Egypt’s Med Gas Output Collapse: Can Even Zohr Make Up The Losses?

...tes ranging from 14% to an eye-watering 28% last year alone (see table). Collective output of 1.24bn cfd for 2015 (29% of Egypt’s total gas output) is down by 290mn cfd on 2014 and by a massive 765mn cfd (38%) on 2012’s peak 2.00bn cfd output. These four blocks alone account for a full 49% of Egypt’s ov...

Iraqi Monthly Export Revenues Up 50% From February’s Seven-Year-Low But Less Than Half 2014 Levels

Iraq’s Upstream Expansion Plans Recede Over The Horizon

...an revenues have collapsed regardless. And yet under Iraq’s technical service contracts payments to IOCs actually rose $1bn last year to $14bn. Payments to IOCs as a percentage of oil revenue soared from 15.5% in 2014 to 28.6% last year. And 2016 could be more bitter yet. Based on export revenues fo...

Egypt’s Debts To IOCs Soar Above $5bn

...ving each been owed $200-240mn at end-2012 the three firms have seen their fortunes diverge sharply. The two gas-focused companies saw their receivables soar in 2013 and 2014 and then fall in late 2015; their dues are now almost exactly in line with the end-2012 figures (see table). DIRECT MA...

Leviathan Advances

...e sure to face political opposition. The same is the case in Jordan, which in the face of parliamentary opposition (as well as the relative attractiveness of LNG at currently-depressed prices) has yet to firm up a September 2014 MoU to import 45 bcm of leviathan gas over 15 years.  ...

Cairo Hopes To Garner New Interest In Old Acreage

...rata – so they may yet see promise in seemingly well-worn acreage. Eni’s key Western Desert output comes from the 54,000 b/d Melehia permit where output has ramped up rapidly since mid-2012 when Eni first tapped the field’s deep formations. Apache produces around 30,000 b/d from the 2014 Ptah and Be...

Iran, South Africa In GTL Deal, Zanganeh Eyes Oil Sales

...e NIOC research arm will cooperate with PetroSA in developing slurry reactors. These are used in the Fischer Tropsch process for GTL production. RIPI has continued its GTL research during the sanctions period (MEES, 29 August 2014). The two companies will also work together on methods to achieve bl...

Kuwait: Shell Deal Boost For IOCs

...aching 4mn b/d by 2020, but has moved the goalposts by including condensate in the calculation (MEES, 15 April). Despite the 60% fall in oil prices since 2014, Kuwait remains committed to attracting IOCs and investing in its oil sector. Jamal Jaafar, CEO of the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) said on 11 Ap...

Iran Aims For Bid Round By July To Speed Up IOC Return

...firms about investment in Iranian petrochemicals projects. The company has a backlog of 67 partially completed petchems projects with almost 46mn t/y of combined capacity. They were halted by a lack of funds and gas feedstock (MEES, 10 October 2014). “Iran needs $55bn for 60 projects in the pe...

Libya Lays Out Plans For Output Hike

...ere through some maintenance. The Elephant field has capacity of 90,000-100,000 b/d.” The Sharara fields, on Blocks NC-115 and NC-186, produced up to 340,000 b/d prior to 2011, and were producing an average of 300,000 b/d in 2012, but output in 2014 averaged just 78,000 b/d, and it has been zero si...

Egypt: Receivables Worries Risk Choking Off Exploration Boom

...oduction in the concession areas until the delayed payments are made,” he says. The government was hoping to have paid off its dues to foreign firms by the end of this year according to Prime Minister Sharif Isma’il, who made the comments in late 2014, when he was oil minister. But the collapse in oil pr...

Egypt Appoints New Heads Of State Oil And Gas Firms

...-Badi’, who will become President of state investment firm Midtap. Mr Masry will be returning to EGAS where he served as deputy head for operations from February 2014 until his appointment as head of EGPC in October last year, taking over from the current oil minister Mr Molla. Taking over from Mr...

New Adnoc Supremo Commits To 3.5mn b/d Output Target Amid Leadership Shakeup

...ctor for a number of years, especially since the president’s stroke in 2014. Many of the new faces have previous, or ongoing, experience in sovereign wealth fund Mubadala (see table). Mubadala has greatly expanded its role in the energy space in recent years. Mubadala’s board is chaired by the cr...

Middle East Drilling Remains Robust Despite Upstream Capex Cuts

...oks to develop the Risha gas field and East Safawi Block. Though once seen as a potential gas lifeline for Jordan, Risha proved disappointing: BP pulled out in 2014 and wrote off its $240mn investment in the project after drilling two wells and determining that the reservoir, which BP previously th...

Saudi: Key Gas Start-Ups Increase Oil Field Flexibility

...les gas. The high sulfur content contributed to delays in bringing the projects to fruition (MEES, 7 November 2014). Production from the two non-associated gas fields was initially slated for 2014, but the Arabian Sun comments indicate it is finally ready to begin. Aramco CEO Amin Nasser told the ma...

Kuwait Oil Sector Receives Triple Boost

...ich shares the PNZ with Kuwait, to begin limited production at the offshore 300,000 b/d Khafji field. Khafji is jointly operated by Kuwait Gulf Oil Co (KGOC) and Aramco Gulf Operations. Prior to Saudi Arabia unilaterally halting production in October 2014, ostensibly over environmental concerns, pr...

Eni Greenlights Egypt’s Zohr

...ducing its average breakeven price of new projects to $27/boe from $45/boe in its previous plan. The firm’s baseline price assumption is somewhat higher at above $60/B for 2018-19. With prices at this level no divestments will be needed, it says. Between 2012 and 2014, Eni “completed divestments” of €17...

KRG Production Set To Fall In 2016

...timates at its key Taq Taq field earlier this month was a hammer blow to the region. Rather than being at the forefront of efforts to ramp up production, Genel’s latest projections have the field producing below 2014 levels this year (MEES, 4 March). And even those projections depend on investments that co...

Iran, Saudi Arabia Main Drivers Of Opec NGLs Outlook

...ency notes that the 275,000 b/d Shaybah NGL development, which will supply feedstock to the domestic market, was originally scheduled for 2014, but is “running more than a year behind schedule due to technical issues.” The differential between the 165,000 b/d forecast increase in Saudi NGLs and the 27...

KRG Pipeline Politics: Ankara-Baghdad Balancing Act Looks Increasingly Perilous

...ntracts as an offset against 2014-15 prepayments (MEES, 11 March 2016). However, even the month’s $304mn in payments was more than the value of crude exported based on MEES calculations which presume a 30% discount to Brent (see graph). The export pipeline is back up and running, leaving 20 complete da...