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Algeria: Government Reshuffled But Course Unchanged
...o have become increasingly desperate for new policies in the wake of the oil price crash in 2014, are likely to be sorely disappointed. On the face of it, major changes have been made. Abdelmalek Sellal finally comes to the end of his tenure as prime minister, a post he held for almost five ye...
Volume: 60Issue: 23Published at Fri, 09 Jun 2017 -
Algeria Parliamentary Poll: Status Quo - On, And On, And On Again
...% of registered voters (23 million out of a population of almost 40 million), compared with some 42% in 2012. Some independent observers put the figure lower still. Algiers had managed to buy social peace until 2014 as oil prices remained at over $100/B, but the latest elections coincide with he...
Volume: 60Issue: 20Published at Fri, 19 May 2017 -
Wintershall Dispute Takes Gloss Off Libya Production Peak
...Libyan output has topped 800,000 b/d for the first time since 2014. Output would be even higher were it not for a dispute with Germany’s Wintershall, says NOC. Crude production on 10 May was at least 800,000 b/d, according to officials from Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation (NOC), th...
Volume: 60Issue: 19Published at Fri, 12 May 2017 -
South Sudan Looks Beyond Total For Block B
...me to nothing (MEES, 22 August 2014). Reports have suggested that the UK’s Tullow Oil, heavily involved in exploration in neighboring Uganda, was the latest candidate for the empty stake in the block. PRODUCTION CHALLENGE Whatever happens with the blocks, it will not affect South Sudan’s pr...
Volume: 60Issue: 18Published at Fri, 05 May 2017 -
Libyan Oil Output Gains Go Into Reverse Amid Growing Instability
...rce. The Third Force wrested control of the Sharara oil fields from Tebu and Zintani members of the local Petroleum Facilities Guard in November 2014. There were reports in March that the Third Force had withdrawn from the region, but an LNA spokesman said in late March that negotiations over control of...
Volume: 60Issue: 13Published at Fri, 31 Mar 2017 -
Rosneft: Russia Mixes Business With Politics In Mena Expansion
...rdish oil since 2014 to $3bn, implying Rosneft has coughed up around $1bn. There are indications that Rosneft is using this as leverage over the cash-strapped government. Reuters reports that Rosneft is after light crude for its German refineries, which dovetails with Rosneft’s statements. Two days af...
Volume: 60Issue: 12Published at Fri, 24 Mar 2017 -
Baghdad Close To Winning War In Mosul; Can It Win The Peace?
...rruption and lack of development of areas outside of Baghdad helped to facilitate the emergence of IS in 2014 (or more accurately its re-emergence from the embers of Al-Qa’ida in Iraq). Iraq’s leaders have a challenging set of circumstances if they are to prevent the same mistakes from being repeated. MO...
Volume: 60Issue: 11Published at Fri, 17 Mar 2017 -
Lebanon’s Political And Economic Struggles Continue
...Lebanon achieved a major political breakthrough in October 2016; it ended a two-year standoff between various political groups which had prevented the election of a consensus president to succeed Michel Sulaiman after his term ended in May 2014. But sizeable structural problems persist and it...
Volume: 60Issue: 09Published at Fri, 03 Mar 2017 -
Baghdad-Erbil Refining Deal Signals Pragmatism Winning Out
...G). Mr Luaibi says the agreement will allow the production of badly needed fuels for the Nineveh, Kirkuk and Diyala provinces. These include areas liberated from Islamic State (IS) jihadists. Iraq has suffered acute products shortages since IS badly damaged the 310,000 b/d Baiji refinery in June 2014. Ba...
Volume: 60Issue: 08Published at Fri, 24 Feb 2017 -
Tunisia: Oil & Gas Slump, Tourism Collapse – Bonds To The Rescue?
...e economy. 2014 revenue of $2.14bn equated to 7% of GDP but that was before a precipitous 54% fall in 2015 with terrorist attacks at Sousse and on Tunis’ Bardo museum. Sky-high youth unemployment of 35%, rising to 67% for recent graduates according to IMF stats, has helped fuel the labor unrest (ma...
