1. Abu Dhabi’s Taqa: Upstream Down Despite Price Recovery, Power Steady

    ...t losses from 2013 onwards forced the company to rethink its finances. In 2018 Taqa reported a net profit of AD398mn ($108mn), an increase of 145% from the $44mn reported in 2017. This return to profit came after a four-year period of net losses which cumulated in a 2015 deficit of AD19bn ($5....

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 17
    Published at Fri, 26 Apr 2019
  2. Chevron Goes All-In On The Permian

    ...l sector, but it may well lower the purchase price for any asset sale. And France’s Total, which bagged 12.25% stakes in Anadarko’s two Algeria blocks (208 and 404a) via its 2017 takeover of Maersk, would be the most likely suitor. In sharp contrast to Chevron, Total bigged up the attractiveness of...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 16
    Published at Fri, 19 Apr 2019
  3. RAK Bags Eni For Offshore Exploration

    ...January). Long a peripheral part of Eni’s portfolio with oil output of just 40,000 b/d in 2017 all from Iraq, the firm’s entry into two Abu Dhabi offshore concessions last year (MEES, 16 March 2018) bumped this up to a record 67,000 b/d for 2018. With new exploration assets in Abu Dhabi, Oman, Ba...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 16
    Published at Fri, 19 Apr 2019
  4. UAE’s Mubadala Sells Cepsa Stake To Investor Carlyle

    ...id €3.97bn for the remaining 52.95% in 2011. IPIC was then merged into Mubadala in 2017 (MEES, 24 February 2017). This left Cepsa sitting alongside a host of other energy-focussed Mubadala investments, including its subsidiary Mubadala Petroleum. Holding two wholly-owned energy entities with se...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 15
    Published at Fri, 12 Apr 2019
  5. Saudi Aramco’s Inner Workings: Bond Prospectus Lifts The Lid

    ...erations. Upstream is Saudi Aramco’s bread and butter. And the prospectus states that “As at 31 December 2017, the Company’s proved liquids reserves were more than five times the combined proved liquids reserves of the Five Major IOCs.” The firm is also increasingly focused on expanding its downstream fo...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 14
    Published at Fri, 05 Apr 2019
  6. Aramco’s $69.1bn Sabic Takeover Refuels PIF Ambitions

    ...presents an expansion from 2017’s 14.6mn t/y capacity. The 2017 total fell to 9.9mn t/y when excluding intermediate products (MEES, 24 August 2018). As for Sabic, 2018 petchems output totaled 61.6mn t/y of which up to two-thirds are intermediate products (MEES, 22 March). Even at 20mn t/y, this would still be...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 13
    Published at Fri, 29 Mar 2019
  7. Oman Eyes $3.85bn Sri Lanka Refinery Project

    ...ES, 22 March). After upgrading the Sohar refinery to 197,000 b/d in 2017 (MEES, 17 February 2017), Oman is now pushing on with the $8bn Duqm refinery which will add an additional 230,000 b/d. A separate petrochemicals complex at Duqm is also slowly beginning to push forward – though construction is so...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 13
    Published at Fri, 29 Mar 2019
  8. US Shale: Major Growth Planned, Indies Crimp Spending

    ...netheless opted in early 2017 for a second bite at Permian expansion with a $6bn purchase of more oil-focused acreage (MEES, 17 February 2017). The Permian is now central to Exxon’s global strategy. And key to Exxon’s Permian strategy is downstream integration: investment in petchems including with Sa...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 11
    Published at Fri, 15 Mar 2019
  9. Egypt Oil Output To Fall As Key Producer Apache Slashes Investment

    ...llen in line with changes in drilling activity but with a lag of between 12 and 24 months. Most notably, the firm’s gross Egypt output slumped by 20,000 b/d between late 2015 and early 2017 as the firm slashed capex by 35% in 2015 and a further 45% in 2016 (see chart 3). This suggests that Apache’s gr...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 10
    Published at Fri, 08 Mar 2019
  10. KRG-Pearl Reach 20yr Gas Sales Deal

    ...pipeline connection from the Kurdistan Region to its neighbors. Russia’s Rosneft agreed in 2017 to construct a 30 bcm/y pipeline to Turkey by 2020 but the absence of concrete progress means that deadline now looks unlikely (MEES, 22 September 2017). Elsewhere, partners at Pearl have told MEES th...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 10
    Published at Fri, 08 Mar 2019
  11. Adnoc Advances Infrastructure Revamp With Storage, Pipeline Deals

