Egypt: Ain Sukhna Hub Plans Gather Pace

...pacity is rising to 7.2mn barrels (see p7). This also includes expansion at Sidi Kerir, where Aramco is to lease 222,000 m³ of gasoil storage. EGPC receives roughly 500,000 barrels per month of crude oil from Saudi Aramco, under a deal which began in late 2017, while it also receives varying rates of tr...

Israel Bid Round Flops

...cal firm Israel Opportunity. It is yet another disappointing turn-out for Israel, just 12 months after a previous bid round flopped (MEES, 24 November 2017). Hopes were raised that US major ExxonMobil, which has made recent forays into Egypt and Cyprus, would take part after it purchased a $50,000 da...

Aramco Trading Volumes Surge, With Crude Playing Enhanced Role

...st year saw it emerge as an increasingly active, albeit modest in scale, crude trader. Overall liquids volumes rose from 1.40mn b/d in 2017 to 2.17mn b/d in 2018 (see chart), and the firm says that it exited the year in excess of 4mn b/d. Volumes rose to 4.5mn b/d in 1Q 2019 and are planned to reach 6m...

Libya Adds Powergen Capacity But Remains In The Dark

...return but so far, they have been unwilling, fearing for the safety of their staff. Turkish contractor ENKA and turbine provider Siemens pulled their staff out of the Ubari project back in 2017 after four workers were kidnapped and they haven’t returned since (MEES, 24 November 2017). While Ge...

Saudi Oil Sector Feeling The Strain Of Opec Cuts

...nsiderably higher than in recent years thanks to a massive expansion program. Gross exports are averaging 1.44mn b/d this year, substantially less than 2018’s record 1.97mn b/d, but still equal with 2017 for the second highest on record (see chart 3). On a net basis, refined products exports are on track to...

Saudi Arabia Crude Exports Fell To A 19-Month Low In May ('000 B/D)

...CHANGES EXPRESSED IN PERCENTAGE POINT TERMS WHERE ORIGINAL FIGURES ARE PERCENTAGES. *EXCLUDES FIELD LPG (650-700,000 B/D). **NAPHTHA REFINERY OUTPUT INCLUDED IN 'OTHER' PRODUCTS TO DEC 2017 (479,000 B/D FOR 2017). ^PRESUMES ALL FUEL OIL CONSUMPTION IS BURNT IN POWER PLANTS. SOURCE: JO...

Iran Struggling To Implement Crtitical Economic Reforms

...reduce absolute poverty, $383mn for heath care and $480mn to subsidize wheat purchases. In 2017-18 the government’s paid $12.7bn in cash handouts for over 70 million Iranians (MEES, 20 July 2018), a much higher figure in dollar terms than the allocation for this year, mainly because of a stronger ri...

Fujairah Bunkering Stuggles

...opolitics as the UAE’s embargo on Qatar since July 2017 meant it could no longer service Qatari-flagged vessels. As well as to Singapore, Fujairah has been losing trade to its regional rival Sohar in Oman, where plans for LNG bunkering progressed this week (see p2).  ...

Iraq’s Tight Margins Take Toll On Foreign Majors

...Iraq gives some of the tightest margins of any Mena oil producer, and it shows. The largest majors operating in Iraq netted barely 250,000 b/d of crude in 2018 (see table). And that was down from around 350,000 b/d in 2017.  This is largely due to Baghdad’s technical service contracts (TS...

South Korea 2Q19 Crude & Condensate Imports ('000 B/D): Middle East Share Up Quarter-On-Quarter But Still Down On 2017 Levels

Qatar Investments Win Trump Approval

...Qatari Emir Tamim Al Thani can be pleased with the results of this week’s trip to the US, where he received glowing praise from President Donald Trump. The emirate has been assiduously courting support from potential allies since its neighbors imposed an embargo in June 2017 and appears to ha...

Algeria Adding Powergen Capacity, But Big CCGT Progress Piecemeal

...kely a long way down the line: 1.44GW Bellara and 1.38GW Oumache are not mentioned in the new 2018 annual report of lead contractor Korea’s Hyundai E&C, but former Sonelgaz head Muhammad Arkab – now energy minister –said Oumache would be operational by 2020 (MEES, 24 November 2017). Korean contractor Sa...

Egypt Refining Projects Inching Forward As Subsidy Cuts Curb Consumption

...rformance of the refinery, to produce light products including almost 50,000 b/d of low sulfur diesel and 12,000 b/d of reformate, which is a key gasoline blending component. The $4.3bn ERC plant was originally scheduled to start up in first quarter 2017, but construction was delayed and at times halted be...

End In Sight For Egypt’s Fuel Subsidies

...nce increased: after averaging $1= E£17.74 during the 2017-18 financial year it has been around $1= E£16.60 in recent weeks. Given that oil products are internationally-traded commodities priced in dollars, these prices largely determine the size of the country’s subsidy bill. Here Egypt has been ma...

Kuwait Eyes Huge 2019-20 Budget Deficit

...nancial resources. The IMF estimates that debt fell from 20.7% of GDP in 2017 to 14.8% in 2018, but projects this rising to 17.8% this year. The implication is that the IMF expects a new debt law to be issued this year, and credit rating agency Fitch also expects “that it will get passed in time to en...

UAE Certifies Reactor Operators

...NR awarding Nawah a license to start-up the delayed Barakah-1 unit. This was scheduled for start-up in 2017 and is mechanically complete but awaiting the insertion of fuel rods for trial operations. Three similar plants are nearing completion. FANR cannot provide Nawah with an operating license un...

Baghdad-Erbil Oil Sharing Dispute Heats Up

...en Mr Abd al-Mahdi was oil minister (MEES, 5 December 2014). The deal didn’t last long as Iraqi funds failed to make their way to Erbil. Relations hit rock bottom when Iraqi Kurdistan voted to secede from Iraq in 2017 (MEES, 29 September 2017), and federal forces retook territories that included 28...

BP Boosts Tortue Reserves With Drilling Success

...arf even Tortue (MEES, 14 December 2018). However, though BP reckons Greater BirAllah is potentially the biggest of the three planned hubs, at least for the moment Yakaar Teranga is ahead in the development stakes, with two successful wells drilled: Teranga-1 in May 2016 and Yakaar-1 in June 2017, bo...

Energean Hits East Med Major League With Cut-Price Edison Purchase

...e in Egypt and Algeria. It operates the 270mn cfd Abu Qir field off Alexandria, and has 11.25% of the 280mn cfd Repsol-operated Reggane North development in southwest Algeria which started up in late 2017 (MEES, 22 December 2017).  Both dwarf Energean’s current production of just 4,100 b/d, all fr...

Opec Production Purgatory: Cuts And More Cuts With No End In Sight

...nister Suhail al-Mazrouei warned in 2017 that there “is too much fluctuation within one year. It is not healthy for producers, and it is definitely not healthy for consumers. We need some sort of stability” (MEES, 17 November 2017). He reiterated the message this week in Vienna, saying “once we are cl...