1. Leviathan Supplying Jordan’s DEAD Sea Industry

    ...oor. Leviathan already supplies Jordan’s state utility Nepco. Chevron’s other Israeli field, the 13.7tcf Tamar has been supplying the Arab Potash and Jordan Bromine plants on the Dead Sea since 2017, likely the customers for the new Leviathan volumes, with volumes which averaged around 20mn cfd last year.  ...

    Volume: 68
    Issue: 32
    Published at Fri, 08 Aug 2025
  2. Oman: Sohar Refinery Back Online

    ...at predate the plant’s expansion in 2017 (MEES, 17 February). Due to the outage, OQ was forced to sell 1mn barrels of crude on a prompt tender to load at the end of the month, according to Reuters (MEES, 9 August). A trading source says that the impact was limited and only affected gasoline ex...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 23 Aug 2024
  3. Oman: Sohar CDU Down

    ...vernment data. Capacity at the refinery expanded in 2017 from 116,000 b/d to 197,000 b/d with mechanical completion of a second crude distillation unit, a new vacuum distillation unit, and kerosene Merox units (MEES, 17 February 2017). It is unclear how long the outage will last, but lengthy do...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 32
    Published at Fri, 09 Aug 2024
  4. Oxy Hits Payday In Oman

    ...US independent Occidental (Oxy) is optimistic about the prospects at its Block 65 asset in northern Oman. Oxy was awarded Block 65 in Oman’s 2017 licensing round (MEES, 21 December 2018), with the asset lying in a crescent of acreage being developed by the firm running across the north of the su...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 32
    Published at Fri, 11 Aug 2023
  5. Algeria’s Petchems Push

    ...mething of a resurrection of previous plans that have struggled to advance (MEES, 3 February 2017). Of the two, one is a 1mn t/y mixed feed cracker slated for the industrial zone at the port of Skikda, while the other is a new methanol plant at Arzew for which previous plans stated a 1mn t/y ca...

    Volume: 65
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 19 Aug 2022
  6. UAE Extradites Former Sonatrach Chief

    ...rrant related to alleged corruption surrounding the December 2018 purchase of a 200,000 b/d refinery in Augusta, Italy from ExxonMobil (MEES, 11 May 2018). Ould Kaddour was Sonatrach CEO from March 2017 to April 2019, with his ouster coming three weeks after that of former president Bouteflika to wh...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 31
    Published at Fri, 06 Aug 2021
  7. 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
  8. Petrofac Scandals Weigh On Project Pipeline

    ...gust 2017). The London-listed firm also bagged a $1bn EPC deal in March to develop Algeria’s 2.2tcf Ain Tsila gas-condensate field (MEES, 15 March) – another key client seemingly unphased by Petrofac’s diminishing reputation. In Abu Dhabi it last month won FEED work for the Belbazem offshore pr...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019
  9. Aramco Restarts Malaysia CDU

    ...efChem partners have also begun processing imported naphtha to test the project’s 1.2mn t/y cracker (MEES, 5 July). Aramco paid Petronas $7bn for a 50% stake in PrefChem in February 2017, at which time it was called the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project. The deal enables Ar...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 23 Aug 2019
  10. Oman’s First Wind Farm On Test

    ...ew to achieving commercial operation “in the coming months,” Tanweer tweeted on 8 August. The project was developed by Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, Spain’s TSK and US firm GE, the latter of which supplied the farm’s 13 wind turbines. Financing for the $200mn wind farm was only completed in 2017 after the pr...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 16 Aug 2019
  11. Qalaa Hydrocracker Stake Shrinks

    ...the plant, built alongside the aging Cairo refinery to upgrade its residual fuel oil output into transport fuels. The ERC plant, whose capital requirement was estimated at $4.3bn at the time of project go-ahead, was first scheduled to start up in early 2017, but construction has been slowed by fu...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 32
    Published at Fri, 09 Aug 2019
  12. Qatar’s Kahramaa Targets Solar

    ...gust. Full commercial operation is scheduled for first quarter 2022. Qatar originally intended the project’s capacity to be 500MW and envisaged start-up in mid-2020 (MEES, 29 September 2017). However, gas-rich Qatar has been slow to recognize the benefits of solar power, with solar capacity amounting to ju...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 32
    Published at Fri, 09 Aug 2019
  13. Turkey: Iran Imports Down

    ...is was before relations between the two supposed allies deteriorated further as US president Trump reveled in Turkey’s recent economic woes (MEES, 17August). Iraq was the biggest supplier to Turkey for June with 157,500 b/d, the most since May 2017. Iran was top supplier for the first five months of...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 31 Aug 2018
  14. Egypt: Eni Strikes Gas

    ...serves.” Local media report that Eni is in talks with Shell to tie back the latest discovery to the latter’s 450mn cfd Obayed gas processing plant. Egypt is a key focus of Eni’s global upstream efforts with the giant offshore Zohr field coming onstream at the end of 2017 (MEES, 13 July).  ...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 35
    Published at Fri, 31 Aug 2018
  15. Oman LNG Taps New Markets

    ...Oman’s LNG exports* to its six key Asian customers hit a five-year high of 4.39mn tons for 1H 2018, up 3.2% on 1H 2017, in turn the highest since 2013 (see chart). This comes as the country’s gas production has soared to record levels (MEES, 17 August). These six key customers between them ac...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 24 Aug 2018
  16. Yemen: Japan Takes Omv Cargo

    ...ptember 2017), with output coming from state-operated Blocks 10 and 14 in the country’s Masila basin. Exports averaged 42,300 b/d in 2017 but a dearth of by-country import data since March from key buyer China complicates more recent estimates.  ...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 24 Aug 2018
  17. Total Exits Iran’s South Pars

    ...French major Total on 20 August confirmed its withdrawal from a $4.8bn 20-year deal to develop the 2bn cfd Phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars gas field (MEES, 7 June 2017), saying it was unable to secure a waiver from US sanctions (MEES, 10 August). Total, as operator with 50.1%, said in May it ha...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 24 Aug 2018
  18. Norway LNG Returns To Kuwait

    ...Kuwait may have halted its submissions of gas data to JODI – and of oil – but despite the dearth of data, summer imports of LNG for power generation show no sign of easing. While Qatar has traditionally been the dominant supplier, providing 43% of the 3.5mn ton total in 2017, Kuwait has so...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 24 Aug 2018
  19. Korea: Iran Vols Steady, For Now

    ...South Korea imported 185,000 b/d of crude and condensate from Iran in July, up slightly on May and June but down substantially on both the first four months of 2018 (285,000 b/d) and 2017 as a whole, when Korea was Iran’s #3 customer taking 361,000 b/d. Imports can be expected to fall to zero fo...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 17 Aug 2018
  20. Caspian Five Sign Historic Deal

    ...erbaijan have the lion’s share. Iran’s Caspian reserves are relatively small, although very little exploration has taken place so far. Iran has also received cross-Caspian cargoes of Turkmen crude in a ‘swap’ deal which was revived last year (MEES, 13 October 2017).  ...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 17 Aug 2018