GCC Drilling Remains Strong Despite Upstream Capex Cuts

...d 48 respectively, according to Baker Hughes figures. The national oil companies (NOCs) in the GCC have capitalized on costs plunging alongside oil prices since the second half of 2014. Contracts have been signed at well below the previous market rate. According to the IEA’s World Energy In...

Saudi Cuts Deep To Boost Prices, But Will US Shale Pocket The Gains?

...is has supported crude prices, with Brent trading at around $56/B as MEES went to press. With their revenue streams in tatters and mounting budget deficits – MEES calculations show that 2016 Opec oil export revenues were less than half 2014 levels and down 17% on 2015 (MEES, 6 January) – the cl...

Opec Starts Cutting From Record Annual High

...$430bn, less than half the 2014 level. Apart from the Middle East’s Gulf states, most Opec members cut oil investment  and the impact on production was clear (see chart). Post-sanctions Iran posted the largest annual production gain of nearly 600,000 b/d, and 2015’s champion Iraq also posted a st...

Libya: Output Boost Imminent?

...the Murzuq basin in the southwest, operated more-or-less consistently from late-2011 to November 2014 but since then have been shut in by protestors blocking the pipeline at Rayayina in Zintan region, the site of a pumping station en route to Zawiya port. The fields are operated by Spain’s Repsol, wh...

Opec Hits New Record Output as Attention Switches to Non-Opec

...n-Nov16 v Jan-Nov15 2015 2014 S Arabia* 10.43 -0.05 +0.18 10.48 10.06 -0.37 10.35 +0.15 10.20 9.70 Iraq 4.64 +0....

Opec Agrees To Cut, But Questions Remain Over Implementation

...at Opec revenues are set to fall below $430bn this year, less than half of 2014 levels (see table). Oil prices reacted positively to the agreement and have risen around $7/B since the day before the meeting. As MEES went to press, Brent was just over $54/B, its highest level this year. Of course, fa...

The World’s Top Oil* Producer (Mn B/D): Saudi Output Recently Edged Past The US For The First Time Since Early 2014. But The US Is Set To Regain Top Spot Next Year And Keep It Until Shale Output Declines In The 2030s

Can Opec Get Its Act Together Ahead Of Vienna Meeting?

...giers on 29 September and set its target range, Iraq has been insistent that while it approves of an overall cut, it should be exempt. As the second largest producer in Opec and the one whose production has increased the most during the price slump – 1.24mn b/d since November 2014 – its non-pa...

Oil Demand To Keep Growing Past 2040 As Opec Share Nears 50% - IEA

....9 100.8 102.8 105.3 107.7 +13.6 *THE US IS EXPECTED TO SUPPLY C.85% OF GLOBAL 2025-30 TIGHT OIL OUTPUT. ^2014-40 FOR 2015 WEO. **CHANGES IN PE...

IEA On The Energy/Water Nexus

...MIDEAST DOMINATES ENERGY USE FOR DESALINATION, UAE ALONE 50% OF GLOBAL TOTAL (2014, MN TOE) SOURCE: GWI, IEA.   MASSIVE DESALINATION EXPANSION WILL REQUIRE 16% OF MIDEAST POWER OUTPUT BY 2040...

Opec Shows No Sign of Cutting Ahead of November Meeting

...now 2.57mn b/d above that of November 2014, when Opec members met in Vienna and opted against cutting to shore up prices. Yet only six Opec members have increased output, and five have seen it fall (see chart). Of these six, the two biggest gainers Iran and Iraq have vociferously claimed that wh...

Iraq Invites Bids for 12 Fields in First Offering Since 2012

...AQ ANNUAL CRUDE EXPORTS BY REGION ('000 B/D)   2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Eu...

Saudi Oil Exports Fall Amid Record Products Demand & Oil Burn

...el oil consumption to 624,000 b/d, its highest level since the 635,000 b/d record fuel oil consumption for December 2014. Fuel oil imports also rose to 204,000 b/d for August – another record. While monthly crude oil burn continues to be lower year-on-year, the new total oil burn record calls into qu...

Opec Cut Plans: Will They Happen? Will They Work?

...proach, Mr Falih said that the divergence that existed between supply and demand in 2014 when prices began to slump was now being reversed. “Opec made its decision not to intervene because it was a long term strategy of divergence. And in June I said that the divergence is being reversed and now we are se...

Record Opec Output Puts Onus On Saudi To Cut

...TD15 YTD15 2015 2014 S Arabia* 10.53 -0.04 10.57 10...

OPEC Agrees To Cut, Now The Hard Work Starts

...EC^ 2016 OIL EXPORT REVENUES ON COURSE FOR $750BN FALL FROM 2012 PEAK ($BN)   2010 2011 2012 2013 2014...

Saudi ‘Low Cost’ Market Share Policy Remains Unfinished Business

...ile its foreign reserves were down 16% year-on-year in July, the rate at which it’s drawing on them is falling (MEES, 2 September). The kingdom knew it was likely to face such a period of economic pain when it embarked on its market share over price strategy in 2014 and shows no sign of changing tack no...

Libya Output Jump On Export Restart

...oducing. But Hamada is in the west of the country. Output is normally blended with much larger volumes of crude from the Repsol-operated Murzuq fields for export as Sharara crude from the port of Zawiya west of Tripoli. No crude has been exported from Zawiya since late 2014. However the port is open in th...

Aramco Output Policy Under Scrutiny Ahead Of Algiers

...ne 2014, when the Opec basket crude price was still comfortably above $100/B: it averaged just $38/B in the first eight months of the year. Saudi refiners have been pushing their plants slightly harder than the industry norm this year – averaging 86.4% capacity utilization, compared with the gl...

Surplus To 2018 Leaves Opec No Good Options

...have largely worked its way through the system. Refiners are “losing their appetite” for crude amid an “anemic outlook,” the IEA says, with Q4 runs set to be just 80,000 b/d up on the same period last year and overall 2016 gains the lowest in a decade. “In both 2014 and 2015, refining output gr...