Apicorp And Bahri Plan $1.5bn Saudi VLCC Shipping Fund

...at “with a current fleet of 36 VLCCs and 10 newbuild orders scheduled for delivery in 2017-18, the 15 crude carriers proposed for acquisition under this fund will propel Bahri into becoming the largest operator of VLCCs in the world.” Last year Bahri awarded Korea’s Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries a co...

Acwa Gets $1.8bn Power Refinance Deal

...33.” Acwa is also involved in the 2.1GW Rabigh 2 IPP project, with partners Samsung of Korea and Dubai-based Mena Infrastructure Fund. Rabigh 2 is owned 50% by the Acwa-led ground and 50% by SEC. The gas-fired plant is scheduled for completion in 2017. SEC is owned 74% by the Saudi government, 7% by...

GCC Bonds’ Bumper Year: 1H16 Surpasses All Previous Full-Year Historic Highs

...pay or refinance bonds worth $94bn in 2016 and 2017. But the current Brent futures curve has oil remaining below $54/B over the next 24 months. The accumulation of debt has led to comparisons with the region's rapid credit expansion in the mid-2000s and subsequent crunch in 2009. “The concern is...

Dubai In 2.4GW Coal Award

...ys Barakah-1 is “88% complete” while the last reactor, Barakah-4, is “31% complete.” Korea’s Kepco E&C originally intended to bring one reactor online each year during 2017-20. However, Enec has recently been saying that the units are “scheduled to be delivered by 2020,” suggesting a delay in sc...

Abu Dhabi Banking Giants In $29bn Merger

...spectively. The expected “effective merger date” is Q1 2017 and the combined bank will retain NBAD’s legal registration and the brand name “National Bank of Abu Dhabi.” FGB’s shares will be delisted on the effective merger date. Shaikh Tahnun bin Zayid Al Nahyan, currently FGB chairman, and brother of the UAE pr...

Egypt Boosts Offshore Gas In Bid To Turn Around Output Slump

...ok to expedite development. Start-up by end 2017 is targeted, ramping up to 2.7bn cfd by end-2019. This is highly ambitious: the IEA considers first output “by the end of the decade” more realistic (MEES, 17 June). Nonetheless, Eni is pressing ahead. On 20 June it awarded Schlumberger subsidiary On...

Mideast Sovereign Wealth Funds Learn To Adapt To Low Oil Price World

...nth with global supply and demand seemingly moving more or less into balance in the second half of this year. However some analysts caution that this balancing is more apparent than real, and that once unplanned outages fall from record levels the market will again move into surplus until well into 2017...

Saudi Post: 2017 Sell-Off

Aramco Sees Gas As Central To Economic Transformation

...pending as it does on political as well as below-ground factors (see p14), easier to forecast is that Saudi NGLs output will continue to rise with that of gas. The IEA has Saudi NGLs output rising by 90,000 b/d between 2015 and 2017 and by a further 75,000 b/d by 2021, while Asia Pacific Energy Consulting pr...

GE Backs Saudi Vision 2030 In $3bn Investment Program With SAIIC

...dustrial value chains in Saudi Arabia. SAIIC and GE say they will roll out joint investments of $1bn (SR3.75bn) by 2017 in addition to an aggregate potential investment of $2bn (SR7.5bn) to “drive projects in water, energy, aviation, digital and other sectors from 2017.” As part of the program, GE will be...

KRG Exports Rise With Boost From New Fields, But Takings Fall

...obable (2P) reserves were sharply downgraded in February (MEES, 4 March). Meanwhile, London-listed Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) plans to produce 41,000 b/d by year-end at the Shaikan field, from around 35,000 b/d currently, but is hamstrung by more than $575mn worth of bonds maturing in 2017. It failed to...

Eni: Unlikely Libya Boost Returns North Africa To Center Stage

...Italian firm Eni saw its North African output rise to a record 38% of its 2015 total. The key boost came from a somewhat unlikely corner – Libya. The region will if anything increase in importance for Eni going forward with first gas from its giant Egyptian Zohr field slated for late 2017...

Corporate Profile: OMV Looks To Iran To Re-Boot MENA Portfolio

...s) out to 2020 despite taking a further ax to exploration spending. 2015 spending of €607mn on exploration was already down by 12% on 2014’s record €693mn. OMV plans a 26% cut to €450mn this year with a further 33% cut to €300mn for 2017 (and this figure maintained for 2018). Overall capex fell from €3....

KRG: Prompt March Payments Boost IOC Outlook

...upon payment is due in October, while payments totaling $575mn are due in 2017 when the bonds mature. If regular payments from the KRG continue, GKP can expect to receive $13.6mn a month. It would need to save around $2.7mn of this in order to meet both the April and October payments while keeping $32...

Petroceltic: Worldview Or Bust

...rly 2019:” the 2012-approved development plan had 2017 (MEES, 13 August 2012); the firm subsequently insisted 2018 was feasible (MEES, 1 May 2015). In fact the project’s delays, so far, have been modest for Algeria. If Worldview is sensible it will seek to keep hold of Petroceltic’s project ma...

Oman Output Set To Keep Edging Up

...portedly slated for investment in the BP-operated (60%) Khazzan gas field (OOCEP 40%). Khazzan’s 1bn cfd capacity Phase One is due to deliver first gas in late 2017. BP and Oman reached a preliminary agreement in February to expand the project to 1.5bn cfd under a second phase, envisioned to come onstream in...

Eni Follows BP, Chevron, QP In Looking To Strike Big On Morocco’s ‘Atlantic Margin’

...ep-pocketed partner. Chariot CEO Larry Bottomley now says that “we anticipate [drilling] to occur in 2017…subject to the relevant approvals, well planning and securing a drill rig.” Eni makes no mention of specific drilling plans, merely talking of “the prospect of finding liquid hydrocarbons.” Ch...

‘Low Cost’ Zohr Moves To Center Stage As Eni Slashes Upstream Spend

...ase. Eni says the “development plan envisages the start of production by the end of 2017,” a highly ambitious target. The terms of the development lease envisage output ramping up to 2.65bn cfd, more than half of the country’s current output, by 2019. But a final investment decision (FID) has yet to be ma...

Libya: Companies Have Only Bad News, Apart From Eni

...FRASTRUCTURE   …BUT BETTER NEWS IN ALGERIA      There was better news for Repsol in Algeria, where Mr Imaz said in prepared remarks on the earnings statement that the execution of the company’s Reggane North project “progresses,” with first gas due in 2017. The project has suffered substantial delays since Re...

Egypt Tying Up Deals For $2.2bn Dairut Power Plant

...art-up during 2017-20 (MEES, 29 January). Turbines for the three 4.8GW plants are being provided by Germany’s Siemens, under an €8bn ($8.81bn) contract. German trade credit insurance agency Euler Hermes is underwriting a €4.1bn, 12-year loan to the Egyptian government to help fund the Siemens de...