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Turkey’s East Med Drilling Campaign: Politics By Other Means
...illships and seismic vessels, TPAO had little experience of going it alone. All of its prior offshore exploration efforts were with international partners and none turned up commercial discoveries (MEES, 21 November 2011). You have to start somewhere, but TPAO’s lack of expertise doesn’t point to an ef...
Volume: 63Issue: 41Published at Fri, 09 Oct 2020 -
Kuwait Enters New Era Following Emir’s Death
...approved by the National Assembly. Earlier in Emir Sabah’s reign Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al Sabah and Sheikh Ahmed Fahd Al Sabah were two leading candidates but the pair have since fallen out of favor. The 79-year old Sheikh Nasser Mohammed was forced out of office as prime minister in November 2011...
Volume: 63Issue: 40Published at Fri, 02 Oct 2020 -
Tunisia: Southern Output Dries Up
...nisia’s oil and gas sector has been in almost continuous decline since the 2011 revolution. On 2 September, Tunisia inaugurated its 12th government in nine years. New energy minister Saloua Sghaier faces the daunting task of somehow rescuing a sector on its knees. But how long will she have? THE SL...
Volume: 63Issue: 38Published at Fri, 18 Sep 2020 -
Libya: Symptoms Of A Failed State
...shed hundreds to the streets this week across key parts of the war-torn country. The overthrow of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 marked the beginning of a series of conflicts that has gradually led to a deep fragmentation of Libya. As a result, the ability of the ‘state’ to cater for the ba...
Volume: 63Issue: 35Published at Fri, 28 Aug 2020 -
IAEA Inspectors Return To Iran Sites Amid US Threats
...ternationally until US President Donald Trump unilaterally resumed sanctions in May 2018 – lost patience with Iran over the access issue and adopted a resolution calling for Tehran to “fully cooperate” with the IAEA (MEES, 19 June). Iran began its foray into nuclear power in 2011 with the operation of a 1GW re...
Volume: 63Issue: 35Published at Fri, 28 Aug 2020 -
Washington’s Obsession With Syrian Oil: What’s It All About?
...Donald Trump is fixated on oil fields in Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria, and has finally found a US firm to ‘develop’ them. But is it anything more than a political play? Since the beginning of Syria’s civil war in 2011, supporters of President Bashar al-Assad’s government have often po...
Volume: 63Issue: 33Published at Fri, 14 Aug 2020 -
Mena’s Poor Relations Turn To IMF To Weather The Covid-19 Storm
...START? Egypt’s tourism sector accounts for 6% of GDP, employs a tenth of the workforce and is a key source of foreign exchange (MEES, 20 March). And it had only just begun to get back on its feet following the 2011 Arab Spring and its ensuing instability. Tourism revenues hit a record high $13.03bn fo...
Volume: 63Issue: 23Published at Fri, 05 Jun 2020 -
Can Iraq’s Power Sector Maintain Momentum? .
...ll inherit several imminent startups that will add another 2-3GW of available capacity to Iraq’s electricity capacity. The first addition should come from China’s CMEC which is nearing completion on its 1.26 GW powerplant in Samarra, Salahuddin province. The $1.2bn project was initially awarded in 2011...
Volume: 63Issue: 20Published at Fri, 15 May 2020 -
Libya’s Financial Vulnerabilities Laid Bare By Dwindling Oil Revenue
...ccessive governments following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 tried to reign in militias by co-opting them into the system and handing them salaries. The state ultimately failed to control them, but it continued to pay their wages. Fast forward a few years and some of those militias have al...
Volume: 63Issue: 17Published at Fri, 24 Apr 2020 -
Syria Emerges As Iran’s Top Crude ‘Customer’
...TTER OF SURVIVAL Iran’s Syria crude trade was never supposed to be about economics – rather it was about keeping key ally President Bashar al-Assad in power. And for Mr Assad, the Iranian credit line to import free crude was a matter of survival. Prior to the outbreak of war in 2011, Sy...
