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Lebanon’s ‘New’ Government Set For Uphill Battle
...d a consortium of Total (40%op), Eni (40%) and Russia’s Novatek (20%) was awarded two exploration blocks (MEES, 15 December 2017). One well, in Block 4, is expected to be drilled this year (MEES, 16 February 2018). The most recent stalemate has already pushed back a planned second bid round in...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Saudi Arabia Launches Latest Investment Drive
...0bn to the kingdom’s GDP by 2030. That amounts to 41% of 2018 GDP, which data for the first nine months of the year implies will be nearly $775bn. Certainly Saudi Arabia could do with an injection of economic growth. After the economy contracted 0.9% in 2017, it edged up by around 1.7% over the first ni...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Sabic Reports Higher Profits As It Prepares For Aramco Buy-In
...3mn). Part of Sabic’s internal transformation includes bundling together assets in some of its less strategic businesses. Q4 2018 saw Sabic’s fertilizers businesses transferred to the standalone Sabic Agri-Nutrients Investments subsidiary. The unit, which in 2017 accounted for around 10.5% of total Sa...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Saudi Eyes Options For Slashing Oil Burning In Power Plants
...The Saudi energy minister’s ambitious plan to vastly reduce the burning of liquids fuels in power plants is a big ask. Can it be done? Saudi Arabia burned just over 900,000 b/d of liquid fuels in its power plants last year, down 7% from the 2017 record (see chart). The volumes involved in...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Repdo Tenders 1.5gw Of Solar
...Sakaka. The Qurayyat project in the current offering will be built further northeast, near the border with Jordan. The Rafha project in the new tender was previously offered in a tender that was canceled in March 2017 (MEES, 18 January). NEW SAUDI SOLAR TENDER SOURCE: REPDO....
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
IMF To Kuwait: Cut Public Wage Bill, Boost Private Sector, Lessen Oil Dependence
...lf monarchies, Kuwait has talked a good game on the need to diversify its economy and increase the role of the private sector. But, as the IMF makes clear, achieving this necessitates reducing the relative attractiveness of public sector employment. Kuwait’s finances improved considerably in 2017 and 20...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Jordan Plans Tax Hike To Cover Planned 2019 Deficit
...ministration made a big deal of its increased assistance to Jordan, but Mr Trump himself is a wild card and King Abdullah’s opposition to the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in late 2017 increased bilateral tensions. Meanwhile, in the Gulf, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman has also pl...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Genel: Kurdish Gas Reprieve
...adline for the Miran GLA is now 31 May. Both were set to expire in February, having already been extended from the initial February 2018 deadline (MEES, 17 February 2017). Genel claims combined “gross mean” gas reserves of 11.4tcf. Conditions included “execution of final agreements on the midstream ga...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Japan: Top Saudi Buyer, For Now
...08. Saudi is far and away number one supplier with 1.164mn b/d, 38.1% of the total, for 2018 (see data, pXX). But 2018 will likely mark the last year for which Japan is Saudi Arabia’s top customer. Japan’s lead over China shrank from 250,000 b/d for 2017 to a mere 29,000 b/d for 2018. China was al...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Libya’s NOC Cuts Gas To Fertilizer Plant
...ra (50%), NOC (25%) and Libyan Investment Authority (25% - MEES, 16 February 2009), hasn’t made a profit since the 2011 Libyan revolution and has racked up a combined $234mn in loses up to 2016 according to Yara annual reports - no figure was given for 2017. Yara wrote down $112mn of its investment in 20...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Sharjah Signs Up For 1.8gw CCGT
...its, the first of which is scheduled to begin commercial operation in May 2021. Sewa’s current 2.77GW of capacity in gas and diesel fueled power plants is unable to meet demand, requiring imports from Abu Dhabi that amounted to 6.93THh at levels up to a peak of 1.3GW in 2017. Sewa’s move follows the fo...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Aramco Advances Crude-To-Petchems Plans
...lly formalized or the planned takeover of Sabic by Aramco is completed. Separately Sabic filed a US patent application for a crude to chemicals concept involving existing refinery units and a cracker (MEES, 1 December 2017). The plant will have capacity to process 400,000 b/d of Saudi crude to pr...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Iraq Looks To Turkey For Support Up North
...heduled to visit Ankara in the coming days to discuss the resumption of Kirkuk exports to Ceyhan, a key imperative for restarting production at the Avana Dome and Bai Hassan. Federal Iraqi forces retook Kirkuk and surrounding fields last year (MEES, 20 October 2017), but with limited export capacity, No...
