1. Cyprus Gas Ambitions: From Dreams To Reality In 2023?

    ...e border. And with Eni either operating or partnering TotalEnergies on the key blocks on the Cypriot side of the border, it was well placed to look for ‘more Zohr’ in Cyprus. Though the first such well, July 2017’s Onesiphoros on Block 11 (Total 50%op, Eni 50%), only discovered sub-commercial vo...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 04
    Published at Fri, 27 Jan 2023
  2. Imminent Russian Embargo Set To Boost Middle East-Europe Oil Flows

    ...ve-year average. However, middle distillate inventories only reached 240.2mn barrels in November, 31.9mn barrels below the 2017-2021 average.” Preliminary Euroilstock data shows a modest 800,000-barrel December rise, which would have left middle distillate inventories still well below average le...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 04
    Published at Fri, 27 Jan 2023
  3. Kuwaiti Government Resigns. Again

    ...quired to ease the government’s reliance on direct oil revenues by tapping into its dollar reserves has been stuck since October 2017. With government ministers objecting to the debt relief bill, and MPs seeking to “grill” two cabinet ministers, the cabinet opted to resign. Prime Minister Sheikh Ah...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 04
    Published at Fri, 27 Jan 2023
  4. Power Generation Set To Drive Middle East Oil Use Gains

    ...dustrial activity typically rises with economic activity. Consumption averaged 572,000 b/d for the first 11 months of 2022, up 70,000 b/d year-on-year. This is the highest figure since 2017, when the government implemented subsidy reforms to curb consumption and effectively pushed it out from power pl...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 04
    Published at Fri, 27 Jan 2023
  5. Oman: Block 60 Oil Field Inauguration

    ...0,000 boe/d, and provides a welcome boost to Oman’s overall production capacity. But with renewed Opec+ production cuts in place until the end of the year, Oman will be unable to fully tap into this additional capacity (see p3). Block 60 was first discovered in 2017, with the first crude oil pr...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 04
    Published at Fri, 27 Jan 2023
  6. Oman Set For New Gas Highs With Block 10 Start-Up

    ...CORD GAS OUTPUT        Shell and TotalEnergies have greatly increased their presence in Oman’s exploration acreage in recent years following BP’s successful development of Block 61’s 1.5bn cfd tight gas reserves. Block 61’s Khazzan development came online in 2017 and revitalized Oman’s gas se...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 03
    Published at Fri, 20 Jan 2023
  7. Oman’s Blocks 3 & 4 Suffer Output Fall For 2022

    ...REAM              As it stands, all of Tethys’ production comes from Blocks 3 & 4, and even before last year’s problems the firm was keen to diversify. It snapped up three additional blocks between 2017 and 2020 and is optimistic about beginning commercial operations at one in the near future. After di...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 03
    Published at Fri, 20 Jan 2023
  8. South Korea Crude Imports: Saudi Up 23% To Record 995,000 B/D For 2023

    ...*South Korea, the world’s number four crude importer behind China, the US and India, saw volumes rise 7% to 2.81mn b/d for 2022, a three year high but 220,000 b/d shy of the record 3.03mn b/d set in 2017 (see table).   *With volumes from Russia – 2021’s number five supplier with 15...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 03
    Published at Fri, 20 Jan 2023
  9. Aramco Trading Launches American Subsidiary

    ...ade fuels and base oils,” Aramco says. The ‘Port Arthur’ refinery has been wholly owned by Aramco since it paid $2.2bn to Shell to acquire the major’s 50% stake in the facility in May 2017 (MEES, 10 March 2017). Under the deal signed in March 2017, the 50:50 Motiva JV was broken up, with Aramco ge...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 03
    Published at Fri, 20 Jan 2023
  10. Intra-Kurdish Rift Risks United Position In Baghdad

    ...ghdad. That is no longer the case, especially since the 2017 death of PUK founder and long-time leader Jalal Talabani. With the KDP and PUK backing different factions in last year’s lengthy government formation process, the fissures between the two deepened further (MEES, 17 June 2022). That melodrama ha...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 03
    Published at Fri, 20 Jan 2023
  11. Record-Breaking Oman LNG Signs New Sales Deals

    ...G sector over the past seven years has been remarkable. Exports bottomed out in 2015 at just 7.91mn tons amid a narrative of decline as rising domestic demand from the power generation sector crimped feedstock availability. The September 2017 start-up of the 1bn cfd Khazzan tight gas development co...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 02
    Published at Fri, 13 Jan 2023
  12. Opec Solidifies Gains In 2022 As Saudi Sets Output Record

    ...pacity dropped from 3.15mn b/d in 2017/18 to 2.63mn b/d in 2020/21 according to the latest KOC figures (MEES, 22 October 2021). Kuwait also suffered from the full shut-in of the Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ), from where oil output is split with Saudi Arabia, between May 2015 and February 2020 (ME...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 02
    Published at Fri, 13 Jan 2023
  13. Saudi Crude Exports Rise To Five-Year High In 2022

    ...10.57mn b/d for 2022 (see p7) drove an 800,000 b/d year-on-year increase in the kingdom’s crude oil exports. Figures from data intelligence firm Kpler show that crude exports (excluding Saudi Arabia’s 50% share from the Partitioned Neutral Zone) exceeded 7mn b/d last year for the first time since 2017...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 02
    Published at Fri, 13 Jan 2023
  14. Can Iraq Use Gulf Football Tournament To Score GCC Investment Hike?

    ...fice. Saudi Arabia’s newfound willingness to deal with its northern neighbor then became more apparent from 2017 (MEES, 27 October 2017). The appointment of Mr Maliki’s close-ally, new Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, has been met with initial wariness from Riyadh (MEES, 18 November 2022), with hi...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 02
    Published at Fri, 13 Jan 2023
  15. Qatar Takes FID On Huge Petrochemicals Complex

    ...CUS   Qatar first announced plans for this major new petrochemicals venture in 2017, with Mr Kaabi telling MEES in an interview that it was planning a “world-scale” facility to process ethane from its mammoth North Field gas expansion project (MEES, 8 December 2017). This was a major development given th...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 02
    Published at Fri, 13 Jan 2023
  16. Oman Announces New National Gas Company

    ...d policies related to gas pricing and supply to various sectors of the economy including gas sales to industry. RESURGENT GAS SECTOR   The start-up of BP’s 1bn cfd Khazzan tight gas project in 2017 spurred Oman’s gas revolution, with the second phase 500mn cfd Ghazeer play boosting pr...

    Volume: 66
    Issue: 01
    Published at Fri, 06 Jan 2023