- Sort by:
- Score
- Published ▼
-
UAE Delays, Jordan Rethink Blur Mena Nuclear Vision
...nstruction nuclear reactors, has announced that fuel rods for the first of the plants will be loaded into the reactor in early 2020. This means that the first electricity from the Barakah-1 unit will not hit the grid until later in 2020 at the earliest – over three years after the May 2017 announcement of...
Volume: 61Issue: 23Published at Fri, 08 Jun 2018 -
Tunisia Looks To The Sun To Cut Dependence On Algerian Gas
...tion Plan’ places such factors above environmental concerns as the key motivation for the push for renewables. “The national energy situation is characterized by a growing energy deficit which hit 49% in 2017. This has major implications in terms of energy supply security, notably for the power se...
Volume: 61Issue: 22Published at Fri, 01 Jun 2018 -
North Africa The Key Focus Of Eni Solar Plans
...w energy solutions” element of the company’s 2017-20 strategy outlook with a focus on “hybrid projects” with “technological and geographical synergy with other Eni business lines.” “Our distinctive model consists of replacing internal gas consumption in our assets with solar or wind power… This ap...
Volume: 61Issue: 22Published at Fri, 01 Jun 2018 -
Iraq Gas Consumption Soars To Record Heights
...Iraqi crude burn volumes fell to a 10-year low of 43,000 b/d as in 1Q 2018 it stepped up fuel oil and gas consumption in power plants. Q1 crude burn volumes were down from 71,000 b/d in 4Q 2017, which was itself one of the lowest figures in recent years. March’s 28,000 b/d was down more th...
Volume: 61Issue: 21Published at Fri, 25 May 2018 -
GCC Grid Increasingly Used For Power Trading, But Volumes Small
...ectricity have become common. Total electricity traded increased by almost 20% last year to almost 880GWh. While the actual rate of electricity supplied under trade deals was relatively small – 2016’s total power delivery was equivalent to running an 84MW power plant flat out, while 2017’s delivery was eq...
Volume: 61Issue: 21Published at Fri, 25 May 2018 -
Algeria Eyes Solar To Power Oil Operations, But ‘It’s A Long-Term Job’
...om renewables. These will be small projects whose capacity is around 100MW.” Algeria’s solar capacity has risen quickly of late, although from a low level, to 425MW at the end of 2017, while wind capacity has languished at 10MW since 2014 (see chart). The solar increase is attributable to small-sc...
Volume: 61Issue: 20Published at Fri, 18 May 2018 -
Egypt Hopes To Kick-Start Wind Financing With Switch To BOO Contracts
...nistry’s feed-in-tariffs offer developers US¢4.60-11.48/kWh for electricity generated from wind projects. While tariffs for both wind and solar are quoted in the US currency, payments are to be made in Egyptian pounds, putting off some potential investors (MEES, 7 April 2017). For wind, payments would fall fr...
Volume: 61Issue: 19Published at Fri, 11 May 2018 -
Saudi Renewable Plans Thrown Into Confusion By SoftBank Power Play
...ar had agreed to invest $45bn with SoftBank (MEES, 26 May 2017), informed state utility Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) that it would partner with SoftBank to create the 2030 solar plan. However, SEC said only that PIF and SoftBank planned to launch a 3GW solar project in the kingdom in 2018. Pr...
Volume: 61Issue: 18Published at Fri, 04 May 2018 -
Solar Drives Mena Renewables In 2017, But Region Remains Global Laggard
...Mena governments have been slow to adopt renewables, but economic diversification plans and competition for conventional generation fuels suggest growth may pick up. Mena region utilities added 1.64GW or 5.7% to their capacity to generate power from renewable sources in 2017. While this wa...
Volume: 61Issue: 17Published at Fri, 27 Apr 2018 -
Saudi Oil Exports Hit New Peak But Crude Burn Rises
...rch). Some 20% of overall products exports in January were sent to OECD Europe, with latest IEA stats showing the region took 1.58mn tons (around 400,000 b/d) in January, well above the 2017 average of 260,000 b/d. This appears to have consisted overwhelmingly, if not entirely, of middle distillates su...
