Egypt: Gulf Of Suez Oil Output At 40-Year Low On Back Of Lower Prices, Capex

...sues related to defective pumps.) Fellow Canadian firm SDX Energy (formerly known as Sea Dragon) has meanwhile cut capex from $18.0mn in 2014 (when it only had Egyptian assets) to just $5.7mn for the first nine months of this year – and the latter includes Morocco where it acquired the assets of ba...

Payment Problems

...early 2012 and remained at $6.3bn as recently as September 2014. Though EGPC made substantial inroads after this, by then collapsing oil prices had come in as a sucker punch. Though payment delays also affected larger firms such as Eni, BP and Shell, smaller Egyptian-focused firms were much le...

Aramco & Sabic Think Big With $20bn Oil-To-Chemicals Plans

...an Exxon’s 1mn t/y crude-to-olefins unit at its 592,000 b/d Singapore refinery. Started in 2014, this uses a proprietary design which “can crack anything from light gases to heavy liquids, including crude oil,” the firm says. Aramco and Sabic are eyeing the Red Sea Port of Yanbu as a site, al...

Libya’s Waha Ramps Up Output To 260,000 b/d But Challenges Lie Ahead

...6,000 b/d of crude. At the time this was the highest level since late 2014, when it was sustained only briefly. Marathon (16.33%) is one of three US firms in the WOC venture alongside ConocoPhillips (16.33%) and Hess (8.16%). State-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) has the largest share in the company (59...

North Africa Focus For German $15bn Upstream Tie-Up

...mes from the 110mn cfd Disouq field in the Nile Delta (DEA 100%). Output here was supposed to reach 200mn cfd but lack of investment has meant the German firm has been unable to arrest the field’s decline from 2014’s peak of 140mn cfd. The next regional addition for either company will likely come fr...

Iraq’s Unattractive Contracts Claim Fresh Victim As Shell Eyes The Exit

...newing its stake in Abu Dhabi’s onshore Adco concession following its 2014 expiry, this would leave it with just Oman, where it has a 34% ‘leading’ stake in dominant 600,000 b/d producer PDO, a source of currently producing Mena oil. On the gas front, Shell’s Mena gas exposure is also evolving. In Ja...

Leviathan Partners Line Up Funding But Still Short On Sales

...o most likely options – before sanctioning the project. This is clearly not now going to happen. The partners signed a letter of intent with BG (subsequently taken over by Shell) in June 2014 for the supply of 105bcm of gas over 15 years, an implied 685mn cfd, to the firm’s Egypt LNG liquefaction pl...

Traders Clean Up In Egypt LNG Import Tender

...lk of those with 25 (see table). Netherlands based Trafigura will supply 18 cargoes while BB Energy, Gunvor and Vitol will supply the rest. Egypt’s first LNG supply deal was signed with Algeria’s state gas firm Sonatrach in December 2014 (MEES, 27 February 2015) for the supply of six cargoes wh...

Oil-Poor Arab States Get Multilateral Finance Boost For Renewables

...ectricity from renewables. EBRD and IFC began investing in energy projects in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia as part of the IMF’s ‘Arab Countries in Transition Program’ which followed the 2011 ‘Arab Spring.’ This targeted these four countries plus Yemen and Libya (MEES, 24 October 2014). At the re...

Opec Agrees To Cut, But Questions Remain Over Implementation

...at Opec revenues are set to fall below $430bn this year, less than half of 2014 levels (see table). Oil prices reacted positively to the agreement and have risen around $7/B since the day before the meeting. As MEES went to press, Brent was just over $54/B, its highest level this year. Of course, fa...

The World’s Top Oil* Producer (Mn B/D): Saudi Output Recently Edged Past The US For The First Time Since Early 2014. But The US Is Set To Regain Top Spot Next Year And Keep It Until Shale Output Declines In The 2030s

Kuwaiti Opposition Gains Further Threaten Government Energy Policy

...afji field in the Saudi-Kuwait Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ) is being readied for restart. It has been offline since October 2014 as part of a dispute between the two over management of the PNZ, and the 200,000 b/d Wafra field since March 2015. With output split 50:50, this has denied Kuwait around 25...

The Political Implications Of Iraq’s Mosul Offensive

...sentment toward the KDP for abandoning them during the Islamic State’s 2014 offensive remains strong, and that when it comes to ethnic identity, views are diverse, heightening the complexity of this tinderbox of a region. Some Yazidis emphasize their Kurdish identity, others think of themselves as Ya...

Kuwait Seeks Silver Lining In Price Downturn

...oviders – in order to ensure that “when this recovery does happen, and it takes time but it will happen, that we are in a position to supply.” Indeed, Kuwait posted its first budget deficit since 1999-2000 for 2014-2015. The deficit was KD2.31bn ($8.0bn) for the year that ended in March 2015, whilst the bu...

Kufpec Charged With Bringing Technology Back Home

...rget, Kufpec has been expanding aggressively under the auspices of Shaikh Nawaf, following former CEO Nizar al-‘Adsani’s appointment as KPC chief in 2013. Although there was no production increase in 2014, Shaikh Nawaf attributes this to a focus on buying assets in the development stage. Some of Ku...

Libya: Could ‘Peace Deal’ Double Oil Output To 800,000 B/D?

...cent years, which culminated in an armed incursion into the Sharara field in November 2014. Unlike several fields in the Sirte basin, no major damage has been reported to field infrastructure at Sharara and El Feel. Field managers at Sharara said in December 2014 that the field was being kept ready to...

Repsol On Libya: Bad News Only

...erating income and €42mn off adjusted net income in the third quarter. The company operates the Sharara field, which has been shut in since November 2014 (see main story). The lack of exports from Libya cost the company $0.3bn year on year during the first nine months of the year, it said. Adjusted ne...

Egypt Looks Beyond Current Storms To Gas-Fueled Upland

...rrency reserve issue will be resolved within the next twelve months. Tourism, a pillar of Egypt’s economy, making up 12% of GDP in the 2014-15 financial year (ending 31 June), is also an important source of foreign reserves (MEES, 13 November). But with the 31 October downing of a Russian passenger pl...

Edison Hopes For More Zohr

...e south. Both are split 50:50 with Irish independent Petroceltic, with Edison operator, and abut the maritime border with Israel (see map above). North Port Fouad was awarded in EGAS’ 2014 bid round and North Thekah in 2013 bidding, while the firm snapped up the neighboring Northeast Hapy li...

A New Vision: Kurdistan, A Major Gas Province?

...itial 4 bcm/year of natural gas to Turkey from 2017, rising to 10 bcm/year by 2020 and with the option of increasing to 20 bcm/year thereafter (MEES, 11 April 2014). However, Mr Hawrami acknowledged that the KRG’s financial strains mean that the timeline would likely “slip by six to twelve months, to 2019 pe...