1. KRG Project Delays Stunt Upstream Growth

    ...eld and Kirkuk’s and Avana Dome in late 2017, Iraqi Kurdistan’s upstream sector has since brought several key projects online due both to regularized KRG payments and higher oil prices. MEES estimates that KRG output jumped from 310,000 b/d at end-2017 to 492,000 b/d two years later (MEES, 8 November 20...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 28 Aug 2020
  2. Dubai’s Coal Push Upends Abu Dhabi’s Clean Energy Strategy

    ...January 2017). This plan is probably unrealistic, but it signals aspirations for a major change in energy policy. Examined closely, the changes suggest a fragmentation in energy policy. The UAE is simultaneously pursuing incompatible choices in clean and dirty power. Why? Some of the ch...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 28 Aug 2020
  3. Egypt Expediting West Med Drill Plans

    ...e country’s gas production. It has been a meteoric rise for the region after output bottomed out in Q1 2017 at just 38.1% of the national total. Output was first given a boost by BP’s 5tcf West Nile Delta project, when the Phase 1 Libra and Taurus fields came online in May 2017 (MEES, 12 May 2017...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 21 Aug 2020
  4. Jordan Moves Towards Electricity Hub Role With Saudi, Iraq Deals

    ...ans to also integrate with Iraq and potentially Syria in the future. Jordan’s transmission grid is already integrated with Egypt and the West Bank. No timeframe for the work has been provided and the idea of such a connection is longstanding. A similar MoU was signed in 2017, after Jordan’s el...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 21 Aug 2020
  5. Barakah 1 Reactor Connected To UAE Grid

    ...it 1 operators, preventing FANR from awarding an operating license to Nawah, which saw Barakah 1 start-up delayed from 2017 (MEES, 12 May 2017). Enec recently announced the completion of construction of Barakah’s Unit 2 and says that operational readiness preparations are now under way by Nawah. Me...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 21 Aug 2020
  6. Kuwait Faces Cash Crunch As Oil Crisis Bites

    ...ere is a high turnover of governments. One key piece of legislation which the government has tried and failed to get through parliament in recent years is a new debt law (MEES, 16 June 2017). Until this is passed, Kuwait is unable to emulate fellow GCC states and borrow in order to meet the budget de...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 21 Aug 2020
  7. Tunisia’s Oil Industry Faces Existential Crisis

    ...mour movement emerged in 2017 when protesters blocked the main oil pipeline at El Kamour in protest at lack of local investment and jobs in the southern provinces of Tataouine and Kebili (MEES, 2 June 2017). The protesters say the government has still not fulfilled pledges to tackle the issues (MEES, 26...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 14 Aug 2020
  8. Sabic Losses Continue Due To Tough Market And Impairments

    ...vestments in the 4mn t/y Sadaf cracker-based complex – in which it bought Shell’s 50% stake for $820mn in 2017 (MEES, 27 January 2017) – and its Ar-Razi methanol joint venture with Japan’s JSMC near the Gulf coast industrial hub of Jubail, which it last year extended for 20 years while increasing its stake fr...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 14 Aug 2020
  9. Abu Dhabi’s First Barakah Reactor Start-Up Points To 2024 Full Capacity

    ...ec’s control. When Enec began building the 1.4GW first unit in July 2012, Enec and Korean construction contractor Kepco envisaged the four units starting up at one-year intervals over the 2017-20 period. However, a scandal in Korea over fake safety certificates for some nuclear plant components ca...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 14 Aug 2020
  10. Técnicas Reunidas Looks To Move On From Jazan Fiasco

    ...ado predicts. RAS TANURA CFP: ALMOST DONE    TR adds that the latest $80mn Ras Tanura award is a “new and independent contract” from the $1.5-1.8bn clean fuels upgrade contract that the firm was awarded at Ras Tanura refinery at the end of 2016 (MEES, 13 January 2017). Work on this is “cu...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 32
    Published at Fri, 07 Aug 2020
  11. Ruwais Fix: OMV Upbeat

    ...uid catalytic cracker (RFCC) – one of the world’s largest – at its 417,000 b/d Ruwais West refinery. The RFCC was damaged in a fire in early 2017 and wasn’t fully functional again until last year (MEES, 22 February 2019). Even then, problems persisted. Adnoc implemented a general turnaround at Ru...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 32
    Published at Fri, 07 Aug 2020
  12. BP, Shell Step Up Egypt Offshore Action

    ...the east. At North Damietta’s Atoll field, BP plans to drill a fourth development well in 1Q 2020 hiking output from 300mn cfd to 400mn cfd. Discovered in 2015, ‘Phase-1’ Atoll output began in December 2017. Development is also ongoing at the nearby Qattameya field, discovered in March 2017...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019
  13. Algeria Touat: Imminent

    ...mpleted in 2016 (MEES, 25 August 2017). The Touat delay has forced Neptune to revise down its overall net output guidance for the year to 150-155,000 boe/d from 155,000 boe/d targeted in its Q1 results. Neptune’s 35% project stake will give it “around 16,000 boe/d net production at plateau,” a level th...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019
  14. Total Lauds Latest QP Tie Ups

    ...ighboring blocks 2913B and 2912. QP will take 30% of Block 2913B, with Total retaining a 40% operating stake alongside private firm Impact Oil (20%) and state firm Namco (10%). The block lies 150km west of (ie further offshore from) the Kudu Gas field and Impact says that 3D seismic data acquired in 2017 in...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019
  15. Mauritania: Total Wildcat

    ...cember 2017), and Shell with two blocks last year (MEES, 27 July 2018) also see Mauritania as a key part of their international exploration portfolio. As for the Pacific Santa Ana, following the completion of Total’s C-18 well, it will plug and abandon former production wells at the Chinguetti field un...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019
  16. Saudi Bags Growing Share Of Key Chinese Market

    ...finers Sinopec and PetroChina shunning Iranian volumes, the bulk of recent arrivals, imported by state trader Zhuhai Zhenrong, appear to have gone into China’s strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), in particular the 19mn barrel site at Jinzhou northeast of Beijing which was completed in 2017. Data in...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019
  17. Aramco Eyes Chinese Take-Away From Sabic Purchase

    ...e polyurethane components and other chemicals manufactured at the Sadara joint venture plant of Aramco and US firm Down Chemical in the Saudi downstream hub of Jubail (MEES, 28 July 2017). Indeed China, and Asia more generally, are also key buyers from Saudi refineries. However, the focus has be...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019
  18. Bahrain’s Oil Sector Optimism Spreads To Powergen

    ...ve existing grid-linked power plants delivered 17.8TWh of electricity in 2018. Additions from the Alba power plants and the GGC grid took total electricity delivered to the grid to 18.0TWh. Bahrain’s peak load fell slightly to 3.44GW in 2018 from a record 3.57GW in 2017, although the trend in recent ye...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019
  19. Saudi First Half Export Revenues Slump $6bn

    ...surprisingly therefore, oil revenues have fallen accordingly (see chart 2). They threaten to fall below $50bn/quarter for the first time since late 2017. The latest trade stats also further highlight the government’s struggles to end Saudi Arabia’s “addiction to oil” as Crown Prince Mohammad pledged in 20...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019
  20. US Slashes Tunisia Financial Aid

    ...18 and a 65% decrease on 2017’s $194mn, according to US Agency for International Development (USAID) data. Since coming into office in 2017 US President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for a decrease in US foreign economic aid.  ...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019