1. Adnoc Targets Big Gains From Transformational Foreign Partnerships

    ...reamlining of subsidiaries in 2017 (MEES, 20 October 2017). Equally notable is the revolution underway in reshaping Adnoc’s partnerships with foreign oil firms. The number of such firms partnered with Adnoc in its upstream operations has soared from 12 in 2014 to 17 currently (see chart 1). Moreover, th...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 24
    Published at Fri, 14 Jun 2019
  2. UAE Gas Production, Consumption Rise To Record Levels

    ...2018, despite imposing an embargo on its neighbor in June 2017 (MEES, 9 June 2017). Qatari stats show that the emirate exported $1.41bn worth of goods to the UAE in 2018, the bulk of which will have comprised gas supplies through the Dolphin consortium’s pipeline (Abu Dhabi state firm Mubadala 51...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 24
    Published at Fri, 14 Jun 2019
  3. Opec Faces Extended Demand Slump

    ...mand for Opec crude peaked at 32.55mn b/d in 2017, more than 3mn b/d above the 2020 forecast. Will this peak ever be regained?   *The bright side for Opec is that the IEA projects that global demand growth will accelerate in 2020 to its highest level since 2017. The IEA sees demand growth ri...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 24
    Published at Fri, 14 Jun 2019
  4. Iran Looks To Protect Lucrative Petchems Earnings From Tightening US Sanctions

    ...reements with foreign firms for a variety of petchems plants (MEES, 11 August 2017 and MEES, 17 March 2017). Among the firms signing agreements, Denmark’s Haldor Topsoe has since closed its Tehran office (MEES, 31 August 2018), while the other seven projects have not progressed further. One of these wa...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 24
    Published at Fri, 14 Jun 2019
  5. Dubai Looks To Clean Up Powergen Act With 2050 Plan

    ...r later release to turbines (MEES, 16 June 2017). The flagship project in Dewa’s solar program is the 5GW MBR Solar Park under development 50km south of Dubai city at Seih al Dalal. In March Dewa invited developers to submit qualification documents for an independent power producer (IPP) project fo...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 24
    Published at Fri, 14 Jun 2019
  6. 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
  7. Opec Output Rises In May Ahead Of Latest Crunch Meeting

    ...entually forced Opec, Russia and their allies to implement supply cuts from January 2017 that have broadly been in force ever since (MEES, 10 December 2016). Demand growth meanwhile has been speeding along in excess of 1mn b/d each year, including around 1.9mn b/d over 2015, and has been projected at 1....

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  8. GCC Rift Enters Third Year As Qatar PM’s Saudi Trip Ends In Acrimony

    ...abia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar (MEES, 9 June 2017). The rift shows no sign of easing. Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani last week became the first senior official to visit Saudi Arabia since the June 2017 flareup when he attended a series of su...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  9. Saudi Aramco Trading Gets Fujairah Boost

    ...Saudi Aramco’s trading arm is ramping up activity as the state firm seeks to maximize profitability. A new Singapore office opened in 2017, and this week saw a branch open in the key Mideast bunkering port of Fujairah. As Saudi Aramco looks to develop new revenue streams, the state oil gi...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  10. Ineos Signs Up With Aramco/Total For Satorp Integrated Petchems

    ...used this phrase in December 2017 to describe a plant to be built in the US for start-up in third quarter 2019 that it also said would have 120,000 t/y capacity and be the “world’s largest single PAO train.” A similar scale here seems likely. The two largest of the Ineos plants will require fe...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  11. Oman’s 2019 Power Start-Ups Are Last Gas Burners In Project Pipeline

    ...-field operations across the huge Block 6 (MEES, 2 November 2018); and rural electricity provider Raeco’s 50MW wind farm being built at Harweel in the Dhofar region (MEES, 3 February 2017). OPWP has proposed a 1.5GW coal-fired power plant at Duqm on the Arabian Sea coast, but this project may be...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  12. Algeria Cuts Deficit For 2018: Gains Will Likely Prove Short-Lived

    ...venue. Overall 2018 state revenues, at AD6,620bn ($56.5bn), were up 9.5% on 2017 in nominal dinar terms, though the gains fall to 4% in dollar terms given the continued slide of the Algerian currency against the greenback. $1 bought AD111 in 2017, AD117 in 2018 and an average of AD119 so far in 2019. Sp...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  13. Oman Nears ‘Sin Tax’ Startup

    ...abia was the first to impose excise taxes in June 2017 (MEES, 2 June 2017), followed by the UAE in October 2017 (MEES, 6 October 2017) and Bahrain at the end of 2017. Qatar followed suit in January 2019, but Kuwait has yet to announce a date to impose excise taxes. Though the GCC is looking in...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  14. Israel Extends Bidding

    ...ich took five blocks, while a consortium of Indian firms led by state giant ONGC Videsh took one (MEES, 24 November 2017). Israel hopes that, having purchased a data package, US major ExxonMobil will be the breakthrough entrant in the latest bidding (MEES, 15 March)....

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 23
    Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019
  15. Libya’s North Hamada: Development At Last?

    ...0.2mn (MEES 27 October 2017) – implying that it no longer planned to develop Area 47. However, seemingly under pressure from NOC, it reversed this impairment the following year. That said, with Medco barely mentioning Libya in its results material, it appears to be close to quitting Libya following its re...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 22
    Published at Fri, 31 May 2019
  16. 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: 62
    Issue: 22
    Published at Fri, 31 May 2019
  17. Gulf Refiners Push 2.7Mn B/D Crude Processing Hike By End-2025

    ...udi Arabia which will lift the kingdom’s refining capacity to 3.3mn b/d. The refinery was originally due online in 2017 (MEES, 28 February 2014) and its planned late-2019 start up may yet slip into 2020 (MEES, 22 February). However, the project looks more likely to come online this year with Iraq’s pl...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 22
    Published at Fri, 31 May 2019
  18. Morocco Awards ‘Game-Changer’ Hybrid Solar Project

    ...o PV-CSP hybrids to be built at Midelt. The plan is to install 1GW of capacity across the two sites, with phase two developed like phase one as an independent power producer (IPP) project backed by a 25-year power purchase agreement (MEES, 23 June 2017). Masdar chief executive Mohamed al-Ramahi sa...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 22
    Published at Fri, 31 May 2019
  19. Egypt: 1.5GW Power Awards

    ...0MW. MHPC says the upgrades will increase output, improve efficiency and reduce downtime at the plants. The upgraded plants are expected to begin operating in the first half of 2021. MHPS also says it this month completed an upgrade of the 1.5GW Cairo North CCGT under a contract awarded in August 2017...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 22
    Published at Fri, 31 May 2019
  20. Egypt’s Offshore Delta Output: Nooros Boost, Rapid Decline

    ...end last year despite an increase in output from 1.0bn cfd to 1.17bn cfd at the 2017 Nooros start-up on the Abu Madi West block. The firms’ other four regional blocks – El Temsah, Ras el Bar, Baltim and North Port Said – remain in unremitting decline. Having waned from above 2bn cfd in 2012 to 93...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 21
    Published at Fri, 24 May 2019