Volume: 60Issue: 07Published at Fri, 17 Feb 2017 -
Iraq: Mosul Offensive Gains Momentum Amid Lingering Failures
...wly-trained army units or those existing prior to 2014 performed well. The bulk of the fighting was performed by the special forces Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) and Interior Ministry federal police. One new problem, as noted by Yahya al-Kubaysi of the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies in an in...
Volume: 60Issue: 04Published at Fri, 27 Jan 2017 -
Politics Prioritized As Lebanon Advances Bidding Plans
...ismic over its whole offshore, drawing up prospective blocks (though not deciding which to offer), and pre-qualifying firms. But then politics got in the way. In the absence of a president, bidding was repeatedly pushed back (MEES, 4 October 2013) and in the end quietly shelved (MEES, 6 June 2014). Re...
Volume: 60Issue: 04Published at Fri, 27 Jan 2017 -
Iraq And Iran Only Exceeded By Russia In Global Gas Flaring
...rld Bank says 147bcm of gas was flared in 2015, up from 145bcm in 2014. 2016 is likely to see a further rise. Russia remains the world’s largest flaring country with 21.2bcm, followed by Iraq with 16.2bcm, Iran with 12.1bcm, the US with 11.9bcm and Venezuela with 9.3bcm. “The flaring increase is ma...
Volume: 60Issue: 01Published at Fri, 06 Jan 2017 -
The Iraqi State Faces A Perilous 2017
...e councils and modified the seat allocation formula to disadvantage small parties - as was done in the 2014 parliamentary law. Parliament’s Legal Committee has said that a special law is needed for Kirkuk to hold new elections; its current council was elected in January 2005. If the provincial el...
Volume: 59Issue: 51/52Published at Fri, 23 Dec 2016 -
KRG Output Highest This Year, But Revenues Sink Further
...vernment receipts. The key dampener remains Kurdistan’s huge debt to oil buyers for prepayments in 2014 and 2015. Ashti Hawrami, KRG Minister of Natural Resources, puts the debt accrued to buyers in 2014-15 at $2.3bn, of which MEES estimates around $350mn has been paid off this year, leaving almost $2bn ou...
Volume: 59Issue: 50Published at Fri, 16 Dec 2016 -
Qatar Wealth Fund QIA And Glencore In $11.3bn Rosneft Deal
...th Iran will not sit well with Qatar’s Arab allies. However, Qatar has since 1995 pursued an independent strategy often at odds with its neighbors. This most recently came to a head in March 2014 when Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain pulled their ambassadors from Qatar, citing Doha’s alleged in...
Volume: 59Issue: 49Published at Fri, 09 Dec 2016 -
Kuwaiti Opposition Gains Further Threaten Government Energy Policy
...afji field in the Saudi-Kuwait Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ) is being readied for restart. It has been offline since October 2014 as part of a dispute between the two over management of the PNZ, and the 200,000 b/d Wafra field since March 2015. With output split 50:50, this has denied Kuwait around 25...
Volume: 59Issue: 48Published at Fri, 02 Dec 2016 -
The Political Implications Of Iraq’s Mosul Offensive
...sentment toward the KDP for abandoning them during the Islamic State’s 2014 offensive remains strong, and that when it comes to ethnic identity, views are diverse, heightening the complexity of this tinderbox of a region. Some Yazidis emphasize their Kurdish identity, others think of themselves as Ya...
Volume: 59Issue: 48Published at Fri, 02 Dec 2016 -
Trump Sword Of Damocles Hangs Over Global Climate Action
...SITIONS IN FULL Nov 2012 (tweet): "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive" Jan 2014 (tweet): "Is our country still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?" Jan 2016 (Fox & Friends TV show): "I think the climate ch...
Volume: 59Issue: 47Published at Fri, 25 Nov 2016 -
IEA Outlook Trumped By Events
...a good pun to head up the WEO section on the fuel, but it is looking decidedly out of date. According to the IEA projections sharp declines in US, Chinese and EU coal demand over 2014-40 will more or less cancel out a doubling of Indian demand over the same period. But the forecast 40% fall from 62...
Volume: 59Issue: 46Published at Fri, 18 Nov 2016