Egypt Posts First Gas Output Rise In Three Years

...d-2023, though still well shy of the record 921mn cfd posted in 1Q 2014.  EGYPT GAS OUTPUT (BN CFD): Q3 OUTPUT REBOUNDS TO 4.20BN CFD FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT DRILLING. CAN IT BE SUSTAINED? *INCLUDES OFFSHORE, ‘EASTERN DESERT’ (GOS WEST BANK) & SINAI (E BANK). SOURCE: EGYPT PETROLEUM MI...

Algeria Launches ‘Bid Round 2024’: Still Plenty Of Unanswered Questions

...geria. The acreage looks impressive, and with majors and other IOCs already beating a path to Algiers, the country will surely do better than its previous flopped bid round way back in 2014 (MEES, 3 October 2014). However, interested parties will still have plenty of questions as to what exactly is be...

Korea Crude Imports: Saudi Dominant With Mideast Share At 5-Year High

...pplier spot behind the USA (down 1% at 336,000 b/d). This puts the UAE on track for the highest annual figure since 2014’s 299,000 b/d.   *Number five Iraq was up fractionally at 251,000 b/d for 9M 2023. The other big gainer was Qatar, up 56% at 215,000 b/d, albeit versus 2022’s 20-year lo...

Libya: Equinor Offshore Mou

...0,000 b/d capacity, with Equinor netting a princely 6,600 b/d. Mabruk has a nominal 30,000 b/d capacity but has been shut in since IS-affiliated militants overran the facilities in 2014 though Total says it is hopeful of a restart before the end of 2023 (MEES, 31 March). LIBYA: OFFSHORE OIL & GAS ASSETS...

Iraq: New Akkas Gas Plant

...livering the 300km transmission line from the station to the border (MEES, 17 June). The 2013 built plant was rehabilitated starting early 2020 after it was destroyed by ISIS in 2014. In August, Oil Ministry subsidiary State Company for Oil Projects (SCOP) was working on laying a 30km 16-inch pipeline be...

Asian LNG Prices ($/mn btu): Spot Prices Soar To Over $30/mn btu, Average Chinese Price Highest Since 2014

China LNG Imports Soar, Prices At 7-Year High

...s well above Korea’s $11.36/mn BTU and China’s highest monthly price since 2014....

China Crude Imports: Mideast Volumes Hit Record Highs

...r full data).   CHINA CRUDE IMPORTS ('000 B/D): MIDEAST VOLUMES AT RECORD HIGH FOR 9M21 SOURCE: CHINA CUSTOMS, MEES CALCULATIONS.   The Middle East’s share of the China market peaked at 52% in 2014 but slid in the following years amid record volumes from the likes of Br...

Russia’s Tatneft Returns To Libya

...’, as well as three onshore blocks in the Ghadames Basin known as ‘Area 64’.   Another potential returnee is Polish state oil firm PGNiG which was forced to cut short an exploration program on its Area 113 concession in 2014 and had appeared to be on the cusp of exiting the country co...

Egypt Gas Market Tightens As Fuel Oil Burn Returns

...oothly since an extended 2019 shutdown for repairs, and before that chronic 2014-16 gas shortages (MEES, 17 May 2019), it is worth noting that Q2’s 268,000 tons of methanol output was well down on the average of around 300,000 tons for the preceding three quarters. Whilst the firm’s most recent results in...

Kuwait Oil Company Capacity Slumps To 12-Year Low

...pacity dropped to 1.391mn b/d, down by 97,000 b/d from 2019-20’s 1.488mn b/d for a cumulative loss of 320,000 b/d over the past five years (see chart 3). BP was brought in during 2014 (MEES, 14 November 2014) under a technical service agreement – later upgraded to an enhanced technical service agreement (ET...

Eni’s Zohr Under Threat From Water Infiltration

...2.7bn cfd was raised to 3.2bn cfd at the behest of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as Egypt suffered gas shortages between 2014-2017, causing countrywide power cuts. In June last year at a conference in Cairo delegates warned that over-drilling could result in the reservoir’s collapse but th...

Korea Crude Imports 6-Year Low, Taiwan Lowest In Decades

...e lowest annual figure since 2014. MIDEAST SLUMP            Not only are Korean imports down but Middle East volumes are down further, by 10% for the first nine months of 2020 with Korea taking an 11-year low of just 1.68mn b/d from the Middle East in September. The region’s share of th...

SEC $80bn Debt Dilemma

...reement with seven Saudi banks for SR9bn ($2.4bn) to finance “general corporate purposes including capital expenditure.” Overall, SEC has raised $51.3bn since July 2007, mainly through sukuk and bank loans. The largest loan by far, of $13.2bn, was granted by the Ministry of Finance in March 2014 (ME...

Yemen: Second State Firm Restarts Production

...ar that production had once again started at its Block 9 which produced 6,000 b/d before the security situation deteriorated in 2014 (MEES, 17 May). But of all these, Safer’s return, reported by Reuters, could prove to be the most consequential yet. For one thing, Block 18 is amongst the most vi...

Back To The Future: Rehabilitation Of Red Sea Terminal Boosts Saudi Export Flexibility

...s been some time coming. Aramco’s 2014 Annual Review said “we completed 90% of the design package to de-mothball and integrate the Al-Mu’ajjiz Terminal.” Mr Qahtani, in his May 2017 interview, said the terminal was scheduled to be up and running this year, although the firm’s 2017 Annual Review cast do...

Qatar Petroleum To Replace Oxy At Key Offshore Field

...da as energy minister and QP chairman in 2011 (MEES, 21 February 2011) and has accelerated since Mr Kaabi’s appointment in September 2014 (MEES, 19 September 2014).  When Total’s PSA for the 25,000 b/d Al-Khalij expired in 2014 the structure was replaced with a joint venture agreement (QP 60%, To...

US Permian Shale: Can It Maintain The Gains?

...ALE RIG COUNT: PERMIAN RIGS ROSE TO 485 IN SEPTEMBER, HIGHEST LEVEL SINCE 2014; PERMIAN SHARE OF TOTAL ‘SHALE’ RIGS HIT RECORD 52%, REVERSING Q2 DIP WHEN OPERATORS MOVED RIGS TO BAKKEN, EAGLE FORD   US ‘DUC’ COUNT SOARS PAST 8,000: WHILST OPERATORS CONTINUE TO DRILL WELLS, COMPLETIONS HA...

Syria: Gas Output At 75% Pre-War Levels, Oil Recovery Lags

...agnation but also the exodus of some seven million Syrians abroad. OIL: FROM BAD TO WORSE   Syria’s oil outlook was precarious even before the conflict broke out, and then government-controlled output fell to 9,000 b/d by 2014. Natural declines had nearly halved output and poor contract conditions al...

Iraq Sends Record Volumes To Its Refineries

...finery – once the country’s largest at 310,000 b/d capacity prior to being overrun by the Islamic State in 2014 (MEES, 26 September 2014). Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi announced the rehabilitation of the refinery’s 70,000 b/d Salahuddin-2 unit on 9 September, although it is unlikely that it is capable of op...