Volume: 61Issue: 08Published at Fri, 23 Feb 2018 -
Abu Dhabi Awards Offshore Stake To State-Owned Firm Cepsa
...atistics, with Nigeria the largest supplier in 2017 at 192,000 b/d (MEES, 16 February). Saudi Arabia was the largest Mena supplier at 128,000 b/d, followed by Libya (110,000 b/d). Will 2018 be the year UAE crude enters the Spanish market? This would certainly represent a change in strategy for the UAE, wh...
Volume: 61Issue: 08Published at Fri, 23 Feb 2018 -
Taiwan 2017 Crude Imports ('000 B/D): UAE Volumes Up 70% Year-On-Year, Iran Down 15%
... TAIWAN 2017 CRUDE IMPORTS ('000 B/D): OPEC MAINTAINS STRONG SHARE DESPITE PRODUCTION CUTS SOURCE: TAIWAN IMPORT STATS, MEES CALCULATIONS....
Volume: 61Issue: 08Published at Fri, 23 Feb 2018 -
Gulf Crude Burn: Saudi, Iraq Turn To Gas To Curb Sky High Crude Burn Rates
...d Iraq post a four year low of 119,000 b/d crude burn over the course of 2017, but it claims to have eliminated it entirely for two of the months. Last year’s burn was down 30% from 2016’s peak of 169,000 b/d. Saudi Arabia meanwhile posted an eight-year low of 436,000 b/d – still by far the wo...
Volume: 61Issue: 08Published at Fri, 23 Feb 2018 -
Oman Gets Long Awaited Output Boost From Sohar Refinery
...SI). Output of diesel, gasoline, jet-kerosene and LPG amounted to 204,000 b/d, compared with 177,000 b/d in Q4 2017 and 171,000 b/d for 2017 (see chart). State refiner Orpic announced mechanical completion of the Sohar Refinery Improvement Project (SRIP) in early 2017. SRIP raises crude di...
Volume: 61Issue: 08Published at Fri, 23 Feb 2018 -
US Poised To Compete With Saudi Arabia As World’s Largest Oil Exporter
...Full year 2017 figures from Jodi highlight the extent of the increasing importance Saudi Arabia places on its products exports. As it cut back on its heavily-monitored crude exports as part of the Opec+ production agreement since January 2017, it simultaneously ramped up refining runs, re...
Volume: 61Issue: 08Published at Fri, 23 Feb 2018 -
Libya Warns Of Potential Major Output Fall Amid Strained Economy
...sponsibility for the firm’s funding problems lies, claims Mr Sanalla. “The entire sector is suffering from these problems because of delays in the finance ministry disbursing budgets to the corporation for this year,” he said. NOC received only 50% of its capital budget in 2017, said Mr Sanalla in late Ja...
Volume: 61Issue: 08Published at Fri, 23 Feb 2018 -
DNO Balances Kurdistan Investment With Norway Exploration
...ccess stories have emerged from Iraqi Kurdistan in recent months. Kurdish private firm KAR (and by extension, the KRG) lost 280,000 b/d of output when Iraqi forces retook Kirkuk last October (MEES, 20 October 2017). Taq Taq field (operated by Anglo-Turkish firm Genel), which produced 130,000 b/d in 2Q 20...
Volume: 61Issue: 08Published at Fri, 23 Feb 2018