Volume: 61Issue: 16Published at Fri, 20 Apr 2018 -
OMV Restarts Yemen Output
...clear if all are operational. The bulk of Yemen’s 2017 crude output (and all exports) came from Blocks 10 and 14, operated by state firm PetroMasila in the east of the country, much further away from the front line with Houthi rebels. This output of around 50,000 b/d was piped to and exported from th...
Volume: 61Issue: 16Published at Fri, 20 Apr 2018 -
UAE’s Nuclear Power Mirage Slips Further Away
...The UAE’s Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) appears no closer to awarding an operating license for the country’s first nuclear power plant, with slippage to 2019 or beyond looking likely. Construction of the Barakah-1 plant was completed in May 2017, but the unit is still aw...
Volume: 61Issue: 15Published at Fri, 13 Apr 2018 -
Saudi: Ambitious Solar Push Could Spell The End For LNG Import Plans
...ll have spurred on greater measures than a more modest goal. His two most eye-catching domestic measures to-date are the Vision 2030 plan to radically overhaul the economy (MEES, 29 September 2017), and the $500bn “robot city” Neom (MEES, 27 October 2017). But, in terms of concrete progress, the om...
Volume: 61Issue: 14Published at Fri, 06 Apr 2018 -
Israeli Gas Development: Can The Domestic Power Market Absorb It?
...e country’s most recent bid round. All are close or adjacent to Karish and Tanin (MEES, 15 December 2017). The reference to liquids storage capacity is particularly eye-catching given that Israel has no current oil production and that there has been no extended production test at Karish. That sa...
Volume: 61Issue: 13Published at Fri, 30 Mar 2018 -
Egypt’s Gas Balancing Act As Power Demand Eats Into Growing Supply
...it during 2017-20 represent the power sector’s biggest new gas requirement. Germany’s Siemens is providing turbines and generators for three 4.8GW plants: Egypt’s Orascom is building plants at Burullus and a proposed ‘new capacity city’ just east of Cairo, while local firm Elsewedy is building a pl...
Volume: 61Issue: 12Published at Fri, 23 Mar 2018 -
Iraq’s Power Generators Gorge On Rising Gas, Cutting Crude Burn
...ocessing volumes of 900mn cfd by the end of December 2017. The company recovered a record 676mn cfd for 2017 as a whole and plans to reach 1bn cfd by end-2018. December’s commissioning of a gas processing plant at the Gazprom Neft-operated 85,000 b/d Badra field later this month will add 155mn cfd to Ir...
Volume: 61Issue: 11Published at Fri, 16 Mar 2018 -
Oman Taps Major Players For 500MW OPWP Solar Project
...cal firms (see table). OPWP revealed plans for a first utility-scale solar project in October 2016 (MEES, 21 October 2016). Encouraged by a string of record low bids for regional solar projects, OPWP announced in late December 2017 that the project would be a 500MW plant to be built 300km west of Mu...
Volume: 61Issue: 10Published at Fri, 09 Mar 2018 -
Saudi Pushes On With Nuclear Plans Despite US Concern
...dioactive waste management (MEES, 28 July 2017). With US President Donald Trump wanting to boost the chances of US firms, particularly Westinghouse, securing nuclear contracts in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh’s plan to exploit its own uranium resources could create an entry barrier. While Saudi Arabia has signed th...
Volume: 61Issue: 09Published at Fri, 02 Mar 2018 -
Gulf Crude Burn: Saudi, Iraq Turn To Gas To Curb Sky High Crude Burn Rates
...d Iraq post a four year low of 119,000 b/d crude burn over the course of 2017, but it claims to have eliminated it entirely for two of the months. Last year’s burn was down 30% from 2016’s peak of 169,000 b/d. Saudi Arabia meanwhile posted an eight-year low of 436,000 b/d – still by far the wo...
Volume: 61Issue: 08Published at Fri, 23 Feb 2018 -
UAE Nuclear Plans: More Delays Likely
...schedule. A Kepco executive said at the time that “it’s very difficult for us to predict the possible compensation that may be involved and our future plans for our manpower dispatched to the project” (MEES, 12 May 2017). Kepco has not issued an update on the situation since. FANR’s op...
Volume: 61Issue: 07Published at Fri, 16 Feb 2018