Egypt Outlines Suez Downstream Plan, Canal Expansion Begins To Pay Off

...re the highest income since the $482mn earned in October 2015, although still 8% short of the record $510mn revenues of August 2014. The earnings rally is largely attributable to increased crude and products volumes transiting the canal. Northwards products volumes in particular are being boosted by...

What Embargo? Qatar Products Exports Hit Two-Year High

...tari oil exports rose to 1.09mn b/d, the highest figure since November 2014. Despite the products gains, July hydrocarbon export revenues were $4.18bn, down from $4.54bn in May prior to the blockade. The reason appears to be that Qatar handed discounts to buyers as reassurance. Certainly the ec...

Rosneft Plans Key Gas Pipeline To Unlock Kurdish Exports to Turkey

...xt two years? Previous plans have stalled. Under a 2013 Gas Sales Agreement the KRG agreed to export 4bcm/y to Turkey by this year, rising to 10bcm/y by 2020, and eventually up to 20bcm/y (MEES, 11 April 2014). Development of key gas fields has slipped due to a number of reasons, chief among them pa...

Bahrain Taps Debt Market For Record $3bn

...17, gross foreign exchange reserves stood at $1.7bn, down from nearly $6.0bn at the end of 2014. This implies less than one month of current account payment coverage,” S&P said at the time. Although latest figures show this rebounding to $2.5bn at end-April. Fitch assigns Bahrain the highest ra...

East Med: Hope Despite Dry Cyprus Well, Lebanon Bid Round Deadline Delayed

...economic, especially since the oil price collapse in 2014 and the accompanying lower gas prices. By far the most active firm offshore Cyprus is Eni. The Italians have stakes in six of the seven blocks currently awarded, and are operator in four. In early August Eni said it would drill three wells ac...

War-Torn Yemen Maintains Steady Crude Exports; China, Thailand The Key Buyers

...scale, renewed crude exports are providing an essential influx of revenue and liquidity to the embattled regime. Prior to the onset of the civil war between Houthi rebels and government forces in 2015, hydrocarbons provided 73% of export revenues according to IMF figures. Crude exports in 2014 re...

Oman Looks To Bid Round For Exploration Boost

...ndered blocks appear less prospective. Block 43b was last operated by Hungary’s Mol which relinquished the 11,967km² block in 2014. A conventional gas play, previous owners combined have drilled only two wells with no discoveries. In Block 47, also mostly bordering open blocks, tight gas is expected to be...

UAE Looks To Offshore Gas To Ease Growing LNG Addiction

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Rig Count: Saudi Cuts Oil Drilling To 3-Year Low

...•  Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia saw its rig count fall to a 30-month low of 115 in August; those targeting oil fell by four to 60, the lowest level since May 2014 (see chart 1). Saudi Arabia claims it is pressing ahead with ambitious long term plans to develop new output capacity, but the rig co...

Algeria Plots Unlikely Power Capacity Boost Whilst Rejecting Foreign Funding

...utarfa said Sonelgaz had spent $5.5bn in 2015 and $5.6bn in 2014. Algiers was forced to increase power sector investment after blackouts in 2012 triggered violent protests. Sonelgaz hiked generating capacity by 2.8GW ahead of 2013 summer demand, by speeding the completion of two large power plants and de...

Oil Market Surplus To 2019 Despite Strong Growth Projections

...0,000 b/d to 1.6mn b/d, while Opec raised its figures by 50,000 b/d to 1.42mn b/d. The IEA’s 1.6mn b/d annual gain would be the highest since 2014. While they see a slight slowdown in 2018 (see table), both have strong growth projections in excess of 1.3mn b/d. Opec’s MOMR attributes the 50,000 b/d up...

Algerian Oil Bolstered By Berkine Basin Prospects

...sh to get oil out of the ground. Prices have fallen dramatically since 2014, and since the beginning of the year Opec members and other oil producers have been subject to production cuts. Algeria’s state energy company Sonatrach says it has implemented its mandated reduction of 50,000 b/d. But there ar...

Petronas Quits Algeria As Cepsa Expands

...praised in 2005, but it was not until a deep well found Triassic oil that the field showed commercial potential. Petronas had looked to expand in Algeria via its participation in the country’s flopped 2014 bidding round. Negotiations were held “in light of the fiscal incentives provided by the go...

Algeria Shuns Foreign Debt… By Printing Money?

...nds de Regulation des Recettes (FRR), a reserve fund intended for counter-cyclical spending, has been empty since February, whilst the country’s foreign currency reserves have collapsed from $179bn at end 2014 to just over $105bn at end-July. The IMF projects further falls to $79bn by end-2018 and $55...

DNO Injects Fresh Momentum Into KRG Oil Sector With Acquisition

...jority city of Mosul. ExxonMobil suspended operations at the block on 7 August 2014, before force majeure was then imposed. Documents released by WikiLeaks show that ExxonMobil and TEC put estimated oil in place at 580mn barrels. Should Baeshiqa prove commercially viable, it ought to be a simple ma...

Iraq Sparking Up Gas-Fired Capacity, Despite Fuel Supply Constraints

...quire 1.2bn cfd of gas. FEDERAL IRAQ PEAK POWER GENERATION (MW)   Plant type 2014 2015 2016 *20...

Kufpec Splashes The Cash in Norway But 2020 Target Remains Distant

...fpec’s net production edged up just 3,800 boe/d year-on-year in 2016 to 70,800 boe/d, still below 2014 levels (see chart). PRE-DATED PURCHASES      Add in the Thai purchase, and the 2016 gains will be more substantial, taking Kufpec’s overall output above 100,000 boe/d for the first time. But it ta...

Turkey 1H17 Gas Imports (Bcm): Iran On Track To Top Record 2014 Supplies But Still Less Than 1/3 Russian Volumes

Israel Products Output Down 17% Amid Maintenance, Strike

...vernment’s energy conservation measures began to take effect (MEES, 7 April). Increased use of gas has also been key to curbing Israel’s oil demand. Gas’ share of the power mix hit a record 55.4% in H1 2017, with Israel’s burning of fuel oil in power plants falling to virtually zero since 2014. Gas co...

China Crude Imports Grow At Record Rate: Can It Last?

...tensity,’ measured in megajoules per dollar (see chart). World Bank data to 2014 show this falling steeply, whilst data from China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), published 24 August, show a further 14.6% fall between 2013 and 2016, Reuters reports. In other words, China’s GDP growth figures of 6....