresponding quarter in 2014 has led to a drop in profit, Mr Binyan adds. The same reason was given to the profit decline in the first half of this year against the earnings in the first six months of last year. Mr Binyan says that Sa...

OPEC Holds Ground After Russia Talks

...ergy demand growth, according to data supplied by BP. This makes markets sensitive to any sign of a slowdown in consumption in the Asian powerhouse. Growth in China has been slowing. BP says energy consumption grew by 2.6% in 2014. This, it says, was less than half the 10-year average growth rate of...

Syria: Territorial Disintegration Looms As Conflict Enters New Stage

...e year averaged 9,934 b/d, according to Syrian Oil Minister Sulaiman al-‘Abbas, virtually unchanged from the 2014 average of 9,330 b/d. This puts crude production at a mere 2.4% of the 385,000 b/d Syria was producing before the start of the uprising in March 2011. Gas production in the first ha...

Libya Oil: A Write-Off?

...ayed a substantial part in a 49% reduction in profits for the second quarter, compared to the first quarter of the year, and a 64% drop compared to the same period of 2014. Underlying replacement cost profit for the quarter was $1.3bn, compared with $2.6bn for the previous quarter and $3.6bn for the se...

UAE Takes The Lead In Scrapping Energy Subsidies

...nsumption of diesel and gasoline averaged 63,000 b/d and 73,000 b/d respectively in 2014. For 2014 as a whole the discount of pump prices for gasoline and diesel to international prices in effect cost the UAE authorities some $970mn. The Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc), the retailer owned by the Du...

Algeria Ducks Decisive Action With Supplementary 2015 Budget

...beit modest, cut falls on the capital budget, which is reduced by 2.8% (see table). The effect of weaker oil prices on Algeria’s fiscal balance is palpable, with the latest trade figures showing a deficit of $7.78bn, compared with a surplus of $3.17bn for the first half of 2015 (see table). The 2014...

Benchmark Crude Prices ($/B)

...15 2014 2013 2012 WTI 48.52 49.36 51.69 59.86 59.43 58.02 48...

Iran Oil Sales Slide In June, But Still In The ‘Red’

...ne, latest loading data show, down from 255,000 b/d in May. Indian imports of Iranian oil averaged 309,000 b/d over the first five months of 2014. Though both of Iran’s biggest customers cut shipments in June, it failed to mask the goal of both their oil import policies with respect to the Islamic Re...

Abu Tabul Commissioning To Kick Start Oman Gas Boost

...e block earlier the same year. “OOCEP recognizes the value of this tight gas reservoir, and has adopted a field development plan [FDP] with a target of first production by the third quarter of 2014,” the company said in its latest operational update. “Development of the Abu Tabul tight gas field ha...

New Gulf Refineries To Make Middle East Major Products Exporter

...rect crude burn is forecast to increase by more than 70,000 b/d through 2020,” says FGE. Already, for May 2014 (the latest month for which official data is available), Saudi crude exports are down by 800,000 b/d year-on-year despite crude production having risen by 50,000 b/d over the same period (ME...

Gulf States Eye Demand Management But Progress Slow

...mpared with current global thinking. The OECD’s International Energy Agency (IEA) says Middle East governments plan to spend a total $169bn on improving energy efficiency during 2014-35 (MEES, 6 June). Yet the IEA’s recent World Energy Investment Outlook warns that “energy prices are critical to de...

End Of OPEC’s Revenue Golden Age?

...OPEC OPEC’s Annual Statistical Bulletin (ASB) for 2014 shows its members’ oil export revenue for 2013 falling by 8% or $96bn from 2012’s record numbers. The US  government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that for 2014 OPEC oil export revenues will fall by a further $50...

Morocco Bags IMF, EU, Qatari Cash

...dustrial users and reduced the per-unit subsidy on diesel, with further reductions planned for the remainder of the year. Subsidies are to fall to MD35bn ($4.20bn) in 2014 (3.7% of GDP) from MD42bn ($5.04bn) in 2013 (4.7% of GDP), with a fall to 3% of GDP by 2017, according to the IMF and the Ministry of Ec...

Egypt To Extend Gas Grid With World Bank Help

...w Constitution,” World Bank Vice President for the MENA region Inger Andersen says. The loan to Tunisia is part of a $1.2bn 2014 World Bank financial package (MEES, 6 June). The package also includes up to $750mn to support government reforms and promote growth and job creation, $100mn for a cr...

The Future Saudi Role In Global Oil Markets

...intain this position. To answer the question we have to look at the call on OPEC in the medium term. It can be seen in Table 1 that up to 2018 the call on OPEC crude will follow a downwards trend and will fall from 29.7mn b/d in 2014 to 28.9mn b/d in 2018. To compare the call on OPEC with OPEC pr...

Iran Official Crude & Products Output, Consumption And Trade Figures To April 2014 (‘000 B/D)