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Can Iran’s Nuclear Power Program Offset Surging Consumption?
...om their 20GW plan, Iran will be lucky to hit 10% of that mark. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the only other plant currently under construction in Iran is the 915MW Bushehr-2 plant. Construction began in 2017 with Russian state firm Rosatom at the helm (MEES, 31 Ma...
Volume: 68Issue: 21Published at Fri, 23 May 2025 -
Trump Offers Syria ‘Chance At Greatness,’ Pledges To Remove US Sanctions
...000 b/d of oil and suffered massive damage when ‘Islamic State’ fighters targeted its 88mn cfd capacity processing plant (MEES, 29 September 2017). It was subsequently repaired and operated by GPC, but that also begs the question as to whether the current government would be keen to hand it back. PR...
Volume: 68Issue: 20Published at Fri, 16 May 2025 -
Sudan’s Army Turns To Russia For Weapons In Exchange For Naval ‘Supply Point’
...stored diplomatic relations with Sudan (under the SAF), having severed ties under President Bashir in 2016, when Khartoum sided with Riyadh following an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and later deployed troops to join the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen (MEES, 20 January 2017...
Volume: 67Issue: 22Published at Fri, 31 May 2024 -
Kuwait’s Emir Suspends Parliament;Can He Quell Tumultuous Divisions?
...ss a crucial debt law since 2017 due to opposition by MPs, these onerous spending commitments saw Kuwait rack up some $108bn in cumulative deficits over 2014-2022 (see chart 2). A 2024-2027 government program published earlier this year envisages a further surging of deficits to a colossal total of KD...
Volume: 67Issue: 20Published at Fri, 17 May 2024 -
Libya Sees Smuggling Surge As Oil Prices Rise
...werbrokers. Naturally, the practice puts a huge strain on state coffers and means Libya is effectively paying hundreds of millions each year to smugglers to enrich themselves. Between 2017 and 2021 Libya spent almost $14bn on fuel subsidies according to figures from the central bank (see chart 2). A su...
Volume: 65Issue: 20Published at Fri, 20 May 2022 -
Another One Bites The Dust: Shell To Quit Tunisian Upstream
...bruary 2017), nor did state-power firm Steg’s chronic inability to pay Shell for gas produced. As of end-2018 debt-ridden Steg owed Shell some $230mn. With the current dire state of the country’s finances (see p10), it is unlikely matters have improved since. Shell has previously tried and failed to se...
Volume: 64Issue: 18Published at Fri, 07 May 2021 -
Saudi Arabia Looks To Expand Iraq Footprint
...aken Iran’s dominance in Baghdad (MEES, 1 September 2017). As Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and Middle East expert on the US National Security Council told MEES in 2018, Saudi Arabia’s evolving relationship with Iraq is “perhaps the most enlightened part of current Saudi foreign policy” (ME...
Volume: 63Issue: 22Published at Fri, 29 May 2020 -
Gulf Monarchies Look To Score In Soft Power Premier League
...ch invested over $1bn to date in a bid to win football’s biggest club prize, Europe’s Champion’s League. Adding spice to the contest is that Abu Dhabi alongside Saudi Arabia has been the key instigator of an embargo on Qatar since 2017. At least, to paraphrase George Orwell, football is a war minus th...
Volume: 62Issue: 22Published at Fri, 31 May 2019 -
Saudi Keeps Crude Exports Tight Despite Us Pressure
...12mn b/d, the lowest quarterly figure since 4Q 2017 (see chart 1 and p18 for full data). They appear on track to dip further in Q2. MEES pegs exports at a shade over 7mn b/d during April, and slightly less than this over the first half of May. Of course, this could all change. Saudi Arabia could ramp up pr...
Volume: 62Issue: 21Published at Fri, 24 May 2019 -
Iran Sets New Rules For Repatriation Of Petchems Forex
...rrency earnings, as Tehran struggles to access its export revenues under tough US sanctions. State petrochemicals firm National Petrochemical Company (NPC) and its subsidiaries and affiliates earned some $10bn in the Iranian 2017-18 calendar year before the US unilaterally reimposed sanctions in May 20...
