Algeria State Oil Chief Strikes Conciliatory Tone

...tput,” said Mr Ould Kaddour. Two other significant deals were signed in the closing weeks of 2017. On 20 December Sonatrach signed a $500mn deal with its two partners on the 9bcm/y In Amenas gas field, the UK’s BP and Norway’s Statoil. The agreement, designed to extend commercial production to 2035, wi...

GCC Dependence On LNG Imports Deepens

...Kuwait’s 5.4mn t/y (725mn cfd) Golar Igloo floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) is currently moored offshore Dubai as it awaits routine maintenance during its scheduled downtime. It’s in need of a thorough checkup after being put through its most rigorous year-to-date in 2017, when it...

Oman Rounds Out 2017 With Solid Export Revenue Gains

...Despite a ninth straight budget deficit, 2017 was a decent year for Oman energy. Exports held steady, revenues ticked up, and products output broke records. Despite crude and condensate output falling 34,000 b/d in 2017, and exports dropping 75,000 b/d to 806,000 b/d, Oman’s upstream se...

LNG As A Shipping Fuel: Can Producers Capitalize On IMO 2020 Sulfur Cap?

...ailable on a regional or local level, especially if there are supply problems or in the event of price hikes post-2020. In its 2017 World Energy Outlook and under its New Policies Scenario, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects the upcoming regulation to pressure demand for high sulfur fuel oi...

Egypt Refining Sector Start-Ups Will Reduce Imports, But Bill Will Keep Rising

...tput steady EGPC has only made sporadic upgrades to its refineries, which have been unable to keep up with demand. Demand hit a record 852,000 b/d in 2016. It has since dipped to 815,000 b/d in 2017 but that is in part due to Egypt’s attempts to phase out subsidies. Cairo benefitted in the wake of th...

Saudi Electricity Borrows $2.6bn To Fund Capital Projects As Debts Soar

...tibank of the US; Japan’s Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking; First Abu Dhabi Bank; France’s Natixis; and the UK’s Standard Chartered and HSBC. SEC’s growing debts may impact Riyadh’s long-planned privatization of the company (MEES, 22 December 2017) as might the focus of...

Saudi Arabia’s Shift Up The Value Chain Offsets 7-Year Crude Export Low

...ll in crude export volumes was more than offset by a 28.6% increase in the price of Saudi benchmark Arab Light and the shift towards refined products. Saudi trade data show that oil export revenues for the first 10 months of 2017 were up 22.6% year-on-year at $137bn. This is already above the fu...

KRG’s Creaking Political Edifices Struggling To Cope With Referendum Fallout

...Iraqi Kurdistan’s political scene has been dominated by two parties for more than 40 years, but the fallout from September’s pyrrhic victory threatens each entity. September 2017’s referendum on Kurdistan’s independence provoked a fierce response from Baghdad which has decimated the re...

Services Firms Are Looking Up In 2018: US The Key Driver, Mideast Solid

...2017 saw oilfield services firms shift their focus away from their Middle East operations to North America. Middle East resilience during the 2015-16 slump in upstream spending helped the top three global oilfield services firms Schlumberger, Halliburton and GE subsidiary Baker Hughes ke...

IMF Hikes Growth F’cast

...lcome news,” IMF MD Christine Lagarde says. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook update, released 22 January, pegs global growth at 3.9% for both 2018 and 2019, each up 0.2 percentage points from the previous forecasts made in October, and a rise from growth of 3.2% for 2016 and 3.7% for 2017. Fo...

Algeria Notches Up $11bn 2017 Trade Deficit; Total Since 2015 Hits $45bn

...geria cut its trade deficit by a third to $11.2bn in 2017. But dwindling oil output and higher domestic consumption mean that last year’s 23% increase in oil prices only translated into a 16% increase in export revenue. Export revenue continues to almost exclusively mean oil and gas revenue. Hy...

Iran’s Leadership Moves To Downsize IRGC’s Dominant Role In The Economy

...ash the number of Iranians receiving monthly cash subsidies of $11/person from 71 million to around 41 million (MEES, 15 December 2017). The commission also recommended setting a ceiling of 18% for pay increases; banning increases in tariffs, duties and costs of services provided by some branches of...

China 2017 Lng Imports (Mn Tons): Qatar Volumes Increase 50% From 2016, Share Remains Flat

Thailand LNG Imports ('000 Tons): Qatar Remains Top Supplier In 2017 But Market Share Falls To 60%

Thailand Crude Imports 2017 ('000 B/D): Saudi Closes Gap To Top Supplier Uae But Mideast Share Falls

China 2017 Crude Imports ('000 B/D): Russia Cements Top Spot Ahead Of Saudi; Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar Records

China Crude Imports ('000 B/D): Russia Soars Ahead Of Saudi As #1 2017 Supplier. Strong Q4 Keeps Saudi Ahead Of Angola For Second Place As Overall Imports Dip From Q2 Record.

...LINES SHOW TOP SIX 2017 SUPPLIERS. SEE P19 FOR FULL DATA. SOURCE: CHINA CUSTOMS, MEES....

Kuwait: Jurassic Gas To Bridge Supply Gap Until LNG Import Capacity Rises

...ar (see chart and MEES, 28 July 2017). KEY KUWAITI OIL INFRASTRUCTURE   KUWAIT PRESSES AHEAD WITH MAJOR JURASSIC GAS EXPANSION PLANS (MN CFD) SOURCE: KOC, SPETCO, PETROCIL, MEES.   SPARE PROCESSING CAPACITY The vast majority of Kuwaiti gas output is associated wi...

Oman Casts Its Net Wide In Bid To Maintain Output Capacity

...plenish its reserves. Oman finished 2017 with average annual output of 969,000 b/d, just under its 970,000 b/d Opec/non-Opec production agreement and down from 1mn b/d the year before. Exports dropped from 880,000 b/d in 2016 to 806,000 b/d, though higher oil prices mean hydrocarbon revenues rose by $2....

Kuwait Completes Oman Refinery Buy-In, Start-Up Slips To ‘2023-24’

...C. KPC planning and finance director Wafaa al-Zaabi told reporters last week that “commercial operations should begin in 2023-24.” This is a major setback – until last year KPC was targeting end-2020 (MEES, 5 May 2017). “I think that by the middle of this year we will close the financing for the Du...