Egypt Bid Round Yields First Results

...s awarded Canadian independent TransGlobe the North West Sitra concession, the company announced, with US firm Apache reportedly also winning the rights to two blocks. “It is anticipated that the ratification approval process of the new concession could be completed by late 2014,” TransGlobe said in...

Sonatrach Discoveries

...ALGERIA   Sonatrach Discoveries   Algerian state oil and gas giant Sonatrach says it made 18 “hydrocarbon discoveries” during the first eight months of 2014, including 13 during the first six months. Of these 13, seven were largely oil and six gas. The bulk of finds were in...

Leviathan Development Gathers Pace As Partners Sign Third Sales Deal

...serves, 6.6tcf Is Earmarked For Phase 1 Development. ^Tender Closes November 2014. Tamar: 2bn Cfd By 2017 At Tamar, Noble’s other key Israeli offshore field, Noble says it will double capacity to 2bn cfd by the end of 2017. Indeed debottlenecking recently raised Tamar’s capacity by 10% to 1.1bn cf...

Oman Taps Shell For 30,000 b/d Crude Output Boost

...id at last week’s launch of the annual Oil and Gas Year Oman 2014 energy report. “We need to understand the time-frame [and] cost. It is not going to be cheap, and will be dominated by a lot of drilling activities.” The undersecretary put current PDO crude output at 570,000 b/d – level with its av...

Imports of Iranian Oil Stay High Ahead Of September Talks

...e first seven months of 2014 versus the same period last year, as Indian refiners managed to overcome most of the sanctions-related insurance and re-insurance issues they faced in 2013. State-refiner Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd (MRPL) and Essar Oil are currently the only two regular In...

Iran Mulls Offering South Pars To IOCs As Opening Delayed

...l firms is intricately tied to the fate of ongoing talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers over its nuclear program. Nuclear talks were due to have ended on 22 July, hence the roadshow scheduled for the second half (and originally the first half) of 2014. But, with a deal not re...

Algeria Delays Bid Round Once Again

...secure foreign investment in its upstream. Algeria: Blocks On Offer In 2014 Bid Round...

South Sudan Oil Sector Takes Hit With Exxon Exit

...rm-in agreement as of April 2014,” Total said in a 19 August statement e-mailed to MEES, without going into further detail. ExxonMobil declined to comment, though the ongoing conflict – and the lack of clear prospects for a solution – could go a long way towards explaining the company’s decision. Re...

Kurdistan Grapples With ISIS Threat; Oil Output Steady For Now

...hedule. At Tawke, two wells have come onstream at a combined rate of 37,000 b/d, with surface processing capacity set to increase by 100,000 b/d to around 200,000 b/d by year end. All things being equal, the KRG could conceivably attain its 400,000 b/d target by end 2014 if the pipeline issues are re...

Egypt Receivables Hit Record $7.5bn

...EGYPT Egypt’s new authorities have talked a good game on creating an investor-friendly climate by reducing the monies owed to IOCs active in the country. But the numbers tell a different story. Receivables have soared by $1.4bn over the first six months of 2014 to hit $7.5bn, MEES an...

Oman Retenders Five Exploration Blocks

...ur years earlier. Oman is aiming to boost liquids output to above 950,000 b/d for 2014, and hold production steady at around this level for at least four years (MEES, 7 March). Gas production is slated to reach just shy of 4bn cfd by end-2014, as several gas projects come online over the next six to...

New Drilling Record For Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Middle-East & Opec

...REGIONAL MENA Active Drilling Rigs, July 2014*                 July Br...

Iran Oil Sales Slide In June, But Still In The ‘Red’

...ne, latest loading data show, down from 255,000 b/d in May. Indian imports of Iranian oil averaged 309,000 b/d over the first five months of 2014. Though both of Iran’s biggest customers cut shipments in June, it failed to mask the goal of both their oil import policies with respect to the Islamic Re...

Abu Tabul Commissioning To Kick Start Oman Gas Boost

...e block earlier the same year. “OOCEP recognizes the value of this tight gas reservoir, and has adopted a field development plan [FDP] with a target of first production by the third quarter of 2014,” the company said in its latest operational update. “Development of the Abu Tabul tight gas field ha...

Syria: Output At 17KB/D

...SYRIA Crude oil production from government-controlled areas of Syria has averaged 17,000 b/d in the first half of 2014, or 4.4% of pre-war volumes of 385,000 b/d, the country’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sulaiman al-‘Abbas said this week. This, according to government st...

Falling Oil & Gas Exports Hit Algeria’s Trade Surplus

...ALGERIA Algeria’s trade surplus fell by 19.4% to $3.9bn in the first half of 2014, from $4.84bn in the corresponding period of 2013, latest official customs statistics show. This comes on the back of a 2.2% fall in the value of hydrocarbon exports to $32.23bn in the first six months of th...

Sisi Risks Price Reform To Boost Energy Sector

...is expenditure by about a third, saving $6bn in over the 2014-2015 fiscal year that began on 1 July. Reducing the cost of energy not only slims the budget deficit, a vital step to balance battered state finances. It also frees up funds for Egypt’s upstream sector, where chronic underinvestment has di...

Algeria Says Output Will Rise 15% By 2018.

...stream, according to the state giant’s 2014-18 Medium Term Development Plan, state news agency APS says. These gross numbers are misleading as they include gas which is subsequently re-injected, but the direction of the official Algerian projections clearly differs from the forecasts in the In...

Iran To Sideline Sinopec At Yadavaran

...yer of Iranian crude taking 650,000 b/d for Jan-May 2014....

MENA Active Drilling Rigs, June 2014*