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Tunisia’s Net Energy Imports Hit Record In 2018
...nual price for Brent crude (see chart 4). Net oil import volumes were actually down a touch thanks to a dip in demand from 2017’s record levels. Whilst in gross terms, Tunisia’s spending on energy imports remains well below the $4bn-plus import bills seen in 2012-14 when crude was largely over $10...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Adnoc Brings Eni, OMV Into Refining Arm Ahead Of Expansion
...e remaining 85,000 b/d is at the Abu Dhabi refinery. Products output in 2017 was 725,000 b/d, of which 512,000 b/d (70%) was exported. Abu Dhabi plans to boost refining capacity by 60% to around 1.5mn b/d by 2025 under its $45bn strategy to turn Ruwais into “the world’s largest integrated re...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
LNG: A Record Year As Qatar & Oman Both Hike Sales
...*Global LNG trade surged to record levels in 2018. The top five global importers alone, all in Asia, collectively took 220.4mn tons, up 13% on 2017’s previous record. Global number two China alone took a whopping 41% more on the back of 46% 2017 gains, pulling further ahead of number three So...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Qatar 2018 Revenue Surge Finances Renewed Checkbook Diplomacy
...bargo. The Saudi-led embargo was imposed in June 2017 (MEES, 9 June 2017) and so 2018 was its first full calendar-year in force. Economic data shows that Qatar is comfortably weathering the storm, having rejigged a few trade routes to adjust to the new situation. Critical exports of LNG and oil have co...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Qatar’s Emir On Asian Tour
...pplier to Korea, which imported a record 14.3mn tons from the emirate in 2018. Korea is also Qatar’s largest buyer of the fuel (see p5). The potential downsides of Qatar supplying clients with its own LNG fleet was exposed in June 2017 when its neighbors (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE) imposed an ec...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Lebanon’s ‘New’ Government Set For Uphill Battle
...d a consortium of Total (40%op), Eni (40%) and Russia’s Novatek (20%) was awarded two exploration blocks (MEES, 15 December 2017). One well, in Block 4, is expected to be drilled this year (MEES, 16 February 2018). The most recent stalemate has already pushed back a planned second bid round in...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Saudi Arabia Launches Latest Investment Drive
...0bn to the kingdom’s GDP by 2030. That amounts to 41% of 2018 GDP, which data for the first nine months of the year implies will be nearly $775bn. Certainly Saudi Arabia could do with an injection of economic growth. After the economy contracted 0.9% in 2017, it edged up by around 1.7% over the first ni...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Sabic Reports Higher Profits As It Prepares For Aramco Buy-In
...3mn). Part of Sabic’s internal transformation includes bundling together assets in some of its less strategic businesses. Q4 2018 saw Sabic’s fertilizers businesses transferred to the standalone Sabic Agri-Nutrients Investments subsidiary. The unit, which in 2017 accounted for around 10.5% of total Sa...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Saudi Eyes Options For Slashing Oil Burning In Power Plants
...The Saudi energy minister’s ambitious plan to vastly reduce the burning of liquids fuels in power plants is a big ask. Can it be done? Saudi Arabia burned just over 900,000 b/d of liquid fuels in its power plants last year, down 7% from the 2017 record (see chart). The volumes involved in...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Repdo Tenders 1.5gw Of Solar
...Sakaka. The Qurayyat project in the current offering will be built further northeast, near the border with Jordan. The Rafha project in the new tender was previously offered in a tender that was canceled in March 2017 (MEES, 18 January). NEW SAUDI SOLAR TENDER SOURCE: REPDO....
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
IMF To Kuwait: Cut Public Wage Bill, Boost Private Sector, Lessen Oil Dependence
...lf monarchies, Kuwait has talked a good game on the need to diversify its economy and increase the role of the private sector. But, as the IMF makes clear, achieving this necessitates reducing the relative attractiveness of public sector employment. Kuwait’s finances improved considerably in 2017 and 20...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Jordan Plans Tax Hike To Cover Planned 2019 Deficit
...ministration made a big deal of its increased assistance to Jordan, but Mr Trump himself is a wild card and King Abdullah’s opposition to the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in late 2017 increased bilateral tensions. Meanwhile, in the Gulf, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman has also pl...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Genel: Kurdish Gas Reprieve
...adline for the Miran GLA is now 31 May. Both were set to expire in February, having already been extended from the initial February 2018 deadline (MEES, 17 February 2017). Genel claims combined “gross mean” gas reserves of 11.4tcf. Conditions included “execution of final agreements on the midstream ga...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Japan: Top Saudi Buyer, For Now
...08. Saudi is far and away number one supplier with 1.164mn b/d, 38.1% of the total, for 2018 (see data, pXX). But 2018 will likely mark the last year for which Japan is Saudi Arabia’s top customer. Japan’s lead over China shrank from 250,000 b/d for 2017 to a mere 29,000 b/d for 2018. China was al...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Libya’s NOC Cuts Gas To Fertilizer Plant
...ra (50%), NOC (25%) and Libyan Investment Authority (25% - MEES, 16 February 2009), hasn’t made a profit since the 2011 Libyan revolution and has racked up a combined $234mn in loses up to 2016 according to Yara annual reports - no figure was given for 2017. Yara wrote down $112mn of its investment in 20...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Sharjah Signs Up For 1.8gw CCGT
...its, the first of which is scheduled to begin commercial operation in May 2021. Sewa’s current 2.77GW of capacity in gas and diesel fueled power plants is unable to meet demand, requiring imports from Abu Dhabi that amounted to 6.93THh at levels up to a peak of 1.3GW in 2017. Sewa’s move follows the fo...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
Aramco Advances Crude-To-Petchems Plans
...lly formalized or the planned takeover of Sabic by Aramco is completed. Separately Sabic filed a US patent application for a crude to chemicals concept involving existing refinery units and a cracker (MEES, 1 December 2017). The plant will have capacity to process 400,000 b/d of Saudi crude to pr...
Volume: 62Issue: 05Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019 -
GCC Gas Integration: More Than Just A Pipe Dream?
...rough a 2bn cfd pipeline. Flows have continued despite the onset of the Qatar embargo in June 2017, with Dolphin reporting exports of 2bn cfd in 2017 (MEES, 9 June 2018). Rates have stayed flat in 2018. The rationale for gas integration has long been clear. Qatar and Oman aside, the GCC countries have fa...
Volume: 62Issue: 04Published at Fri, 25 Jan 2019 -
Genel Farm-In Boosts Development Prospects At Chevron KRG Blocks
...0,000 b/d Tawke license (DNO 75%op, Genel 25%) has fared better. In Chevron, Genel gains a world class partner whose technical expertise could perhaps help avoid geology-related declines that have previously plagued Genel (MEES, 31 March 2017). “We are delighted to have been chosen as a partner to Ch...
Volume: 62Issue: 04Published at Fri, 25 Jan 2019 -
Baghdad: KRG Budget Overture
...Iraq’s 2019 budget, passed by parliament 24 January, formalized the central government’s payments to KRG state workers and Peshmerga forces, further affirming the thawing relations between Baghdad and Erbil after the KRG’s ill-fated 2017 independence referendum (MEES, 29 September 2017). “Th...
Volume: 62Issue: 04Published at Fri, 25 Jan 2019