Barakah Reactor At 80% Capacity

...ll capacity while its performance is monitored. Nawah says that once 100% output is achieved, the plant will be gradually shut down for a check outage which “takes place over several months.” Barakah-1 was planned for start-up in 2017, with the other three units to be brought on line at yearly in...

Tunisia: Southern Output Returns

...ocked output from Tataouine province, calling on Tunis to implement a 2017 deal on promising investment and jobs (MEES, 18 September). The new deal stipulates that the government create a development fund, hire 1,000 workers and drop charges against protesters arrested during the unrest. The bl...

Dana Makes Sukuk Payment

...UAE-based, KRG focused independent Dana Gas announced 2 November that it has “fully redeemed the $309mn” outstanding balance of a Sukuk issued on 31 October 2017. Dana, which has a history of strained relations with its Sukuk holders (MEES, 18 August 2017), had already made $221mn worth of re...

Saudi Oil Export Earnings At Two Year Low

...Saudi Arabia oil export revenues came in at $15.5bn in September, the lowest level in exactly two years. The latest government statistics show that earnings were the lowest since September 2017’s $13.6bn, and were down from $5.9bn the previous month. This was of course an inauspicious month fo...

Egypt’s EETC Bags $200mn EBRD Loan…

...s the lead investor at Benban, after Cairo’s Ministry of Energy relaxed previously prohibitive solar development terms (MEES, 3 November 2017).  ...

UAE Eyes Early 2020 Nuclear Start-Up

...e Barakah-1 reactor is mechanically complete and being prepared for operation when the operating license is received from FANR. Enec intended to bring the four 1.4GW Barakah reactors online at yearly intervals during 2017-20, but FANR will not licence Nawah operating JV of Enec and Korean co...

Saudi Net Foreign Assets Slump Below $500bn In Wake Of Abqaiq Attack, Biggest Monthly Fall Since Jan 2017

Egypt Kicks-Off 2018-19 Fundraising

...an to raise $5bn this year is an indication of its improving finances following its $12bn IMF sponsored financial reform program which officially ended in August of this year (MEES, 13 September). Since entering the program in November 2016 Egypt has borrowed $7bn in 2016-17, $6.5bn in 2017-18 and $6....

Egypt Inks E&P Deals

...gust) output risks falling below the previous low of 330,000 b/d set in March 2017 whilst Egypt’s overall output looks set to test the 35-year low of 614,000 b/d set the same month (see chart). EGYPT'S SLIDING OIL OUTPUT ('000 B/D) Source: EGPC.  ...

Korea LNG: Qatar Volumes Slump

...rean imports. And for October Qatari volumes fell to just 0.47mn tons, the lowest monthly figure in well over a decade (see chart). Such has been Qatar’s dominance in Korea that only twice since 2013 had it not been top on a monthly basis (edged out by Australia in September 2017 and June this ye...

Algeria-To-Italy Gas: New Deals, Reduced Aspirations

...ock a massive fall in 2019. Volumes for the first 10 months of this year were down 39% at 8.4bcm. And whilst 2017 and 2018 saw volumes pick up in Q4, this has not been the case this year: deliveries through 14 November were flat with October (and down slightly on September) levels. Full-year 2019 de...

Total’s Anadarko-Algeria Assets Completion: ‘Late 2020’, Perhaps Never

...tstanding.  “Discussions with the authorities” in both Algeria and Ghana “are still ongoing,” Mr Sbraire says, adding that “We have this type of discussion in particular in Algeria…We are of course familiar to this kind of discussions when we acquired the Maersk portfolio.” As part of Total’s 2017 purchase of...

Iraq To Keep Up 2019 Asia Exports

...stomers, having also “reviewed purchasing orders from new companies that seem to be qualified to purchase Iraqi crude.” Allocations are nonetheless flexible and subject to change. Whilst Iraq exported only 56% of its crude to Asia in 2017, the portion has grown significantly in recent months. Based on sh...

Cyprus: Total, Eni Expand

...the south of Block 7, borders Egypt’s 21.5tcf Zohr discovery, though a dry well drilled here last September (MEES, 15 September 2017) may have dampened interest. The two firms’ next planned Cyprus well is an appraisal well at Calypso slated for 2H 2019. Currently drilling is ExxonMobil with it...

Adnoc: Crude imports for RUWAIS

...fline since a fire in January 2017 but Mr Alhajri says it is now being recommissioned and will hopefully be online by year-end, with full production in 1Q 2019.  ...

Algeria: Touat Nears Start-Up

...d the last to start up. Repsol’s 2.7bcm/y Reggane saw first gas at end-2017 (MEES, 22 December 2017) and Total’s 1.8bcm/y Timimoun in February (MEES, 2 March). Delays at Touat have likely put paid to Algeria’s hopes that 2018 production would top the last two years of record gas output (94.8bcm for 20...

Jordan Starts Tafila Wind

...nstruction in 2017 with a view to first electricity generation in 2019 (MEES, 14 April 2016). Daelim says it reached financial close for the project in September, with funding being provided by IFC and private banks covered by the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-Sure). Plant start-up is now scheduled fo...

Cyprus: Exxon Drillship In Place

...d Total lost out to the US-major (MEES, 24 March 2017). Total drilled in the adjacent Block 11 in 2017 but failed to find marketable volumes of gas, while the French firm relinquished Block 10 in early 2015, before Zohr was discovered, when seismic failed to show any sizeable prospects. Co...

KRG’s Atrush Field Hits Record

...The 30,000 b/d capacity Atrush field (Taqa 39.9% op, Shamaran 20.1%, Marathon 15%, KRG 25%) hit a monthly high of 26,800 b/d in October. After starting up in July 2017, Atrush output slumped in early 2018 to just 12,500 b/d in April due to “unexpectedly high concentrations of salts flowed ba...

Oman: $4.6bn For Duqm Refinery

...e mid-2000s and finalized in 2012 for a 2017 completion, but financing issues have perennially plagued development (MEES, 25 August 2017). A large chunk of the financing has now been finalized and construction, which began in June (MEES, 31 August), can ramp up. A source close to the project to...