1. Aramco Receives Bids For Hawiyah Gas Plant Expansion, Targets Gas Supply Boost

    ...velopment. Whether increased gas availability is contributing to reduced Saudi burning of liquids in power plants is a moot point. Certainly direct crude burning is declining: first half 2017 direct burn was 424,000 b/d, down 50,000 b/d on H1 2016. MEES forecasts that Saudi crude burning will average 44...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 25 Aug 2017
  2. Saudi Raises $3.5bn Sukuk

    ....4bn at end-2016, according to the finance ministry’s Debt Management Office.   Saudi Arabia is on track to cut its budget deficit in 2017. Actual numbers from the finance ministry show a deficit of $19.4bn in the first half of the year, which on a pro-rated basis would rise to $39.1bn for the full ye...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 25 Aug 2017
  3. Algeria Pushes For Late-2017 Gas Start-Ups

    ...Cash-strapped Algeria is hoping to start up key gas projects, and boost revenue, before the end of 2017 with over 10bcm/year set to be added by mid-2018. Algiers has announced a new timetable for the long delayed South West Gas Project (SWGP), a series of field developments on which the co...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 25 Aug 2017
  4. Algeria On Track For $11bn Deficit Despite Gas Export Boost

    ...esent a positive picture, at least compared to the disaster years of 2015 and 2016, when the country notched up trade deficits of $17.0bn and $17.8bn respectively, the two highest figures on record (MEES, 20 January). The first half of 2017 saw a trade deficit of ‘only’ $4.85bn, less than half the H1 2016 fi...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 25 Aug 2017
  5. Kuwait: Al-Zour Re-Award But Delay Likely

    ...hi Son, Vietnam (35.1%, 2017) n/a 200 70 Duqm, Oman (50%, 2021) n/a 23...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 25 Aug 2017
  6. Saudi Electricity Taps $1.75bn Loan For Capacity Expansion

    ...ternational finance market in 2017. Last year saw the company raise $5.1bn in three deals, an annual record if the 2014 finance ministry loan is excluded (see chart). SEC says the latest agreement is for a five-year ‘bullet’ repayment loan. Bullet loans require the entirety of the loan amount to be repaid at ma...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 25 Aug 2017
  7. GCC Currencies: To Peg Or Not To Peg?

    ...untries’ currencies are pegged to the dollar (in Kuwait’s case as part of a currency basket in which the US currency is the key component), whilst all except Oman and Bahrain are members of Opec. SAUDI STRETCHED Saudi’s budget deficit of $19.4bn in H1 2017 was covered from a financing package of SR...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 25 Aug 2017
  8. Oman Taps Abu Dhabi For Wind Farm Cash

    ...scat government are overstretched, leading it to raise $10.55bn of funding from the international finance market already this year (see p12), the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) is already lined up to back the $200mn wind project. Raeco originally aimed to have the wind farm online in 2017. Ho...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 25 Aug 2017
  9. Oman Set To Shrink Deficit, But Not By Much

    ...urces of finance in a bid to plug its 2017 deficit. It hit the market for a $5bn conventional bond in March (MEES, 10 March) and raised $2bn from its first ever international Sukuk in late May (MEES, 9 June). This seemed more-or-less sufficient to cover the OR3bn deficit ($7.8bn at a fixed OR1=$2....

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 34
    Published at Fri, 25 Aug 2017
  10. Libya’s Oil Production Gains May Flatter To Deceive

    ...bya’s oil sector since late 2014 did not give much reason for hope. Prior to 2017, the last time that oil output had exceeded 600,000 b/d was in the first half of April 2015; the last time that it averaged more than 600,000 b/d over the course of a month was in November 2014. The figures for 2017 ha...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 18 Aug 2017
  11. Iran Bags Changuleh Oil Field Studies, Qualifies More Local JV Partners

