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KRG Oil Sector Risks Unwinding In 2020
...evitable (see box, p3). The current situation is the most perilous the KRG has faced since Baghdad reclaimed swathes of territory in the aftermath of the ill fated September 2017 referendum on independence (MEES, 29 September 2017). Oil prices have crashed so far that revenues now fall well short of th...
Volume: 63Issue: 21Published at Fri, 22 May 2020 -
Low Cost Qatar Targets Counter Cyclical Investment
...cess cargoes, prices there are just as weak (MEES, 1 November 2019), and as a result export revenues had plunged to their lowest level since 2017 (MEES, 1 May). Cutting volumes below Qatar’s 77mn t/y capacity could provide a price-boost, but QP doesn’t intend to provide a helping hand to rival pr...
Volume: 63Issue: 21Published at Fri, 22 May 2020 -
QP Wades Further Into Mexico’s Offshore
...ocks 15 and 33 – are operated by Total, while Block 34 is operated by BP. BP’s involvement may yet prove a major hurdle, given the firm’s self-described “long and checkered relationship with Qatar” (MEES, 17 November 2017). BP has been notably absent since QP rejuvenated its international portfolio in...
Volume: 63Issue: 19Published at Fri, 08 May 2020 -
Lebanon Gas Ambitions In Limbo As Virgin Well Falls Flat
...ploration well in Block 9 by May 2021 (MEES, 16 February 2018). Lebanon struggled with political crises and instability for the better half of the last decade, which pushed back its first bid round from 2012 until 2017 (MEES, 24 January). But following the block awards in late 2017 facilitated by the (te...
Volume: 63Issue: 18Published at Fri, 01 May 2020 -
Baghdad-KRG Talks Raise Prospect Of Gas Development Deal
...northern provinces of Kirkuk, Salahuddin, Nineveh, Diyala and potentially further south. But politics – such as the fallout from the KRG’s contentious September 2017 independence referendum (MEES, 29 September 2017) – has always intervened. Still, energy-sector cooperation has continued de...
Volume: 63Issue: 17Published at Fri, 24 Apr 2020 -
Iran Eyes Key Project Start-Ups For 2020-21
...d Chinese state firm CNPC in 2017 under a high-profile $4.8bn contract. Phase-11 is meant to add 2bn cfd of gas and 80,000 b/d condensate, with the two firms having intended to achieve first-gas by March 2021 (MEES, 7 July 2017) until the 2018-sanctions derailed the project. Total in particular was br...
Volume: 63Issue: 16Published at Fri, 17 Apr 2020 -
Egypt Halts LNG Exports As Eni & Shell Bear The Brunt Of Gas Surplus
.../B.” In normal terms, Egypt’s gas renaissance has been a great success story. From a sizable gas deficit for 2014-17, new output led by Eni’s giant Zohr, which came online in December 2017, has meant that since late 2018 the country has had a gas surplus (MEES, 17 May 2019), with exports hitting an ei...
Volume: 63Issue: 15Published at Fri, 10 Apr 2020 -
Algeria: Southwest Pipeline Progress, But Field Development Lags
...uat gas project – the UK-firm announced last week that after ramp-up delays, Touat was producing “close to plateau rates” (MEES, 3 April). Repsol-operated Reggane Nord, at 2.9bcm/y, was the first element to start up in late 2017. Here partner Edison is in the process of quitting with talks for So...
Volume: 63Issue: 15Published at Fri, 10 Apr 2020 -
Mena Drilling: GCC Records, North Africa Slump
...ans to raise capacity to 5mn b/d, though it hopes to be able to cut costs by squeezing contractors (see p3). Kuwait’s Q1 average rig count of 53 was, likewise, second only to the record 55 set in 2017. *Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is in the midst of a multi-year campaign to bolster the co...
Volume: 63Issue: 15Published at Fri, 10 Apr 2020 -
Iraq Asks IOCs To Slash Spending As Export Revenues Halve
...cord 4.63mn b/d last year, due largely to its immense low-cost reserves. With things back to “normal” following defeat of the Islamic State insurgency in 2017, Baghdad eyed a massive overhaul of its energy sector, including several new refineries, revamped export infrastructure, production capacity in...
