Oman Oil Eyes 2020 IPO

...cidental’s 120,000 b/d Muzkhaizna heavy oil field (20% OOC), and several other projects. “Going forward, you will see more of this trend in Oman – where we take a minority share in upstream projects and partner with foreign operators,” OOC chief Isam Saud al-Zadjali said in 2017, highlighting OOC’s role fu...

Algeria Blocks Total-Oxy-Anadarko Deal

...adarko Africa’ price tag, save for a clear indication that Mozambique accounted for the lion’s share. Total had already acquired 12.25% of the blocks in question (404a and 208) when it bought Maersk’s upstream assets in 2017 (MEES, 27 August 2017). The deal to take Occidental’s operating stakes of 24...

Opec Output On Track For Eight-Year Low

...ly mean one thing. The only question is: By how much will they fall? MEES calculates that this year’s export revenues are at risk of falling below 2017’s $556bn to around $550bn. Will this week’s outcome lift prices sufficiently for 2019 revenues to scrape ahead of 2017?  OPEC WELLHEAD PR...

Upcoming GCC Summit Raises Qatar Questions

...nsions with Qatar. However, even if the embargo is ended, a return to the pre-June 2017 status quo is highly unlikely (MEES, 9 June 2017). It will take a long time for Qatar’s leadership to regain trust in its neighbors. Qatar has also had to substantially alter its trade flows to replace imports fr...

Aramco India Strategy Hit By $26bn Price Hike At Downstream JV

...uld conceivably include high value products such as those produced by Aramco and US firm Dow at their Sadara plant at Jubail (MEES, 28 July 2017). Reliance is “the world’s largest integrated producer of polyester fibre and yarn.” Other products include polymers, aromatics, elastomers and composite ma...

Mena Renewables Programs Boosted By Multilateral Financing

...ojects in Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia, while in 2018 it provided loans to Lebanon for the first time. Peak Mena funding was $2.27bn in 2017, while total funding amounted to $10.40bn in 2012-18, including $2.74bn in energy (see charts). In 2018 EBRD invested €1.99bn ($2.24bn) in its five Mena in...

Egypt: Current Account Deficit Widens Despite Strengthening Growth

...a surplus of $13.7bn the following year and $12.8bn for 2017-18 before slipping to slight deficit for 2018-19 (see chart 2). 1. EGYPT'S CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT ROSE TO $8.2BN FOR 2018-19 AMID LOWER REMITTANCES AND RECORD INVESTMENT OUTFLOWS ($BN) EGYPTIAN FINANCIAL YEARS RUN FROM JULY-JU...

QP Announces Aggressive Upscaling Of LNG Expansion Project

...ld MEES in 2017 that “the winner in this business is the one which can remain the lowest cost producer…we are the lowest cost producer” (MEES, 8 December 2017). When it comes to the expansion, Mr Kaabi is adamant that “you have to make sure that you are going to be efficient in your construction, an...

Baghdad And KRG Sign Preliminary Oil Sharing, Budget Deal

...mo. The KRG’s independent oil exports have been a major bone of contention with Baghdad and a key cause of broader tensions between the two parties – including the 2017 operation to retake two of the KRG’s key producing fields, Bai Hassan and the Avana Dome, which transferred 280,000 b/d of production ba...

Abu Dhabi Goes Big On PV As ‘Nonconventional’ CSP Output Slides

...nventional plant. The data implies that Shams-1 has not performed as well as intended. In an AIP Conference Proceedings paper published in June 2017, Shams Power Company general manager Abdulaziz Alobaidli says “it was obvious from the very first day of this project that it will be very challenging” to bu...

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

Kuwait Oil Exports: China Dominant, While Vietnam Rises

...rea’s imports of Kuwaiti oil are already on track to fall to a four-year low of 411,000 b/d in 2019, while No.4 buyer India is heading for a three-year low of 209,000 b/d. Taiwan volumes are also in decline and are neck-and-neck with the 2017-level (see chart). Kuwaiti crude and condensate exports ha...

Algerian Gas Exports Set For Quarter-Century Low

...derlying declines at aging fields. Even though three projects in the southwest with a combined 9.2bcm capacity have come online since 2017, Algeria has recorded output declines in each of the following years. And while the long-delayed 4.5bcm Touat project led by London-based Neptune Energy finally started up...

Not So Rapid: Aramco Malaysia Downstream JV Delayed

...ds. Aramco’s 9 November IPO prospectus says the PrefChem ARDS fire “has delayed the expected commissioning of the facility from the end of 2019 until the second half of 2020.” Aramco paid Petronas $7bn to buy into the PrefChem refinery and integrated petchems project in 2017, when it was called th...

KRG Eyes Major Boost As Exxon/DNO Firm Up Baeshiqa Light Oil Find

...praisal drilling on the Baeshiqa license it had issued “a notice of discovery” for “light oil and sour gas” to the KRG. Located in territory disputed by Baghdad and the KRG, DNO agreed in 2017 to take half of ExxonMobil’s 64% stake in Baeshiqa and obtain operatorship (MEES, 8 September 2017). The cu...

Saudi Reveals Record Stock Drawdown Post Abqaiq

...re diesel, but at 439,000 b/d, this was actually the lowest since May 2017. This was followed by jet kerosene and gasoline, which both rose above 200,000 b/d for the first time since August 2018 and July 2018 respectively. Net products exports are just about holding on to a year-on-year rise in...

Kuwait Emir’s Son Unleashes Political Upheaval

...e now out of the picture. Despite his own advanced age – 71 – Sheikh Nasser Sabah appeared to be solidifying a position as the front runner to eventually succeed his father. He was appointed deputy prime minister in 2017 and is the key backer of the planned $130bn Silk City megaproject (MEES, 15 De...