IHC’S Lukoil Interest Showcases Global Energy Ambitions

...cently, Abu Dhabi’s overseas oil and gas interests have been in a process of consolidation that now appears to have ended. In 2017, Mubadala merged with fellow state investor IPIC, taking on a broad suite of investments that sit alongside its wholly owned subsidiary Mubadala Energy. This left it as Abu Dh...

Iraq Plans Oil Prepayments To Alleviate Financial Meltdown

...uld exceed $20bn this year (see chart 2) – up from a $3.49bn deficit in 2019 and two small surpluses in 2017 and 2018. This prepayment deal will help reduce the gap, but only by a relatively small fraction.  On the oil side, Iraq is doing all it can to mitigate the damage. Its planned launch of Ba...

KRG: Chevron’s Sarta Online As Gazprom Eyes Sarqala Rebound

...Junior partner Genel Energy announced this week the startup of the Sarta oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan, the first new field to come online in the semi-autonomous region since Taqa’s Atrush in 2017. First oil from the Sarta-3 well is flowing to the 20,000 b/d early production facility, and Ge...

Israel Gas Output, Exports At Record Levels

...favoring Leviathan – in which they both have substantially larger stakes than at Tamar (see charts, p7) – in sales contracts (MEES, 10 July). Jordan has imported small volumes of Israeli gas since the Arab Potash plant on the Dead Sea began offtakes from Tamar at the start of 2017. Volumes av...

Energean Eyes 28,000 b/d Of Israel Oil Output

...eep decline: the 9M 2020 figure is down almost 20% from 2019 (225mn cfd gas, 5,500 b/d condensate: 45,500 boe/d total), which in turn is well down from 270mn cfd in 2017 (MEES, 4 August 2017). The key plan to reverse this decline is via the tie-in of the North El Amriya (NEA) fields to the north. En...

QP Announces Aggressive Upscaling Of LNG Expansion Project

...ld MEES in 2017 that “the winner in this business is the one which can remain the lowest cost producer…we are the lowest cost producer” (MEES, 8 December 2017). When it comes to the expansion, Mr Kaabi is adamant that “you have to make sure that you are going to be efficient in your construction, an...

Baghdad And KRG Sign Preliminary Oil Sharing, Budget Deal

...mo. The KRG’s independent oil exports have been a major bone of contention with Baghdad and a key cause of broader tensions between the two parties – including the 2017 operation to retake two of the KRG’s key producing fields, Bai Hassan and the Avana Dome, which transferred 280,000 b/d of production ba...

Abu Dhabi Goes Big On PV As ‘Nonconventional’ CSP Output Slides

...nventional plant. The data implies that Shams-1 has not performed as well as intended. In an AIP Conference Proceedings paper published in June 2017, Shams Power Company general manager Abdulaziz Alobaidli says “it was obvious from the very first day of this project that it will be very challenging” to bu...

Saudi Oil Export Earnings At Two Year Low

...Saudi Arabia oil export revenues came in at $15.5bn in September, the lowest level in exactly two years. The latest government statistics show that earnings were the lowest since September 2017’s $13.6bn, and were down from $5.9bn the previous month. This was of course an inauspicious month fo...

Egypt’s EETC Bags $200mn EBRD Loan…

...s the lead investor at Benban, after Cairo’s Ministry of Energy relaxed previously prohibitive solar development terms (MEES, 3 November 2017).  ...

UAE Eyes Early 2020 Nuclear Start-Up

...e Barakah-1 reactor is mechanically complete and being prepared for operation when the operating license is received from FANR. Enec intended to bring the four 1.4GW Barakah reactors online at yearly intervals during 2017-20, but FANR will not licence Nawah operating JV of Enec and Korean co...

Saudi Net Foreign Assets Slump Below $500bn In Wake Of Abqaiq Attack, Biggest Monthly Fall Since Jan 2017

Kuwait Oil Exports: China Dominant, While Vietnam Rises

...rea’s imports of Kuwaiti oil are already on track to fall to a four-year low of 411,000 b/d in 2019, while No.4 buyer India is heading for a three-year low of 209,000 b/d. Taiwan volumes are also in decline and are neck-and-neck with the 2017-level (see chart). Kuwaiti crude and condensate exports ha...

Saudi Arabia Must Look Overseas To Realize Gas Export Dream

...xt 10 years in its bid to boost raw gas production to 23bn cfd by 2026 (MEES, 15 December 2017). CEO Amin Nasser told the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) conference in Dubai this week that output currently stands at 14bn cfd. If accurate, this is a substantial increase on the 2017...

Wintershall Joins Eni In Abu Dhabi Sour Gas

...g (MEES, 1 December 2017). No surprise given that it will require “pipelines, islands, wells, you name it. It is a very complex project” according to upstream chief Abdulmunim al-Kindy. Adnoc is confident that its experience in developing the ultra-sour onshore Shah gas field alongside US firm Ox...

Libya Steps Up Drilling

...Zueitina Oil Co. Zueitina in turn groups NOC with OMV after the latter bought out Occidental (MEES, 10 February 2017). Current output is around 30,000 b/d. Occidental and OMV in 2007 had plans to boost production at Nafoora using improved oil recovery techniques. Years of war and political in...

China Imports: Aramco Claims Ring Hollow As Russia, Iraq Notch Up Record Volumes

...ades [with] Aramco’s Arab Medium crude oil a preferred choice for the plant’s baseload,” Aramco said in an August 2017 press release which commemorated Cnooc taking delivery of its first ever cargo of Saudi crude. This made Cnooc “the last of China’s three large national oil companies to join Saudi Ar...

Israel Bidding: Larger Blocks, More Interest?

...st two bids for six blocks, all located in the country’s northern offshore near existing discoveries (MEES, 24 November 2017). This time the Energy Ministry is grouping the 19 blocks on offer (eight of which were offered in the previous round) into five ‘zones’ – essentially meaning that five la...

OPEC Faces $200bn+ Question Next Week In Vienna

...rm or test new lows. After Brent settled below $60/B on 23 November for the first time since October 2017, prices have fluctuated either side of the line. The 2016 “Declaration of Cooperation” under which 24 countries (new Opec member Congo was not a signatory) agreed to cut some 1.8mn b/d ex...

SEC Plans Powergen Subsidiary As Step Towards Break-Up

...stern, central, western and southern regions. SEC was created in 2002 by combining GEC and the regional firms. However, the company has since continued to manage its operations through four regional units, whilst in recent years it has also reported sales revenues on a regional basis. Total 2017 SEC re...