Volume: 63Issue: 14Published at Fri, 03 Apr 2020 -
Algeria’s Sonatrach Halves Planned 2020 Spending
...re just $62bn, less than a third of the 2014 peak. Many in Algiers seem to have convinced themselves that oil prices in 2015 (then 2016, then 2017…) were unusually low and would revert to ‘normal’. But far from being ‘rainy days’ this period now looks like the calm before the storm. While many lo...
Volume: 63Issue: 13Published at Fri, 27 Mar 2020 -
Aramco Focuses Investment On Offshore And Gas
...gnificant milestone has been achieved with the commissioning of additional surface processing facilities that include four satellite facilities and associated well sites. Total North Arabia processing capacity is now 400mn cfd the firm says. The Turaif project started up in 2017 with initial sales gas ou...
Volume: 63Issue: 12Published at Fri, 20 Mar 2020 -
Saudi Arabia Throws Down Gauntlet With Aggressive Expansion Targets
...rrels at the end of 2019 according to the most recent Jodi statistics (MEES, 21 February). This is a sizeable stockpile, but it is the lowest since 2013 and is less than half the record 329.5mn barrels that was reached in October 2015. Despite its stated aim since the start of Opec+ cuts in January 2017...
Volume: 63Issue: 11Published at Fri, 13 Mar 2020 -
Egypt Upstream Spending Slashed With Oil Price ‘Disaster’
...w several go bust (MEES, 3 February 2017). With Brent prices having collapsed from $67/B at the start of 2020 to barely half this as MEES went to press, many smaller producers are slashing all but essential spending in a bid to keep their heads above water. One such firm is Canada’s Tr...
Volume: 63Issue: 11Published at Fri, 13 Mar 2020 -
Saudi Starts Up Key Fadhili Gas Plant
...aning that even after Tanajib starts up it will still be short by nearly 1.5bn cfd (MEES, 15 December 2017). The enormous $110bn Jafurah unconventional gas project is slated to start-up in 2024, but initial volumes are unclear. Given the long ramp-up to 2.2bn cfd sales gas capacity in 2036, Jafurah is un...
Volume: 63Issue: 10Published at Fri, 06 Mar 2020 -
Algeria’s Hassi Messaoud Gets Boost, More To Come
...ES, 21 February). Dodsal is also working on a 66,000 b/d gas-oil separation and compression project at the southern end of Hassi Messaoud, which at the time of its award in 2017 had a 2020 completion target. This is likely to slip however, as Algeria’s 2018 energy activity report released in Oc...
Volume: 63Issue: 10Published at Fri, 06 Mar 2020 -
Saudi Unconventional Plans Come At A Princely Price
...the Hawiyah gas plant expansion, which is slated to add 1bn cfd processing capacity by June 2021 (MEES, 15 December 2017). Tanajib is then set to come online in 2023, bringing Saudi gas processing capacity up to 21.6bn cfd. Jafurah is then slated to start-up the following year, but there is no in...
Volume: 63Issue: 09Published at Fri, 28 Feb 2020 -
Oman’s Upstream Gets Key Gas & Offshore Boost
...scalzi says the target is “most likely gas or gas/condensate” (MEES, 15 November 2019). The firm is proud of kicking off drilling only seven months after the acquisition closed, though it was provisionally awarded the block in 2017 (MEES, 15 September 2017). Eni has 55% of Block 52, Qatar state firm QP...
Volume: 63Issue: 08Published at Fri, 21 Feb 2020 -
Saudi Energy Minister Makes Gas Export Pledge
...e task to transition towards becoming a gas exporter is no easy one. Indeed, prior to the June 2017 Qatar embargo, Saudi Arabia had been in talks with its gas rich neighbor to begin imports (MEES, 8 December 2017). Sales gas output was a record 8.9bn cfd in 2018, from raw gas output of around 12...
Volume: 63Issue: 08Published at Fri, 21 Feb 2020 -
Stars Align As Exxon Hikes Egypt Commitment
...epwater discoveries” in 2019 – and the only one outside Guyana. The Star Block covers an area that up to 2017 belonged to UK major BP, through its North Tennin block and Italian firm Eni through its Karawan concession (MEES, 24 March 2017). Prior to this the acreage was part of Shell’s giant Nemed Bl...
Volume: 63Issue: 07Published at Fri, 14 Feb 2020