Volume: 63Issue: 15Published at Fri, 10 Apr 2020 -
Oil Blockades Take Their Toll On Libya
...on fall to zero. And for now, the key instigator of the crisis, eastern general Khalifa Haftar, looks unlikely to give in. Libya is deeply divided. It has two rival governments, two central banks and two national oil companies. The chaos following the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi has de...
Volume: 63Issue: 07Published at Fri, 14 Feb 2020 -
Oman At The Crossroads As New Sultan Takes The Reins
...at increasingly threaten the country’s outlook. Problems started during the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’ when protests rocked Oman, resulting in two deaths amid a security clampdown (MEES, 7 March 2011). Muscat responded by ratcheting up government spending 26% to OR13.48bn ($35.2bn) in 2012, with spending gr...
Volume: 63Issue: 03Published at Fri, 17 Jan 2020 -
Lebanon Creeps Toward Economic & Political Abyss
...ttle to help the low growth climate, which in fairness was partly due to the war in neighboring Syria. A whopping 77% of government spending since 2011 has gone toward three items (see chart 2): government salaries (33%), payments on the interest of the government’s now $91bn debt (32%), and su...
Volume: 62Issue: 51-52Published at Fri, 20 Dec 2019 -
Kuwait Emir’s Son Unleashes Political Upheaval
...gin the process of appointing a new government. Political upheaval is par for the course in Kuwait, but recent weeks have seen some of the most dramatic scenes since protestors stormed the National Assembly in November 2011. That event proved the undoing of Sheikh Jaber Mubarak’s predecessor, Sh...
Volume: 62Issue: 47Published at Fri, 22 Nov 2019 -
Iran Ups Geopolitical Stakes With Nuclear Advances
...at is expected to take six years. The Bushehr-2 plant will be built by Russia’s Rosatom, under a 2014 agreement between Moscow and Iran for the construction of four new 1GW plants at Bushehr. Rosatom completed the Bushehr-1 reactor in 2011, generating electricity from fuel rods supplied by Ru...
Volume: 62Issue: 46Published at Fri, 15 Nov 2019 -
Syria’s Oil Reserves: Trump’s Half-Baked ‘Plan’
...l.” “I still can’t believe we left Iraq without the oil,” he tweeted in 2013, adding “to the victor belongs the spoils. There was no victor, but I always said ‘take the oil.’” Syria’s relatively modest oil industry was already on the slide when war broke out in 2011, averaging 386,000 b/d in 2010 – do...
Volume: 62Issue: 44Published at Fri, 01 Nov 2019 -
Egypt, Ethiopia Hit Dam Deadlock
...Tripartite talks between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in Khartoum about filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) broke down last week with Cairo calling for international mediation. Announced in 2011 the $5bn, 6GW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has suffered several de...
Volume: 62Issue: 41Published at Fri, 11 Oct 2019 -
Turkey’s Plan For The East Mediterranean: Disrupt, Stir Up, And Provoke
...y. CLAIMS AND COUNTERCLAIMS IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY Turkey certainly aims to show it means business. Since the 2011 discovery of the 4.2tcf Aphrodite field by US firm Noble Energy in RoC-awarded Block 12 - and the subsequent 2018 Calypso and 2019 Gl...
Volume: 62Issue: 32Published at Fri, 09 Aug 2019 -
Tunisia At The Crossroads
...llowing the 2011 ouster of long-time ruler Zine al Abidine Ben Ali and into a young democracy. As prime minister of the transitional government in 2011, the secularist Mr Essebsi could have caused all sorts of problems for the ‘Islamist’ Ennahda party which won the October 2011 elections. He chose not to...
Volume: 62Issue: 31Published at Fri, 02 Aug 2019 -
‘Working 25/7’: Libya’s Oil Chief Sanalla Sits Down With MEES
...fline since the revolution in March 2011. Eight years. So our staff, they did good work for maintenance and we hope that we won’t see any problems. Also our polyethylene plant was offline for a long time. This will stimulate the local economy and will make the harbor operational again. Q: Can you co...
Volume: 62Issue: 27Published at Fri, 05 Jul 2019