Jordan Gas Boost

...d ‘well-49’ brought online last December (MEES, 29 December 2019). Results from three other exploration wells are expected soon – but given the relatively small size of the field, which BP abandoned in 2014 (MEES, 24 January 2014), the country’s growing renewables sector remains its best hope of ac...

Korea Imports At 7-Yr Low

...pplier with 811,000 b/d for November. The kingdom has increased supplies to Korea by 6% year-on-year to 871,000 b/d for 11M 2020 for a market share of 32.8%. Not only is this well up on 2019’s 27.7%, but a bumper December could yet see Saudi top the annual record of 33.0% set in 2014.  ...

Japan Imports: Still Rock Bottom

...utral Zone, the first such volumes since 2014. Kuwait volumes (excluding the PNZ) are down 9% at 233,000 b/d for 10M 2020 but may be set to rise next year with state firm KPC this week inking a deal to lease 3.14mn barrels of Japan storage capacity (see p17). JAPAN CRUDE IMPORTS REMAIN AT MULTI-DE...

Kuwait Starts Up CDU In Delayed ‘Clean Fuels’ Expansion

...though work on 19 new units at MAB is ongoing. The CFP contracts were awarded in 2014, with KNPC expecting at the time that construction work would be finished completed in late-2017 (MEES, 21 August). Meanwhile state firm Kipic, formed to develop downstream projects in the Neutral Zone between Ku...

India Crude: Saudi Squeezed

...India’s crude imports remain well down on year-ago levels as Covid-19 infection rates and the impact on the country’s economy remain high. September’s crude imports of 3.14mn b/d were the third lowest since 2014; only May and July, at the height of lockdown, were lower. Average 9M 2020 im...

Acwa Control At Rawec As JGC Quits

...keover, Rawec had a strained relationship with Petro Rabigh: a 2013 outage at its utilities plant damaged a number of furnaces in the petchem plant’s cracker. Petro Rabigh threatened to terminate Rawec’s supply contract until a SR1.125bn ($300mn) compensation deal was agreed (MEES, 6 June 2014...

Audit For Libya’s Central Banks

...the Libyan financial system and creating the conditions for the eventual unification of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL),” says UNSMIL. Libya has effectively had two central banks since 2014 when a political crisis split the country into two rival eastern and western administrations. In the me...

Saudi Arabia Oil & Gas Rig Count*: Gas Drilling Slashed In June, Rigs Down 10 To 41, Lowest Since October 2014. Oil Rigs See Minimal Rebound, Up One To 54

Neutral Zone Set To Close Again

...It was a brief run, but having started producing in February for the first time since 2014 the Khafji field is once again being shut-in. Located in the Neutral Zone (PNZ) where output is split 50:50 between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, an agreement reached in late 2019 saw output restart, with th...

Egypt Lines Up Ammonia Project

...st of $10.9bn. The project, conceived when Egypt’s gas resources were increasingly overstretched, is intended to process 4mn t/y of imported naphtha (MEES, 4 April 2014). Financing remains incomplete despite EPC work being awarded in mid-2018 (MEES, 14 December 2018).  ...

Dana Gas: Egypt Sale Delayed, Looks To Ringfence Iran Deal

...tigation from Dana since breaking down seemingly irrevocably in 2005 (MEES, 15 August 2014). Dana, which typically devotes a sizable chunk of its reports to its various ongoing litigations – of which the long-running Iran saga is perhaps the most impenetrable – is evidently trying to simplify things.  ...

Neutral Zone Exports Resume

...me since 2014 (MEES, 28 February) and volumes will be heading to Asia.  ...

Egypt Refiners Hit New Highs

...e lowest since February 2014. Products demand fell to 662,000 b/d for January, the lowest since July 2018. For 2019 as a whole, demand fell to a 10-year low 694,000 b/d. Egypt’s refiners processed a record 275,000 b/d of imported crude in January, helping to counter stagnating local production. Cr...

Chevron Downplays PNZ Ramp-Up…

...vels prior to the shut in of the offshore Khafji field in 2014 and onshore Wafra in 2015. But US major Chevron, which operates the Saudi portion of the Wafra field, is much less bullish. The major, in the operations supplement to its 2019 annual report released this week, says it expects “ramp up to...

Kuwait/Saudi Neutral Zone: Restart Imminent?

...wn.” The PNZ also contains the offshore Khafji field, which Kuwait and Saudi Arabia also aim to start-up in the coming months. It was producing 220,000 b/d before its 2014 shut-in.  ...

Morocco Extends Coal Deal

...d were developed under a 30-year power purchase agreement signed in 1997. Taqa added a further 700MW of coal-fired capacity at the plant in 2014, taking total capacity to 2.056GW (MEES, 26 September 2014). The deal extends Rabat’s commitment to coal, which provided over 50% of Morocco’s el...

Egypt Gas Back On The Rise

...e global market amid suppressed prices (MEES, 20 December 2019). The lion’s share of output comes from the Mediterranean, where output rose to 4.281bn cfd for November. At 64.3% of overall output, this was the highest since March 2014, and nearly double the January 2017 nadir of 37%. The key co...

Taqa Completes $3.5bn Refinancing

...ter oil prices collapsed in 2014. This focused on cutting capital expenditure and reducing debt (MEES, 17 November 2017). Taqa’s main business segments are power and water, mainly in the UAE but also internationally, as well as upstream oil and gas. Upstream Taqa has producing operations in Iraqi Ku...