SK Inks Tabriz Refinery Deal As Korean Investment Hits $19bn

...re need of upgrade and modernization.” The upgrade is intended to reduce Tabriz’s fuel oil output to 2% of total production. One of the aims of Iran’s refinery upgrade program is to reduce the need for gasoline imports, which averaged 49,000 b/d in 2016 and 64,000 b/d in the first four months of 2017...

Iran’s Rohani Targets More Foreign Investment, Shadow Lenders

...eraged 3.8mn b/d compared to 2.85mn b/d in 2015 (MEES, 4 August). Latest Central Bank of Iran (CBI) statistics show that real GDP grew at 12.5% for the Iranian year ending 20 March 2017, driven by the rise in oil production. But the economy in general is still suffering from lack of liquidity, large de...

Italy Crude Imports ('000 B/D): Iran Overtakes Iraq & Saudi Arabia As Top Middle East Supplier In 2017

US Output: New Records, But Gains Slow

...1H 2018 – reflecting the delayed impact of the recent drilling slowdown (see p7) – before breaking 10mn b/d for the first time in November 2018, in line with previous projections. •  2017 output is now forecast at 9.345mn b/d, just below 2015’s 9.409mn b/d, before rising to 9.911mn b/d for 20...

Eni Output Down In Q2 But On Course To Meet 2015 Levels

...ws (MEES, 5 August). For instance, on 24 May it declared force majeure on the Brass River crude stream following a pipeline attack. Speaking on the firm’s 29 July Q2 earnings call, CEO Claudio Descalzi attempted to paint a positive picture for investors, looking ahead to 2017 when the firm ex...

KRG Struggling To Make IOC Payments As Prepayments Dry Up

...s committed to. Production is expected to average around 5,000 b/d in the second half of the year. The Sarqala-2 well will provide an output boost, but won’t be spudded until H1 2017. There has been no update on Western Zagros’ other Kurdistan asset, the Repsol-operated Kurdamir block. A field de...

Iran Lines Up Linde To Design Cracker In Giant 12th Olefin Complex

...% by private firm Parsian Oil and Gas, 40% by the government’s Teachers Investment Fund and 2% by private investment firm Hamun Sepahan. Work on the 12th Olefin plant was originally intended to start in 2012, with a view to production start-up in 2017. However, state-owned National Petrochemical Co...

Morocco Wind Farm Award

...the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). EBRD and Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur (BMCE) provided €126mn ($140.9mn) in equal tranches (MEES, 13 November 2015). Vestas says that delivery of the turbines is scheduled for the second quarter of 2017, with commissioning ex...

Temporary Oil Market Balancing Offset by Record Stocks

...mporary. Not just is supply set to overtake demand again in Q4 as refinery maintenance steps up, but the IEA has revised down its expected demand growth rate for 2017 on the back of weakening global economic growth forecasts. The IEA’s July Oil Market Report (OMR) expects demand growth of 1.42mn b/d this ye...

Algeria’s Trade Balance Worsens As Government Ponders Austerity Policy

...onomy, including renewable energy sources, agro-industries, and hydrocarbon and mining downstream industries, the cabinet statement said. The Finance Ministry projects growth at 3.5% in 2016 and 4% in 2017, under the new model. Algeria has already taken some austerity measures by cutting energy su...

WND Advances With Contract Award

...ter, are slated to produce 600mn cfd from late 2017. They are the furthest east of the five key fields to be developed as part of the WND project. As such they are the nearest to BG’s existing WDDM offshore infrastructure and will be connected to BG’s existing offshore Burullus tie-in structure via do...

Algeria Fields Start Up

...m, IPIC – 40%. The two projects have been subject to multi-year delays (MEES, 20 February).  The next oil project scheduled to come online in 2017 is the Central Area Field Complex operated by Eni in the Berkine basin (MEES, 29 May). Algeria’s $90bn 2015-19 upstream spending plan of...

EU-Algiers Political Efforts Out Of Touch With Market Realities

...cording to the IEA’s estimates, way below Sonatrach’s claims that the country can export 65 bcm/year by 2017 (MEES, 5 June). THE LNG FACTOR The IEA expects gas demand from its European members (most  EU countries, plus Norway, Switzerland and Turkey) to edge up to an annual 500 bcm by 2020, up 18 bc...

Egypt Signs Deals For CDU, Diesel Units In Push To Meet Rising Demand

...siut 25 Vapor Recovery Unit (LPG) 3,900 2016 Suez 36.5 Vapor Recovery Unit (LPG) 1,500 2017 Su...

Egypt Powers Ahead With Electricity Expansion

...ll cost €100mn ($110mn) to build and is scheduled for start-up in 2017. Edison, like all foreign oil and gas producers in Egypt, has suffered delayed payments in recent years. But the company says recent normalization of payments by EGAS has persuaded it to start building a third production pl...

Iran Plans March Azar Start-Up

...anian year (20 March 2016-20 March 2017), senior reservoir engineer Keyvan Yarahmadi says. The field is thought to be a continuation of Iraq’s 3bn barrel Badra field which is operated by Russia’s Gazprom Neft. Current Badra output is 27,000-28,000 b/d, up from 15,000 b/d last year - though this is so...

Shell And BP Step Back From ADCO

...velopment of Adco’s cluster of 15 principal oil fields, which are expected to produce 1.8mn b/d by 2017. Earlier reports had suggested that Shell and BP were trying to negotiate better terms with Adnoc, but Mr Dudley’s remarks suggest that the state-owned UAE oil company was not in the mood to ba...

Sadara To Supply Juffali Plant With MDI

...ongside the Sadara petrochemicals complex. Juffali plans to start up a new plant in PlasChem in the first half of 2017. Sadara says the new Juffali facility will consist of several manufacturing plants producing specialty chemicals for use within the kingdom. Some units will be fed directly by Sadara, ot...

Israel Closes $1bn Solar Financing

...e 121MW CSP project last year (MEES, 18 July 2014). Megalim laid the cornerstone for the 121MW project in June, with a view to connecting to the Israeli grid in 2017. The partners expect the plant to deliver 320GWh of electricity to the grid annually. The plant will comprise a 240m high solar to...

Jordan Taps Bumper Aid; IMF Praises Energy Policy

...riff increases scheduled for early 2016 and 2017. In the future there might be scope for revisiting the substantial cross-subsidization of the planned tariff structure… We also stand ready to reinstate the full tariff increase of early 2015 should the oil price go above $70/B for a period longer than tw...