Asian LNG Prices ($/mn btu): Spot Prices Soar To Over $30/mn btu, Average Chinese Price Highest Since 2014

China LNG Imports Soar, Prices At 7-Year High

...s well above Korea’s $11.36/mn BTU and China’s highest monthly price since 2014....

China Crude Imports: Mideast Volumes Hit Record Highs

...r full data).   CHINA CRUDE IMPORTS ('000 B/D): MIDEAST VOLUMES AT RECORD HIGH FOR 9M21 SOURCE: CHINA CUSTOMS, MEES CALCULATIONS.   The Middle East’s share of the China market peaked at 52% in 2014 but slid in the following years amid record volumes from the likes of Br...

Russia’s Tatneft Returns To Libya

...’, as well as three onshore blocks in the Ghadames Basin known as ‘Area 64’.   Another potential returnee is Polish state oil firm PGNiG which was forced to cut short an exploration program on its Area 113 concession in 2014 and had appeared to be on the cusp of exiting the country co...

Egypt Gas Market Tightens As Fuel Oil Burn Returns

...oothly since an extended 2019 shutdown for repairs, and before that chronic 2014-16 gas shortages (MEES, 17 May 2019), it is worth noting that Q2’s 268,000 tons of methanol output was well down on the average of around 300,000 tons for the preceding three quarters. Whilst the firm’s most recent results in...

Kuwait Oil Company Capacity Slumps To 12-Year Low

...pacity dropped to 1.391mn b/d, down by 97,000 b/d from 2019-20’s 1.488mn b/d for a cumulative loss of 320,000 b/d over the past five years (see chart 3). BP was brought in during 2014 (MEES, 14 November 2014) under a technical service agreement – later upgraded to an enhanced technical service agreement (ET...

Iraq Picks Up The Pace On Exploration; Can It Snag Chevron?

...6tcf of 5.6tcf gas in place is estimated to be recoverable. Akkas was originally awarded to Korean state firm Kogas (100%) in 2010, with the firm targeting 400mn cfd for a remuneration fee of $5.50/boe (MEES, 25 October 2010). Kogas declared force majeure on the field in 2014 as Islamic State ov...

Algeria’s Sonatrach Greenlights Key Gas Project

...tput will be far lower than the headline 5bcm/y figure. Sonatrach last published a production figure for Alrar way back in 2014 when output was 5.5bcm. UK engineering firm Petrofac is currently carrying out an EPC contract for Tinhert Phase 1, which  sees another group of Illizi basin fields tied ba...

World Faces Oil & Gas Investment Chasm

...ice collapses in 2014-15 and again in 2020. As a result, it is geared towards a world of stagnant or even falling demand…We are not investing enough to meet for future energy needs.” But whilst even a year ago the IEA viewed the collapse in energy investment as clearly unsustainable, it is now ca...

South Korea Crude Imports: Mideast Share At Record Low

...*South Korea’s crude imports, at 2.58mn b/d for 9M 2021 are down 4% year-on-year putting this year on track for the lowest imports since 2014.   *And volumes from Middle East and Opec countries are down much further as Korea continues a drive to diversify supplies.   *Mideast vo...

Iraq Braces For Government Formation: Sadr Wins Most Seats, Maliki Close Behind

...e outgoing parliament (see table). Sadr now has the largest bloc in parliament but he is tailed by the country’s longest serving post-2003 prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki who was in office from 2006 to 2014. Maliki’s ‘State of Law’ alliance added 10 seats for a provisional total of 35. But Mr Ma...

Algeria’s Economic Rebound: Can It Seize The Moment?

...I and diversify the economy? Algeria is set for its first trade surplus since 2014 as higher oil and gas prices coupled with a boost in export volumes drag its economy out of an abyss. If the latest estimates from Algerian officials prove correct, a surge in exports to $37.5bn is set to result in...

Petrofac Hopes To Turn Page After UK Bribery Conviction

...yments in 2013 and 2014 (MEES, 19 March). Being shut out of what were three key markets – and also the three (alongside Qatar) Mena markets with the largest suite of upcoming energy investments (MEES, 30 April) – has left Petrofac casting round for work in what were formerly marginal areas such as Li...

Dana Gas Wins Iran Arbitration

...intly owned by Dana Gas and its largest shareholder Crescent Petroleum, for the supply of up to 600mn cfd from the shared Salman field beginning in 2005.   Despite NIOC completing its section of the export pipeline, the agreement was effectively frozen after Iran demanded higher gas prices. In 2014...

Kuwait Starts Up Key Northern Oil Facility

...thering center in the north of the emirate. GC-31 is one of three gathering centers for which contracts worth $2.3bn were awarded in 2014 (MEES, 11 July 2014). All were initially slated to come online in late 2017, but were delayed. The first two, GC-29 and GC-30 were brought online in 2018, but GC-31’s co...

Adnoc Adopts Targeted Approach In Search For Unconventional Partner

...rategy.” This strategy has seen Adnoc radically shakeup its foreign partnerships in recent years. On the upstream side the expiry and renewal of long-term concessions over 2014-2018, coupled with the launch of exploration bid rounds, enabled Adnoc to bring in a range of new foreign partners based primarily on...

Mubadala Completes Israel Entry With Tamar Buy-In

...tting record output of 1.014bn cfd in the same year.    But output from Tamar has fallen since, a trend that Mubadala will be looking to reverse. Output for Q2 this year fell to just 660mn cfd, the lowest quarter since Q1 2014, as Leviathan undercut Tamar’s price in sales to state utility IEC. Th...

Power Struggles Threaten Libya’s Oil Rebound

...e east and west. This was the story of Libya between 2014 and 2021. DIVISION REDUX?       The eastern-aligned speaker of the country’s parliament, Aguila Saleh, has already suggested a rival government could be set up in the east in the absence of a vote. And last week Mr Saleh accused the Pr...

Libya Eyes Mabruk Field Redevelopment

...Libya’s Mabruk Oil Operations this month presented a redevelopment plan for the 34,000 b/d Mabruk field which has been offline since 2014 due to an Islamic State attack (MEES, 6 March 2015). Mabruk Oil, a 49:51 JV between France’s TotalEnergies and NOC, says it aims to restart the field in Oc...

Baghdad-KRG Payment Woes

...aq’s International Chamber of Commerce arbitration with Turkey over of the KRG’s use of the Turkish section of the former Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline (MEES, 20 May 2014). Mr Allawi says he “hears that Iraq’s position is strong” and that the decision might be “favorable.” Iraq claims $26bn in losses, cl...