1. QatarEnergy Boosts ExxonMobil East Med Collaboration With Egypt Farm-In

    ...up in breaking off relations – returning $7bn in loans and throwing Al Jazeera journalists in jail, among other measures (MEES, 8 July 2018). Egypt was more than happy to jump on the bandwagon of the Saudi-led embargo of Qatar from 2017 which finally came to an end in January 2021 (MEES, 8 Ja...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 20
    Published at Fri, 17 May 2024
  2. Kuwait’s Emir Suspends Parliament;Can He Quell Tumultuous Divisions?

    ...ss a crucial debt law since 2017 due to opposition by MPs, these onerous spending commitments saw Kuwait rack up some $108bn in cumulative deficits over 2014-2022 (see chart 2). A 2024-2027 government program published earlier this year envisages a further surging of deficits to a colossal total of KD...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 20
    Published at Fri, 17 May 2024
  3. UAE-Oman Relations: Brotherly Love Or Sibling Rivalry?

    ...licy. Muscat has generally followed a regional foreign policy guided by mediation and diplomatic engagement. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi has been keen to flex its military and economic strength, most recently in Sudan (MEES, 3 May). When the UAE joined Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in its blockade of Qatar in 2017...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 20
    Published at Fri, 17 May 2024
  4. Gas Output: From Bad To Worse

    ...Egypt’s gas output woes go from bad to worse. Output slumped to a six-year low 5.21bn cfd for March, almost 2bn cfd down on the record 7.19bn cfd hit in September 2021. On a quarterly basis, output was down 3% sequentially at 5.31bn cfd for Q1, the lowest since 4Q 2017 and some 25% below 3Q...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 19
    Published at Fri, 10 May 2024
  5. Saudi Arabia Targets Foreign Investment To Bolster Economic Growth

    ...eated the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference which it has held in Riyadh annually since October 2017 and which was swiftly dubbed ‘Davos in the Desert.’ Last month Davos, home to the WEF’s flagship event, truly came to the Desert. While the 28-29 April WEF Special Meeting had more of a ge...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 19
    Published at Fri, 10 May 2024
  6. Bahrain Plans 2GW Wind Capacity

    ...y to net-zero by 2060. And the country’s 2017 National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) targets renewables capacity of 225MW by 2025 (equivalent to 5% of forecast peak demand) and 710MW (10%) by 2035. Bahrain’s current installed capacity is 5GW from a fleet of five thermal plants. Renewables ca...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 18
    Published at Fri, 03 May 2024
  7. TotalEnergies Takes FID On 1mn t/y ‘Low-Carbon’ Oman LNG Bunkering Hub

    ...ctor in recent years. Output has risen every year for nearly a decade reaching an all-time high of 52bcm last year, and with growth attracting increased investment from international energy majors, the upwards trajectory looks set to continue. Driven by BP’s 2017 start-up of the massive 1.5bn cfd Kh...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 17
    Published at Fri, 26 Apr 2024
  8. Korea Crude Imports: UAE Volumes Surge For Q1

    ...*South Korea, the world’s number four crude importer, took 2.87mn b/d for Q1, up 3% on Q4 2023 but down fractionally year-on-year and well below the record 3mn b/d-plus quarterly levels hit on several occasions over 2017-19 (see chart & table). As such, notwithstanding the Covid-related de...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 16
    Published at Fri, 19 Apr 2024
  9. Iraq And US Seek To Rebuild Ties Amidst Rising Regional Tensions

    ...lations between Baghdad and Erbil are at their lowest ebb since the region’s controversial 2017 independence referendum. On the positive side, the disputes between Baghdad and Erbil did not derail the visit. Mr Sudani made sure to include representatives from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in hi...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 16
    Published at Fri, 19 Apr 2024
  10. Eni Egypt: More Zohr Woe As Reserves Downgraded

    ...Zohr ramped-up following its late 2017 start-up. But with Zohr output dropping from a peak of 2.74bn cfd in Q3 2021 to 2bn cfd currently on water infiltration issues, the country finds itself on the lookout to lease an FSRU as it looks to resume LNG imports in the coming months in a bid to pr...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 15
    Published at Fri, 12 Apr 2024
  11. Kuwait’s KPC Plans Merger Of Refining Subsidiaries

