South Korea 2Q19 Crude & Condensate Imports ('000 B/D): Middle East Share Up Quarter-On-Quarter But Still Down On 2017 Levels

Qatar Investments Win Trump Approval

...Qatari Emir Tamim Al Thani can be pleased with the results of this week’s trip to the US, where he received glowing praise from President Donald Trump. The emirate has been assiduously courting support from potential allies since its neighbors imposed an embargo in June 2017 and appears to ha...

Algeria Adding Powergen Capacity, But Big CCGT Progress Piecemeal

...kely a long way down the line: 1.44GW Bellara and 1.38GW Oumache are not mentioned in the new 2018 annual report of lead contractor Korea’s Hyundai E&C, but former Sonelgaz head Muhammad Arkab – now energy minister –said Oumache would be operational by 2020 (MEES, 24 November 2017). Korean contractor Sa...

Egypt Refining Projects Inching Forward As Subsidy Cuts Curb Consumption

...rformance of the refinery, to produce light products including almost 50,000 b/d of low sulfur diesel and 12,000 b/d of reformate, which is a key gasoline blending component. The $4.3bn ERC plant was originally scheduled to start up in first quarter 2017, but construction was delayed and at times halted be...

End In Sight For Egypt’s Fuel Subsidies

...nce increased: after averaging $1= E£17.74 during the 2017-18 financial year it has been around $1= E£16.60 in recent weeks. Given that oil products are internationally-traded commodities priced in dollars, these prices largely determine the size of the country’s subsidy bill. Here Egypt has been ma...

Kuwait Eyes Huge 2019-20 Budget Deficit

...nancial resources. The IMF estimates that debt fell from 20.7% of GDP in 2017 to 14.8% in 2018, but projects this rising to 17.8% this year. The implication is that the IMF expects a new debt law to be issued this year, and credit rating agency Fitch also expects “that it will get passed in time to en...

UAE Certifies Reactor Operators

...NR awarding Nawah a license to start-up the delayed Barakah-1 unit. This was scheduled for start-up in 2017 and is mechanically complete but awaiting the insertion of fuel rods for trial operations. Three similar plants are nearing completion. FANR cannot provide Nawah with an operating license un...

Baghdad-Erbil Oil Sharing Dispute Heats Up

...en Mr Abd al-Mahdi was oil minister (MEES, 5 December 2014). The deal didn’t last long as Iraqi funds failed to make their way to Erbil. Relations hit rock bottom when Iraqi Kurdistan voted to secede from Iraq in 2017 (MEES, 29 September 2017), and federal forces retook territories that included 28...

BP Boosts Tortue Reserves With Drilling Success

...arf even Tortue (MEES, 14 December 2018). However, though BP reckons Greater BirAllah is potentially the biggest of the three planned hubs, at least for the moment Yakaar Teranga is ahead in the development stakes, with two successful wells drilled: Teranga-1 in May 2016 and Yakaar-1 in June 2017, bo...

Energean Hits East Med Major League With Cut-Price Edison Purchase

...e in Egypt and Algeria. It operates the 270mn cfd Abu Qir field off Alexandria, and has 11.25% of the 280mn cfd Repsol-operated Reggane North development in southwest Algeria which started up in late 2017 (MEES, 22 December 2017).  Both dwarf Energean’s current production of just 4,100 b/d, all fr...

Opec Production Purgatory: Cuts And More Cuts With No End In Sight

...nister Suhail al-Mazrouei warned in 2017 that there “is too much fluctuation within one year. It is not healthy for producers, and it is definitely not healthy for consumers. We need some sort of stability” (MEES, 17 November 2017). He reiterated the message this week in Vienna, saying “once we are cl...

Aramco Pushing Asian Downstream Projects In Major Crude-Buying Countries

...pacity of 2.68mn b/d, of which Asia refineries dominate with 2.04mn b/d. Aramco also operates the 635,000 b/d Motiva Port Arthur refinery in Texas, having bought out former JV partner Shell (MEES, 10 March 2017). Because of Aramco’s now outright ownership, Port Arthur is its largest overseas downstream as...

Abu Dhabi Adds Solar Giant To Powergen Fleet

...S BURN HAS STEADIED (TWH)   NUCLEAR DELAYS      Abu Dhabi state nuclear firm Enec is developing four nuclear reactors with combined capacity of 5.6GW at Barakah on the coast 50km west of Ruwais. Start-up of the first unit was expected in 2017, with the others following at yearly in...

DP World Buys Services Firm

...re Caspian Sea market but also in the Mena region and West Africa. DP World itself was the subject of the Gulf’s largest ever IPO, after the Dubai government floated 19.55% on the Dubai exchange in 2007. This raised $4.22bn to value the company at $21.58bn. Among the largest Gulf IPOs since are 2017...

Oman Condensate Output At Record Highs

...quids output, the share of condensate continues to grow. Condensate output over the first five months of 2019 is running at a record high of 115,000 b/d, up from 2018’s annual record of 107,000 b/d and 2017’s 86,000 b/d. Conversely, at 856,000 b/d for January-May, crude output is on track for a five-ye...

Chevron Phillips Wins Stake At Major Qatar Petchems Project

...troleum has launched its renewed petrochemicals push, announcing on 24 June that it will partner with US JV Chevron Phillips Chemical in constructing a 1.9mn t/y ethane cracker. This is a considerable expansion from the original project scope of 1.6mn t/y floated in 2017. The project also entails co...

LNG Prices Remain Under Pressure Amid Buoyant Supply, Lackluster Demand

...cond half of 2017. However it is not inconceivable that monthly takings could overtake number one Japan at some stage later this year: they came close in a pre-winter buying spurt last November, and lagged Japanese takings by just over 1mn tons for both April and May. Projections in the IEA’s latest ‘Ga...

Houthis Expose Saudi Arabia’s Growing Desalination Dependency

...pulation’s need for potable water. This dependency is growing at a rapid rate. The latest data from state regulator ECRA puts demand over the course of 2017 at an average 6.73mn m³/d, up a massive 9.9% year-on-year (see chart). Demand has almost certainly continued to soar over the past 18 months.  Me...

GCC Grid: Could An Iraq Link Give It Relevance?

...ates all have reliable domestic grids. In a bid to gain relevance the GCCIA is looking outside of the six-country grouping. Certainly the GCCIA needs to be rejuvenated somehow. Total electricity transfers last year amounted to just 1.24TWh, down sharply from 2017’s record 1.63TWh. The key reason fo...

Aramco Crude Oil To Chemicals Vision Takes Shape

...chnology; and 2025 may be a push as Aramco’s COTC technologies are so far not commercialized. Aramco and Sabic were developing crude-to-chemicals technologies separately before they signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in November 2017 to develop the COTC plant under a joint venture. Sabic filed a pa...