Iraq Reboots Downstream Development Drive

...e Korean contractors led by Hyundai E&C working at Karbala under the $6bn EPC contract awarded in 2014. CUTTING IMPORTS ESSENTIAL Iraq’s modest progress in rehabilitating refineries enabled it to boost refining runs to around 535,000 b/d in 2017 – the highest since 2013 when Baiji was still op...

UAE Nuclear Plans: More Delays Likely

...schedule. A Kepco executive said at the time that “it’s very difficult for us to predict the possible compensation that may be involved and our future plans for our manpower dispatched to the project” (MEES, 12 May 2017). Kepco has not issued an update on the situation since. FANR’s op...

Dewa Awards Gas-Fired Power Project

...tensive LNG export commitments – around 90% goes to Japan, which took 4.68mn tons in 2017 down from 4.99mn t in 2016 and a record 5.70mn t in 2014 (see chart, MEES, 16 February). This means that the UAE only achieves gas balance by importing 1.7bn cfd via the Dolphin pipeline from Qatar to Abu Dhabi as...

Russia, Saudi Arabia Commit To Enforcing Production Discipline

...rtainly be “extraordinary.” US crude and condensate production grew 467,000 b/d in 2017, but the latest production forecasts from the US government’s EIA are for a massive 1.27mn b/d increase this year. That’s still 120,000 b/d shy of the IEA’s expected global demand growth. But then the EIA also predicts an...

Eni Cyprus Discovery: ‘Good-Good-Good, Or Just Good’?

...ck to Zohr 80km to the southeast (see map, MEES 16 February). Zohr, the Mediterranean’s largest ever gas find, started up in December 2017; current output is 400mn cfd. Phase-2, slated to raise output to 2.9bn cfd next year, is intentionally being developed with sufficient spare capacity to allow th...

Mauritania: Tortue Deal

...come from just two wells and one 2.3mn t/y FPSO. Ongoing cashflow will then pay for subsequent development – a second 2.3mn t/y FPSO is slated to be added in 2023 (MEES, 10 November 2017), with the potential for additional identikit expansion. The good news on Tortue development comes after an an...

Will 2018 Be A Boon Year For Middle Eastern IPOs?

...aged a healthy comeback in 2017. The planned listing of Saudi state-energy giant Aramco has dominated discussions on the outlook for regional IPOs in 2018. But even if this is delayed into 2019, this year looks to have a healthy pipeline, with the UAE and Egypt to the fore. The value of Middle Ea...

Egypt Raises $4bn Bond

...Egypt has raised $4bn from a Eurobond, the Finance Ministry announced on 14 February. The bond, three times oversubscribed, had been in the pipeline since October (MEES, 20 October 2017). The issue consists of three tranches: $1.25bn of five-year paper with a yield of 5.58%; $1.25bn of 10...

Iraq Reconstruction Donors Pledge $30bn

...$5bn, could prove toxic with Mr Abadi’s Shia base given Ankara’s support for Kurdish and Sunni political groups. WAR SCARS REVEALED             Mr Abadi claimed in early 2017 that Islamic State damage totaled $35bn (MEES, 10 March 2017), but the destructive operation to liberate Mosul and th...

Spain 2017 Crude Imports ('000 B/D): Strong Iran And Libya Recovery Raises Mideast Volumes To 6-Year High

The Top 5 Global LNG Importers, All In Asia, Took A Record 195Mn T In 2017, Up 11% On 2016’s Previous Record, As China Overtook Korea As #2 Importer (Mn T)

...*ESTIMATES FOR TAIWAN AND INDIA BASED ON JAN-NOV AND JAN-OCT 2017 DATA. SOURCE: NATIONAL IMPORT STATISTICS, IGU, GIIGNL....

Iraq Seeks To Reboot Northern Oil Sector

...e Angolan state firm on 2 February officially agreed to return to northern Iraq where it has a 75% operating stake (NOC 25%) at the Qayara and Najma fields (see map). Current output is negligible. but at its peak Qayara produced 20,000 b/d (MEES, 27 January 2017). Sonangol was awarded 20-year te...

Iraq Drilling Hits 3-Year High, Abu Dhabi Sets New Record

...rrying about any commitments to Opec to limit output (see p9). However, Iraq’s rig count remains at little more than half of the record 96 seen in the first half of 2014 before Islamic State overran large swathes of the country. The UAE is another country where Total, in its 2017 results and 2018 ou...

Iran Eyes More West Karun Gains As Investment Concerns Deepen

...eds $200bn investment, of which 65-75% ($130-150bn) would be from international firms. But to date, the only post-sanctions deal remains June 2017’s $4.8bn agreement with France’s Total and China’s CNPC for Phase 11 of the South Pars gas field (MEES, 23 June 2017). At the time, the managing di...

Iranian Oil Exports Hit Pre-Sanctions Levels As European Share Grows

...Iran produced an average of 3.79mn b/d of crude in 2017, up 10.5% on 2016, with output reaching 3.83mn b/d last month. Not surprisingly export volumes are also up. Buyers of Iranian crude and condensate took just over 2.50mn b/d last year, edging above 2.47mn b/d for 2011, the year before US-le...

Adnoc Plans $3.1bn Ruwais Upgrade To Free Up Murban For Export

...Processing Upper Zakum instead of Murban would’ve raised $275mn more in 2017. Abu Dhabi state Adnoc has awarded a $3.1bn contract for a long-planned Crude Flexibility Project (CFP) to enable its Ruwais West refinery to process 420,000 b/d of Upper Zakum crude, freeing up more valuable Mu...

Egypt: Increased Gas Availability Boosts Petchems Producers

...d, with Eni’s giant 24tcf Zohr field the most recent addition (MEES, 15 December 2017). Canada’s Methanex, operator (50%) of the 1.26mn t/y EMethanex methanol plant at Damietta on the Mediterranean, has received full gas allocations since late-2016. A lack of gas forced it to shut down for se...

Saudi Arabia Awards 300MW Sakaka PV, At Record Low Pricing

...dders range from the Masdar/EDF low to US¢3.27/kWh (MEES, 6 October 2017). PRICING CONCERNS  That Repdo shortlisted second lowest bidder Acwa and third lowest bidder Japan’s Marubeni with Saudi firm Khaled Juffali for the Sakaka project suggests the agency feels that solar PV pricing has re...

Opec Steadies Production In January

...yadh is set to grow in 2018. January’s collective output was 560,000 b/d above the grouping’s nominal 31.92mn b/d production target – based on the agreed upon 32.5mn b/d plus Equatorial Guinea which joined in 2017, less Indonesia, which suspended membership in November 2016. Opec has never hit the ta...

Saudi War Aims Stumble (Again) In Fragmented Yemen

...With Salih dead and UAE-backed forces attacking Aden, Yemen is ungovernable. The harder Saudi Arabia pushes for military victory, the more it jeopardizes a settlement.  On 2 December 2017, long-time strongman and former president Ali Abd Allah Salih abandoned his Houthi allies and called fo...