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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Egypt Economy On Track But Long Road Ahead

...ys. Overall, the IMF expects annual growth to average “4.8% in 2017-18 and rise further to around 6% in the medium term.” By comparison, the economy grew 4.2% in 2016-17. Looking at selected macroeconomic indicators, Egypt appears to be “broadly on track.” Last year’s 4.2% growth exceeded   the IM...

Iran Scrambles To Stop Rial Depreciation, Risks Boosting Inflation

...position to any such efforts.    Latest data from the CBI on the first nine months of fiscal year 2017-18, which began on 21 March, show that budget deficit is running at IR385 trillion, or IR514 trillion, prorated for the full year. At the set budget rate of $1=IR33,000 this is equivalent to $15.6bn, bu...

Taiwan 2017 LNG Imports: Qatar Volumes Down 16%, Share Down 11% With Australia The Big Gainer

Taiwan LNG Imports (Mn T)

...INCREASED AUSTRALIAN, RUSSIAN VOLUMES EAT INTO QATAR SHARE...   ...IMPORT PRICES EDGING UP IN LATE 2017, QATAR REMAINS CHEAPEST SUPPLIER ($/MN BTU) SEE P15 FOR FULL DATA. SOURCE: TAIWAN CUSTOMS, MEES CALCULATIONS. ...

Egypt Gas Turns The Corner, But Can It Maintain Investment?

...rek El Molla was keen to highlight the success of Italian firm Eni and the UK’s BP which have together brought on 2.5bn cfd of gas over the last 19 months, 45% of current 5.5bn cfd gas output. “Between November 2013 and December 2017, the country signed 83 E&P agreements, with minimum investments of...

India Makes Splash Offshore Abu Dhabi With First Post-Adma Contract

...on its expiry after 8 March (MEES, 17 November 2017). Current partners are Adnoc (60%), BP (14.66%), Total (13.34%) and Jodco, a subsidiary of Japan’s Inpex (12%). The award came during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and marks India’s entry into the Abu Dhabi upstream. Indian st...

Abu Dhabi Gets Small Producer Boost

...ported 91,000 b/d of Qatar Marine in 2017, more than half the total, and 21,000 b/d of Mubarraz crude.  Meanwhile, Adnoc said on 12 February that Al-Dhafra Petroleum will start production of around 20,000 b/d in 2019, ramping up to 20,000 b/d by 2020 and potentially “beyond 40,000 b/d barrels per day by...

Aramco, Total Firming Plan For Satorp Refining/ Petchems Integration

...State petroleum firm Saudi Aramco and France’s Total are firming up their plans for an expansion of their Satorp joint venture refinery and integration of the plant with a petrochemicals complex. Total chief executive Patrick Pouyanné told his firm’s 2017 earnings call on 8 February that th...

Total Deepens Algeria Ties

...gned a deal ending legal action brought by the French firm against Sonatrach in 2016 for changes made 10 years earlier to profit-sharing terms on its oil and gas contracts in the country (MEES, 21 April 2017). April’s Total-Sonatrach deal not only allowed the partners to “amicably” resolve the di...

Iraq Reboots Downstream Development Drive

...e Korean contractors led by Hyundai E&C working at Karbala under the $6bn EPC contract awarded in 2014. CUTTING IMPORTS ESSENTIAL Iraq’s modest progress in rehabilitating refineries enabled it to boost refining runs to around 535,000 b/d in 2017 – the highest since 2013 when Baiji was still op...

UAE Nuclear Plans: More Delays Likely

...schedule. A Kepco executive said at the time that “it’s very difficult for us to predict the possible compensation that may be involved and our future plans for our manpower dispatched to the project” (MEES, 12 May 2017). Kepco has not issued an update on the situation since. FANR’s op...

Dewa Awards Gas-Fired Power Project

...tensive LNG export commitments – around 90% goes to Japan, which took 4.68mn tons in 2017 down from 4.99mn t in 2016 and a record 5.70mn t in 2014 (see chart, MEES, 16 February). This means that the UAE only achieves gas balance by importing 1.7bn cfd via the Dolphin pipeline from Qatar to Abu Dhabi as...