1. Libya Exploration Looking Up As Eni & BP Lift Force Majeure

    ...11. It again planned to kick off drilling in 2012 before instability picked up (MEES, 4 June 2012). BP declared force majeure in 2014, and in 2015 wrote off the $598mn it had spent up till then on “exploration and other costs in Libya” (MEES, 31 July 2015). Eni in 2018 agreed to take over as op...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 04 Aug 2023
  2. Algeria: Key Oil Fields At 20-Year Low

    ...eld operated by Spain’s Cepsa. From a peak of 470,000 b/d in 2007 and 384,000 b/d for 2014, the first full year of El Merk output, production has been in near continuous decline since, falling to just 220,000 b/d for 2020 and 175,000 b/d for the first half of 2021, according to MEES number-crunching ba...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 06 Aug 2021
  3. Egypt’s Key Oil Producers See Output Slump

    ...ill.” In particular the firm is eying “stratigraphic targets” similar to the 2014 Ptah and Berenice discoveries (see map) which have been central to how Apache has since viewed the region’s geology. “We’ve got some wells we’re pretty excited to drill. The nice thing about those is they’re vertical, on...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 31 Jul 2020
  4. China’s CNOOC Enters Key Abu Dhabi Concessions

    ...ES.   CHINA’S GROWING PRESENCE IN UAE UPSTREAM CHINESE EXPANSION               China is a key buyer of Emirati crude, ranking as the UAE’s fifth largest client last year. But Chinese firms were absent from the country’s upstream until CNPC dipped its toe into the waters in 2014 with the es...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 31 Jul 2020
  5. Iraq Crude Exports Edge Up In July

    ...opping 40% of oil revenues. Having posted seven consecutive quarters averaging $6bn/month oil export revenues (which per annum works out to at least $72bn), it is fair to say that Iraq has escaped the 2014-2017 mess of low prices and low revenues. The challenge now is even bigger: how does Iraq tr...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 02 Aug 2019
  6. QP Expands Overseas

    ...nce 2014), South Africa (MEES, 8 February), and, above all, in Qatar, where Total has 30% of the 300,000 b/d Al Shaheen field. And it’s not just upstream. Last month QP signed an $8bn US Gulf petchems tie-up with ConocoPhillips (MEES, 19 July). Following the latest deal, which awaits Guyana’s re...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 02 Aug 2019
  7. Now Or Never For Leviathan As Partners Re-Float LNG Plans

    ...d Belgium’s Exmar to provide a Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) study for the construction of an FLNG facility for Leviathan. This is not the first time that the partners have attempted to promote FLNG as part of Leviathan’s development. In 2014 Australia’s Woodside pulled out of a $2bn de...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 02 Aug 2019
  8. Israel Awards 12 Blocks

    ...though that is due to be completely sold off by 2021 as part of another antitrust ruling from 2014 (MEES, 2 January 2015). Edison early this year said it was relinquishing Royee but later committed to drilling the block by September as part of a deal with 70% partner Ratio, which would in turn take 15...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 02 Aug 2019
  9. Iraq Takes On Mansuriya

    ...nders in early 2014 (MEES, 28 February 2014), whilst later that year Islamic State attacks across Diyala province forced TPAO to halt operations (MEES, 10 October 2014). Despite a relatively high remuneration fee of $7/boe in the technical service contract, the stakeholders fell out with Baghdad ov...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 03 Aug 2018
  10. Egypt Goes West And Digs Deep In Quest For Oil Output Boost

    ...creases in Apache’s Western Desert output have come from the 2014 Ptah and Berenice discoveries on the Shushan and Faghur basins respectively, which were hailed as the firm’s largest finds in Egypt in 13 years (MEES, 3 April 2015 ). The fields now produce around 30,000 b/d.  Italy’s Eni, on the back of...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 03 Aug 2018
  11. Zohr Almost There As Egypt Plots Further Gas Gains

    ...velopment. To that end it has managed to reduce the money it owes the Italians in receivables from a whopping $1.64bn at the end of the first half of 2014 to just $354mn at the end of June this year. Egypt has even managed to pay off completely, receivables which were considered overdue. “The overdue am...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 04 Aug 2017
  12. Libya: Cautious Optimism With Output At 3-Year High

    ...Libya’s crude output hit 1mn b/d in July for the first time since 2014. IOCs hope for further gains – but continued instability means they aren’t banking on them. Most of the larger IOCs active in Libya continue to report headline production numbers ‘excluding Libya,’ even when, as has be...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 04 Aug 2017
  13. Algeria: In Amenas Gas Boost But Oil Set For Further Slide

    ...atoil, BG and Total respectively. All were handed back to Sonatrach during 2014 and 2015 after a failure to agree terms. Sonatrach indicated that it intended to press on with all three projects by including them in its 2015-19 development plan (MEES, 29 May 2015). Though its latest five-year plan se...

    Volume: 59
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 05 Aug 2016
  14. Egypt Puts New Acreage On Offer

    ...rapped Ukrainian state firm Naftogaz are among those active. The closing date is 30 November and Ganope will be hoping to mirror the success of its previous 2014 bid round with five of the 10 blocks awarded last August (MEES, 7 August 2015). Of those five blocks, last week, the Egyptian Oil Ministry fi...

    Volume: 59
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 05 Aug 2016
  15. Kuwait, Saudi Spat Over Neutral Zone Heats Up

    ...ould be borne by the Saudi government.” The Kuwaiti minister also argues that under the March 2014 order by the Saudi environmental authority to shut down Khafji, the joint operating company has five years to deal with gas emissions. The decision to halt operations with immediate effect was a vi...

    Volume: 58
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 31 Jul 2015
  16. Kuwait Awards $11.5Bn Contracts For 615,000 b/d Al-Zour Refinery

    ...yond early 2019” (MEES, 26 June). Once complete, the refinery will process heavy crude from the country’s new fields, KNPC Chief Muhammad Ghazi al-Mutairi said in 2014. The fuel oil produced at Al-Zour will be used at the country’s power plants, he added. While KNPC can now award contracts, the pr...

    Volume: 58
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 31 Jul 2015
  17. Iran Gets The Show On The Road For Contract Launch

    ...er since the IPC’s soft launch in Tehran in February 2014. The latest available information on the proposed terms were published by MEES last month (MEES, 19 June). Foreign oil companies have even been sending executives to the Iranian capital in recent weeks to learn more about the new te...

    Volume: 58
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 31 Jul 2015
  18. 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...

    Volume: 58
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 31 Jul 2015
  19. 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...

    Volume: 58
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 31 Jul 2015
  20. 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...

    Volume: 58
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 31 Jul 2015