Volume: 62Issue: 21Published at Fri, 24 May 2019 -
Yemen: Second IOC Returns Despite No End In Sight To Conflict
...rm PetroMasila’s Blocks 10 & 14 – the main producers of Masila grade crude – and sent via a 150km, 300,000 b/d pipeline to the Ash Shihr terminal which has storage capacity of 3.5mn barrels. PetroMasila was the first firm to restart production in Yemen back in 2016 (MEES, 15 September 2017). Ca...
Volume: 62Issue: 20Published at Fri, 17 May 2019 -
Tamar Shutdown Highlights Israel Upstream Risk
...e online in Q4 this year (see box and MEES, 12 April). Israel has struggled to attract big names to its upstream. The country’s previous bid round in 2017 flopped with Greek minnow Energean the key winner (MEES, 15 December 2017) – Indian state firms also took one block but they have yet to co...
Volume: 62Issue: 19Published at Fri, 10 May 2019 -
Tensions Flare As Turkey Drills Off Cyprus
...ach any sort of compromise, with the most recent summit in Switzerland in 2017, the last concerted efforts, failing to reach any sort of deal. Turkey has warned Cyprus about its own drilling activities to the south of the island and has been threatening since 2011, when Noble Energy discovered the 4....
Volume: 62Issue: 19Published at Fri, 10 May 2019 -
Qatar Diversifies Trade Links Post-Embargo
...With the first anniversary of the Qatar embargo looming on 5 June, Doha’s finances look to have largely coped with the upheaval. New import and export routes were quickly established, enabling the emirate to capitalize on rising oil prices and cut its budget deficit by a third in 2017. La...
Volume: 61Issue: 21Published at Fri, 25 May 2018 -
Libya: What Hope For The UN’s Ambitious ‘Action Plan’?
...The UN Action Plan to resolve Libya’s political morass has made some progress. But renewed security concerns mean the country’s future is as uncertain as ever. Since the incoming UN Special Representative to Libya Ghassan Salamé set out an ‘Action Plan’ in September 2017, he has come up ag...
Volume: 61Issue: 20Published at Fri, 18 May 2018 -
US Violation Of Iran Nuclear Agreement Sends Buyers Scrambling
...r Iran that includes the strategic objective of denying Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon.” But having abrogated an agreement that had at least paused this, the US appears to be left with an objective but no clear strategy. 1. EU IMPORTS OF IRANIAN CRUDE DOUBLE IN 2017, NUMBER OF BUYERS RISES FR...
Volume: 61Issue: 19Published at Fri, 11 May 2018 -
KRG: Foreign Firms Press On Amidst Uncertainty
...rlier (the vast bulk is from the KRG which accounted for 96% of 2017 output, MEES, 23 February). “We have the wind on our back…With higher oil prices [and] timely export payments in Kurdistan,” DNO Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani says. DNO plans to hike KRG spending by 50% to $250mn for 20...
Volume: 61Issue: 17Published at Fri, 04 May 2018 -
Trump/Saudi Love-In Dulls Iran Post-Election Oil Investment Hope
...d Inpex from Japan have expressed serious interest in participating in the development of the Iranian oil sector. They will now have to decide if the time is right to take the plunge. Under Iran’s sixth five-year plan 2017-22, the oil industry requires around $200bn of investment if it is to me...
Volume: 60Issue: 21Published at Fri, 26 May 2017 -
Algeria Parliamentary Poll: Status Quo - On, And On, And On Again
...ts. With the government announcing further fiscal consolidation this year, the World Bank expects real GDP growth to average 1.2% in 2017-19, down from 3.8% in 2016 – that was primarily due to a strong recovery in hydrocarbon production and higher-than-expected spending. “In 2017-19, a modest 2....
Volume: 60Issue: 20Published at Fri, 19 May 2017 -
Wintershall Dispute Takes Gloss Off Libya Production Peak
...cluded in the latest lifting programs for Amna crude at Zueitina Terminal, Wintershall Libya was forced to shut in oil production from its onshore Concession 96 on 7 March 2017,” said the spokesman. “It would not be an economic exploitation of the petroleum resources of the concession to continue pr...
Volume: 60Issue: 19Published at Fri, 12 May 2017