1. Saudi Arabia Gas: New Facilities, Greater Flexibility

    ...RIL ('000 B/D) PRESUMES ALL FUEL OIL BURNT IN POWER PLANTS (SOME IS USED AS INDUSTRIAL & BUNKER FUEL). SOURCE: JODI, MEES.   3: SAUDI ARABIA SALES GAS OUTPUT HAS BEEN CONSISTENTLY CLIMBING YEAR-ON-YEAR (BN CFD) CONVERTED FROM BTU TO CFD UNTIL 2011. SOURCE: SAUDI ARAMCO, ME...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 26
    Published at Fri, 26 Jun 2020
  2. US Rigs Fall To New Low

    ...cord 76%. Of the latest fall, half (five) were in the Permian, leaving the total for the key Texas/New Mexico shale basin at 132, level with the April 2016 nadir as the low point in data since 2011. Permian drilling has actually been more resilient than elsewhere – all other key basins had already hi...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 26
    Published at Fri, 26 Jun 2020
  3. Oman Feels The Pain As Export Revenues Plummet

    ...onomic outlook. A succession of six sizeable annual deficits since the 2014 price crash has gradually pushed-up Oman’s debt levels, and another substantial rise this year seems inescapable (see chart 2). Current spending jumped in 2011 as Oman sought to ride out ‘Arab Spring’ protests through higher pu...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 26
    Published at Fri, 26 Jun 2020
  4. Algeria’s Sonatrach & Spain’s Naturgy Prepare For Gas Price Battle

    ...ttled for €1.5bn ($1.9bn), with Sonatrach taking a stake in the Spanish firm as part of the settlement (MEES, 20 June 2011). This stake stood at 4.1% in 2019. Naturgy and Sonatrach also partner each other on the Medgaz pipeline and recently upped their stakes to 49% and 51%, respectively (MEES, 5 Ju...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 25
    Published at Fri, 19 Jun 2020
  5. Syria’s Block 26 Continues To Pump As UK’s Gulfsands Waits On Standby

    ...lfsands’ Block 26 was one of Syria’s most promising oil assets when the war erupted in 2011, forcing the UK minnow (and every other western firm) to declare force majeure and halt operations. The firm still retains 50% of the block, with Chinese state firm Sinochem holding the other half. But since 2014 wh...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 24
    Published at Fri, 12 Jun 2020
  6. Algeria Looks To Reduce Reliance On Morocco Pipeline

    ...rocco and Spain, Medgaz was the more recent to start up in 2011. Capacity lags that of the 11.5bcm/y Maghreb–Europe Gas Pipeline (GME) which connects Algeria to Spain through Morocco. But Morocco is set to take ownership of its GME section next year. With the clock ticking the two countries have yet to...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 05 Jun 2020
  7. Qatar Signs Record-Breaking Deal For LNG Tankers

    ...mn t/y, which it reached in 2011 (MEES, 8 April 2011). Nakilat lists its current LNG fleet as comprising of 69 LNG tankers including 31 Q-Flex (210-217,000m³) and 14 Q-Max (263-266,000m³) tankers. These Qatari tankers are literally in a class of their own: almost all non-Qatari LNG tankers are of a re...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 05 Jun 2020
  8. Mena’s Poor Relations Turn To IMF To Weather The Covid-19 Storm

    ...START?  Egypt’s tourism sector accounts for 6% of GDP, employs a tenth of the workforce and is a key source of foreign exchange (MEES, 20 March). And it had only just begun to get back on its feet following the 2011 Arab Spring and its ensuing instability. Tourism revenues hit a record high $13.03bn fo...

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 05 Jun 2020
  9. Saudi Arabia Taps Foreign Reserves To Fund Overseas Investments

    ...BRUARY 2011 IN APRIL ($BN) SOURCE: SAMA, MEES....

