1. Saudi Arabia’s Sabic Hails Exceptional 2021

    ...Sabic recorded earnings of $6.14bn for 2021, the highest since 2014. While Sabic may boost revenues in 2022, the firm expects profits to dip from last year’s “exceptional” highs due to rising feedstock prices. Saudi petchems giant Sabic raked in its highest profits in seven years for 2021 as...

    Volume: 65
    Issue: 05
    Published at Fri, 04 Feb 2022
  2. Gazprom & Sonatrach Greenlight Algeria Gas Project

    ...The international upstream arm of Russia’s Gazprom and Algerian state oil firm Sonatrach this week greenlighted a project to develop two gas fields in Algeria’s Berkine Basin. The project centres around the 2010 Rhourde Sayah and 2014 Rhourde Sayah North discoveries located on the El As...

    Volume: 65
    Issue: 05
    Published at Fri, 04 Feb 2022
  3. Israel & Egypt’s Blossoming Energy Relationship

    ...ck in 2014 signed Letters of Intent to pipe Leviathan gas to Idku (MEES, 4 July 2014) and Tamar gas to Damietta (MEES, 9 May 2014). Tying back Leviathan to one of the existing-but-underutilized Egyptian LNG plants always made sense economically. The estimated cost of $3bn, including four ad...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 08
    Published at Fri, 26 Feb 2021
  4. Qatar Brokers Israel-Gaza Gas Supply Deal

    ...ywhere near the 140MW of potential capacity (MEES, 30 May 2014). The PA’s Mr Melhem is evidently aware of this. Increasing Israel-to-Gaza power transmission “would imply the construction of a high-voltage line, replacing the existing medium-voltage lines. It would reduce tariffs. We discussed the pr...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 07
    Published at Fri, 19 Feb 2021
  5. Shell & Petronas At Odds Over Egypt Expansion

    ...indled from 1.2bn cfd in 2012 to around 500mn cfd now. The WDDM slump is the result of a combination of high underlying decline rates, underperforming wells and slashed investment amid soaring receivables in the years following Egypt’s 2011 revolution (MEES, 7 February, 2014). Shell in early 2018 dr...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 07
    Published at Fri, 19 Feb 2021
  6. Iraq Struggles To Find Developers For Mansuriya Gas Field

    ...%). The consortium halted development of the Diyala province field in 2014 due to Islamic State attacks across the province (MEES, 10 October 2014). Security concerns remained despite the Islamic State being pushed back, and in 2018 Baghdad announced it would develop the field itself (MEES, 3 August 20...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 07
    Published at Fri, 19 Feb 2021
  7. Egypt Oil Output Plumbs New 40-Year Low For 2020

    ...nai).   *The Western Desert, which overtook the Gulf of Suez region as Egypt’s key production area in 2011 and has provided over half of production since 2014, saw output fall 7% to a 9-year low of 321,000 b/d for 2020. December’s 290,000 b/d was the lowest monthly figure since May 2010. This comes as the re...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 12 Feb 2021
  8. Iraq Mulls Power Sell-Offs Amid Cash Crunch, Pre-Election Rivalry

    ...rliamentary elections planned in October. Kar’s most prominent role is as operator of the 160,000 b/d Khurmala Dome of the Kirkuk field in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. It also contentiously operated Kirkuk’s Avana Dome and the nearby Bai Hassan field between 2014 and 2017 until federal forces re...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 12 Feb 2021
  9. Kuwait Cuts Long Term Targets For Giant Burgan Field

    ...ture field, having first been discovered in 1938, and production capacity has fallen in recent years (see chart). In 2014, capacity was around 1.7mn b/d and KOC’s goal was to maintain capacity at that level. BP was brought to the field in 2014 under a technical service agreement (TSA) to help maintain Bu...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 05
    Published at Fri, 05 Feb 2021
  10. Services Firms Diversify Away From Volatile Us Shale

    ...ia’ share of revenue rose to a record 36.3%, above that of North America (just 24.0% for 2020) for the first time in four years (see charts). Mideast & Asia 2020 revenue was 72% of the 2014 peak: North America revenue is down two-thirds and overall revenue down 50% over the same period. Ha...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 05
    Published at Fri, 05 Feb 2021
  11. Libya’s Power Sector In A Race Against Time