    ...2017 to oversee development of the Al Zour refinery and LNG import terminal, but now its role has transitioned to managing their operations, and there could be efficiency gains if this is done in greater alignment with KNPC. Al Zour exports in Q1 equated to around a third of Kuwait’s overall re...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 15
    Published at Fri, 12 Apr 2024
  12. Baghdad & Kurdistan IOCs Exchange Blame As Northern Export Halt Enters Second Year

    ...C executive asserts that in January accounting firm Deloitte, which has audited Kurdistan’s independent pipeline exports since 2017, shared “all contractual commercial terms that they [the Baghdad oil ministry] requested without violating the NDA [non-disclosure agreement] of contractual co...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 13
    Published at Fri, 29 Mar 2024
  13. Power Surge: Saudi Arabia’s Electricity Demand Soars To New Heights

    ...vernment statistics, including strong gains of 7.3% growth in transportation and 7% in hospitality. Last year’s 5% rise in power consumption was the highest annual growth figure since 2017, while the surge in peak demand from 65.3GW to 70.6GW was the biggest annual increase since 2015 (see ch...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 12
    Published at Fri, 22 Mar 2024
  14. Egypt Drilling: Orion Flops As Shell Kicks Off Six-Well WDDM Campaign

    ...hr’s December 2017 start-up, Cairo is pushing Chevron to fast-track development at Nargis in a bid to engineer a rebound (MEES, 19 January). But with Chevron yet to file a development plan, first gas here is unlikely before 2026. As such any near-term gains to Egypt’s overall output will be reliant on cu...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 11
    Published at Fri, 15 Mar 2024
  15. Iran Awards Key $20bn South Pars Gas Contracts

    ...ded in 2017 following extensive reservoir studies to determine the optimal development rate. Iranian media has frequently carried concerns that rapid development of Qatar’s portion of the field could result in migration of gas across the boundary. Iran’s planned program is intended to reverse fa...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 11
    Published at Fri, 15 Mar 2024
  16. Kuwait’s Pivot To Products Exports Yields Revenue Boost

    ...2024, that would be the lowest level since 2003. Meanwhile refined products exports have averaged around 850,000 b/d so far this year, putting Kuwait on track to smash 2012’s record 805,000 b/d. Crucially, having shuttered the aging Shuaiba refinery in 2017 and completed the $15.6bn Clean Fu...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 11
    Published at Fri, 15 Mar 2024
  17. Kuwait Eyes 110kbd At Bahra

    ...23-24 financial year on 31 March. However, current output is much more modest at 45,000 b/d, perhaps due to Opec+ output constraints (see p10). Bahra, where Kuwait’s first oil well was drilled in 1936, is a mature field producing mainly from the Mauddud formation. Halliburton was brought in 2017 to...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 10
    Published at Fri, 08 Mar 2024
  18. Qatar Sees Buoyant LNG Demand Outlook As It Sanctions Further Expansion

    ...ture LNG demand define Qatar’s approach to its expansion plans. Speaking to MEES back in 2017, Mr Kaabi justified going “full steam ahead” with LNG because “we believe so much in the demand potential for gas…This is the cleanest fossil fuel available for mankind. It is going to remain for a very long ti...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 09
    Published at Fri, 01 Mar 2024
  19. Egypt Eyes More Gulf Cash After $35bn Lifeline UAE Mega-Deal

    ...ed for cash, this could prove politically sensitive given that Ras Gamila lies directly across from the uninhabited Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, which Egypt handed over to Saudi Arabia in 2017. The unpopular move was considered by many at the time as ceding sovereignty to Riyadh (MEES, 4 Au...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 09
    Published at Fri, 01 Mar 2024
  20. Egypt Upstream Output Set To Fall Further In 2024 As Zohr Slump Continues

    ...LNG exports (MEES, 5 January). Production plumbed a new 6-year monthly low of 5.24bn cfd for December, the lowest figure since the start-up of the country’s workhorse Zohr field in December 2017 (see p4). And it will only likely get worse in 2024. Eni-operated 21.5tcf Zohr, which contributed 36...

    Volume: 67
    Issue: 08
    Published at Fri, 23 Feb 2024