    ...ores up to 6.29mn barrels at Kiire (MEES, 27 January 2017). UAE OIL & GAS INFRASTRUCTURE   PIPELINE INVESTMENT PROJECT      Shortly before the storage announcement, Adnoc confirmed that a deal had been reached to lease 18 crude oil and condensate pipelines to US investors Bl...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 09
    Published at Fri, 01 Mar 2019
  12. Oman Looks To Bag More IOCs In Latest Licensing Round

    ...d round saw the likes of Occidental (Oxy) expand its portfolio in the sultanate (MEES, 9 November 2018) whilst the 2017 bid round brought Italy’s Eni and Qatar Petroleum into the fold (MEES, 15 September 2017). Oman’s Oil Minister Muhammad al-Rumhy told MEES last year that bringing bigger, more pr...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 08
    Published at Fri, 22 Feb 2019
  13. Occidental Launches Renewed Mid-East Push, Targets 2021 Volumes

    ...e east of Block 62 with a small gap between them. There is then a continuous arc from Block 62 to Block 9, with blocks 27, 30 and 65 lying between them. Block 27 output is modest at around 5,000 b/d while the other two are recently acquired exploration blocks.  Block 30 was awarded in 2017 under Om...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 07
    Published at Fri, 15 Feb 2019
  14. Tethys Oman On The Up

    ...ocks. On a gross basis, that equates to 40,000-43,333 b/d. The current annual record is 2017’s 40,541 b/d which was also set in the first year of Opec+ production cuts. A new record for 2019 would at least fit a pattern. Tethys is not quite a pure-play Oman firm, with its Lithuanian assets ne...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 07
    Published at Fri, 15 Feb 2019
  15. Qatar Seizes Golden Opportunity For US Cooperation

    ...rst investment in the United States, and is certainly not going to be our last. It represents a significant part of the plans that Qatar Petroleum announced to invest $20bn in the US energy sector.” Mr Kaabi had told MEES in December 2017 that “we are working on buying upstream assets and reserves in...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 08 Feb 2019
  16. Majors Take Integrated Approach To US Shale Boom, Gulf NOCs Join The Ride

    ...th deepwater Guyana and Brazil, the Permian forms the centerpiece of the major’s investment plans. Exxon only went big on the Permian with the $6.6bn purchase of key acreage in early 2017. But its Permian output rose 93% year-on-year to 300,000 boe/d (of which around 80% is liquids) for Q4 2018 with th...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 06
    Published at Fri, 08 Feb 2019
  17. Adnoc Brings Eni, OMV Into Refining Arm Ahead Of Expansion

    ...e remaining 85,000 b/d is at the Abu Dhabi refinery. Products output in 2017 was 725,000 b/d, of which 512,000 b/d (70%) was exported. Abu Dhabi plans to boost refining capacity by 60% to around 1.5mn b/d by 2025 under its $45bn strategy to turn Ruwais into “the world’s largest integrated re...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 05
    Published at Fri, 01 Feb 2019
  18. Bahrain’s Grand Ambitions: MEES Speaks With Oil Minister Muhammad Al Khalifa

    ...w into this formation. We flowed oil in 2017, this is the oil we flowed, from the first test well. Now we are drilling wells to put them on an extended flow test and that data we’ll collect and put in a data room and invite international companies to have a look. Hopefully it becomes cost co...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 04
    Published at Fri, 25 Jan 2019
  19. Eni Completes Middle East Tour De Force

    ...arjah and Bahrain as it looks to diversify its portfolio. Net liquids output from the region – all from Iraq’s Zubair – averaged 40,000 b/d in 2017 out of a global 852,000 b/d (4.7%). Add in gas, and the net regional share was 43,000 boe/d out of 1.82mn boe/d (2.4%). By way of comparison North Af...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 03
    Published at Fri, 18 Jan 2019
  20. Qatar Cements Korea LNG Top Spot

    ...ter taking zero for October. Conversely, Korean LNG imports from the US hit a quarterly record of 1.48mn tons in Q4 and a monthly record of 610,000 tons in October. Not only is Qatar Korea’s top supplier but the feeling is mutual. Korea, having overtaken Japan to become Qatar’s top customer in 2017...

    Volume: 62
    Issue: 03
    Published at Fri, 18 Jan 2019