    ...at Libya has had rival eastern and western governments since 2014 hasn’t exactly helped matters. The parallel administration in the east has its own power authority which has complicated efforts to coordinate operations and policies. Libya’s new unity leadership which was in the process of being se...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 05
    Published at Fri, 05 Feb 2021
  12. Qatar Export Revenues Fall 30% In 2020

    ...s current level of 77mn t/y in 2011. The figure is considerably lower than at the height of the collapse precipitated by the oil price slump from late 2014. Then annual revenues bottomed out at $57.3bn in 2016 (see chart 1). However, Qatar has had considerable success in reducing its import tab in...

    Volume: 64
    Issue: 05
    Published at Fri, 05 Feb 2021
  13. Heavy Oil Start Up Boosts Kuwait Upstream Sector

    ...en the onshore Wafra field was shut-in (MEES, 15 May 2015). That followed the shut-in of the offshore Khafji field in October 2014 (MEES, 24 October 2014). In the last year of full-production (2013), output from the PNZ averaged 460,000 b/d, with 250,000 b/d from the offshore and 210,000 b/d from th...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 09
    Published at Fri, 28 Feb 2020
  14. Repsol Mena Pullback

    ...rector Didier Lluch said in 2014 (MEES, 20 March 2015). Development of Algeria’s supposed 800tcf of shale gas reserves has again moved up the agenda in the country’s latest ‘Energy Action Plan’ (MEES, 14 February). Debating plans for years on end without actually doing much is an Algerian specialty: the ge...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 09
    Published at Fri, 28 Feb 2020
  15. KRG: Repsol Exits Kurdamir

    ...maining 20%. Repsol inherited the Kurdamir license in 2014 when it bought out Canadian shale-focused firm Talisman Energy for some $13bn, along with the neighboring Topkhana (Repsol 80%, KRG 20%; MEES, 19 December 2014). Initially bullish development plans faded away and the firm has rarely mentioned th...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 09
    Published at Fri, 28 Feb 2020
  16. Saudi Energy Minister Makes Gas Export Pledge

    ...tension for assisting Aramco design strategies to “produce and deliver significant volumes of gas from shale and tight gas reservoirs.” The initial contract award was made in 2014. Mr Nasser said last year that Aramco would advance the planned Jafurah processing plant in 2020, which will form the key pl...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 08
    Published at Fri, 21 Feb 2020
  17. Algeria Posts 5th Straight Trade Deficit

    ...$6.11bn for 2019 (see chart). Oil and gas revenues are down 15% at $33.24bn – half levels consistently reached before the 2014 oil price crash and a substantially larger slump than the 9% fall to $64.5/B in the price of Algeria’s Saharan Blend crude. This reflects the fact that gas prices have been un...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 08
    Published at Fri, 21 Feb 2020
  18. Kuwait/Saudi Neutral Zone: Restart Imminent?

    ...wn.” The PNZ also contains the offshore Khafji field, which Kuwait and Saudi Arabia also aim to start-up in the coming months. It was producing 220,000 b/d before its 2014 shut-in.  ...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 07
    Published at Fri, 14 Feb 2020
  19. Saudi-Kuwait Neutral Zone Start-Up Approaches

    ...wait, and peaked at more than 500,000 b/d. However, output had slid below 500,000 b/d even before the first shut-ins in 2014 (MEES, 25 October 2019). In the last full year of output, 2013, the offshore section produced over 250,000 b/d, while the onshore portion added another  210,000 b/d, for a co...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 07 Feb 2020
  20. Iraq Crude Exports: Slow January Highlights Systemic Vulnerabilities

    ...aqi exports averaged 3.96mn b/d over 2019, up from 3.82mn b/d for 2018. Overall, more than 60% of Iraqi exports ended up in the major Asian markets. The proportion has increased considerably over the past five years, with barely 50% heading to Asia in 2014. Unsurprisingly, China as the world’s la...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 07 Feb 2020