Israel Bidding: Geopolitical Handicap Stymies Major Interest

...s five more Israel exploration blocks from the 2017 bid round. Whilst no-one can doubt the firm’s ambitions – it recently agreed to pay up to $850mn for the upstream assets of Italy’s Edison (MEES, 5 July) – it is unlikely to have spare cash for major exploration efforts anytime soon. So no ma...

Hormuz Escalation Spooks Major Asian Economies

...y of 420,000 b/d this year. The US has been making huge inroads into the Korean market, with volumes breaking records for the past five consecutive quarters. Having averaged just 36,000 b/d over the course of 2017, 2Q 2019 volumes averaged a massive 325,000 b/d. This was sufficient to place the US...

Hormuz Upheaval Spells Uncertainty For Fujairah Expansion Plans

...jairah (MEES, 19 July), and sales had already slipped since July 2017 when Qatar-vessels were banned. ADNOC PLANS FUJAIRAH TRADE BOOM     Fujairah is central to Abu Dhabi state firm Adnoc’s plans to develop into a trading powerhouse. The firm is developing a massive 42mn barrel (6.8mn m³) un...

Oman Cuts Deficit, But Oil Dependence Remains

...llowing several years of troubling fiscal developments, Oman looks to have finally caught a break.  Preliminary figures from the government’s National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI) indicate that the sultanate ran a $6.9bn (OR 2.65bn) deficit in 2018, down from $9.8bn in 2017 and co...

Oman Increases Power Subsidies

...artups of the Ibri IPP and Sohar-3 gas-fired powerplants (see MEES, 7 July) will increase the need for subsidy spending, presumably due to higher generation costs being passed onto the consumer. Oman has made a concerted effort to cut its electricity subsidies in recent years following the 2017 Cost Re...

Eni: New Egypt Output

...ypt oil output is also up, from 72,000 b/d net for 2017 to 77,000 b/d in 2018. Egypt’s overall oil output averaged 640,000 b/d in the first five months of 2019, flat with 2018 levels. The Western Desert accounts for 55% of the total. But output here fell to 353,000 b/d in the first five months of 2019 fr...

New Partnership Expands Qatar’s Footprint In The US

...tween Chevron and Phillips 66, says that FID on the petchems facility is expected to be “no later than 2021.” Mr Kaabi is keen to fix this aberration and a move into the US upstream sooner or later looks probable. He told MEES in late 2017 that “We are working on buying upstream assets and reserves in...

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...