    Volume: 63
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 05 Jun 2020
  10. Rising Gulf Tensions Cast Spotlight Back On Iran’s Nuclear Capabilities

    ...wever, are uranium upgrading plants at Natanz and Fordow (see table). Bushehr-1 was started up in 2011 after a much-delayed gestation and suffered teething problems before commercial operation was declared in September 2013 (MEES, 10 October 2014). Russia’s Atomstroyexport provides uranium enriched to...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 25
    Published at Fri, 21 Jun 2019
  11. Libya Fights To Keep The Lights On

    ...State power firm Gecol is fighting to stop blackouts amid a destructive battle for Tripoli. Libya’s national power company Gecol has struggled to keep the lights on since the 2011 ‘revolution’ which toppled long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi. Years of war, lawlessness and instability have cr...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 25
    Published at Fri, 21 Jun 2019
  12. Libyan Fertilizer Plant Set To Restart

    ...e marketing of urea and ammonia from Yara with “factory operations expected to restart shortly.” Business for Lifeco hasn’t been great. The JV (50% Yara, 25% NOC, 25% Libyan Investment Authority) has made a loss each year since 2011, a cumulative $570mn to 2018. Yara in 2015 wrote down $112mn an...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 25
    Published at Fri, 21 Jun 2019
  13. Libya’s Oil Sector Feels The Strain

    ...oke out “due to the high temperature experienced in an electric generator” at compound 1 of the Sarir field in the Sirte basin, resulting in a production loss of around 30,000 b/d. Sarir has experienced persistent outages due to power problems since the 2011 ‘revolution’. NOC said the day before th...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 24
    Published at Fri, 14 Jun 2019
  14. Libya: Set For A Gas Boost In 2019?

    ...able than that of oil since the 2011 revolution, in some ways the picture has reversed over the past 18 months or so. Crude output steadily rose to reach 990,000 b/d in 2018 – and a six-year high of 1.26mn b/d in March – whilst gas production fell to 1.34bn cfd, down 25% from 2013’s record 1.79bn cfd ac...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  15. Dubai’s Dragon Roars In To Egypt With BP Purchase

    ...timated $500mn for BP’s Gupco subsidiary, which manages the firm’s 12 concessions containing 45 fields in Egypt’s mature Gulf of Suez oil province. Output was 71,000 b/d for 2017-18, 11% of Egypt overall output, down from 72,500 b/d for 2016-17 and 78,000 b/d for 2011-12. Net output to BP is around 40...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  16. Cyprus: Aphrodite Contract Agreed, 2020 FID?

    ...Cyprus looks to be finally on the path to the realm of gas producers. Nicosia has agreed to sweeten terms in return for a guarantee from Noble, Delek and Shell to develop the 2011 Aphrodite discovery. The Cyprus government and the partners at the country’s 4.2tcf Aphrodite gas field have ag...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  17. Aphrodite Deal Close

    ...US firm Noble Energy and its partners at Cyprus 5tcf Aphrodite gas field are locked in discussions with Nicosia over restructuring the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) signed in August 2011. The original contract model itself was drafted in 2008.  MEES understands that Noble is seeking to...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 26
    Published at Fri, 29 Jun 2018
  18. Eni Ramps-Up Zohr, Mubadala Farms In

    ...t 6.5bn cfd in September, oil minister Tarek El Molla says, an all-time high that easily surpasses the previous record of 6.219bn cfd reached in December 2011. The new gas gains come courtesy of Italian firm Eni’s Zohr gas field. Discovered in August 2015, the field was fast-tracked by Cairo as it...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 26
    Published at Fri, 29 Jun 2018
  19. Qatar & Turkey: Brothers In Arms?

    ...up brought Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to power in Egypt relations with Qatar plunged to even worse depths than prior to Hosni Mubarak’s 2011 ousting. But even now the economic relationship between Qatar and Turkey is relatively menial, even in comparison to that between Ankara, UAE and Saudi Arabia – wi...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 26
    Published at Fri, 29 Jun 2018
  20. Total Poised For Further Mena Upstream Expansion

    ...minant source of Total’s regional gas output (75% in 2017). Mena gas production crumpled from 1.46bn cfd in 2012 to last year’s nadir of 772mn cfd, a near 50% plunge in just six years. This is essentially due to conflict outages. Syrian output averaged 218mn cfd in 2011 before the country’s descent in...

    Volume: 61
    Issue: 25
    Published at Fri, 22 Jun 2018