    ...16 Study South Azadegan & Cheshmeh Khosh PNOC (Philippines) May 2017 Study Pazanan and Darkhovin Gazprom (Russia) May 2017...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 18 Aug 2017
  12. Saudi Petchems Firms Report Higher First Half Income As Profits Track Oil Price Rise

    ...ter than normal, as with the first quarter, due to new accounting rules introduced at the end of 2016 (MEES, 12 May). One firm, Alujain whose end-H1 2017 market capitalization was among the smallest at SR1.5bn, said on 17 August that it was unable to publish results on time but would issue them when “re...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 18 Aug 2017
  13. Gulf Crude Burn Falling In 2017, But By Less Than The Rise In Fuel Oil Use

    ...ntinuing to rise, they have a long way to go to achieve this. Saudi Arabia burnt 424,000 b/d of crude in its power plants in the first half of 2017, down 50,000 b/d on the same period a year earlier, though the June figure of 680,000 b/d was just 24,000 b/d below year-ago levels, cutting into the crude av...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 18 Aug 2017
  14. US Shale Output – Gains Continue Despite Cost-Cutting, Fewer New Rigs

    ...528 set in October 2014. July’s month-on-month gains, at 14, are the lowest since June last year: December 2016 to April 2017 saw an average of 50 rigs a month added. MORE WITH LESS? These figures so far chime with the ‘more for less’ mantra of US shale-focused companies in their recent Q2 ea...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 18 Aug 2017
  15. Egypt: Mid-Size E&Ps Still Living Hand-To-Mouth Despite Gas Renaissance

    ...velopment, which is 80% complete and due for December 2017 start-up, by managing to pay off a large part of the receivables the firm is owed. At the end of 2016 Eni was owed $611mn, with $420mn overdue, but that has now almost been halved to $310mn with no amount overdue. Eni’s 10% partner in Zohr, UK ma...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 18 Aug 2017
  16. Dana Gas: Profits Up, Litigation Up, Zora Write-Down Looms

    ...UAE firm Dana Gas this week reported a rise in profits and revenue for the first half of 2017 based on sharply higher oil prices, and lower capex, compared to the same period last year. But litigation is beginning to rival gas and oil production as Dana’s main line of business, with ho...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 18 Aug 2017
  17. TransGlobe: Exploration Write-Dow, Cargo Delay

    ...ded 2,500-2,700 b/d of Canadian output in January – its only non-Egypt production. The firm now plans 2017 capex of $41.5mn (Egypt $35.4mn), towards the lower end of earlier guidance. TransGlobe priority for the second half of 2017 is to firm up the production potential of the Boraq discovery on th...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 18 Aug 2017
  18. Mini Egypt Bid Round As GPC Expands

    ...nancial year (to 30 June 2017), of which around 47,000 b/d is oil and around 22mn cfd gas. A 4 August oil minstry press release says output has since risen further, to a record 57,000 boe/d. For 2017-18 as a whole GPC plans output of 53,000 b/d crude and 30mn cfd of gas, an implied total of around 59,000 bo...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 18 Aug 2017
  19. Saudi Cuts Deficit, But Only Thanks To Higher Oil Price

    ...also some 26% less than the SR198bn ($52.8bn) figure in the original 2017 budget (MEES, 6 January). The improvement is thanks to the 62.7% (SR82.1bn) increase in H1 oil revenues versus a year earlier. Saudi Arab Light crude averaged $50.4/B in H1 2017, up 38.4% on the H1 2016 price of $36...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 33
    Published at Fri, 18 Aug 2017
  20. Abu Dhabi Plans Further Offshore Reshuffling

    ...pplier (with just under 300,000 b/d for H1 2017), with Thailand in turn Abu Dhabi’s #3 customer (see data, p17). PTT has both production and development projects in Algeria and is a pre-qualifier for Iranian upstream awards. Russian state-firm Rosneft was prequalified for Adco but in the end didn’t su...

    Volume: 60
    Issue: 32
    Published at Fri, 11 Aug 2017