MENA ///
Saudi Arabia is now comfortable with Brent oil prices rising above $80/bbl, at least in the short term, as the global market adjusts to the loss of Iranian supply from U.S. sanctions, according to people familiar with the kingdom’s view.
Saudi Aramco has awarded the first large-scope integrated services contract for its Marjan oilfield – the first of three major offshore expansions in Saudi Arabia, and the company’s largest upstream development project this year – to Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE).
Top energy officials from the U.S. and Iran clashed on Monday with warnings that international peace is at risk as America’s sanctions noose tightens on the Islamic Republic.
OPEC highlighted a range of risks brewing in the global economy that could hurt oil demand as ministers prepared for a meeting on production policy, marking a shift from last month’s outlook.
Iran is starting to store oil on its fleet of supertankers again as impending U.S. sanctions force the Persian Gulf country to revive a strategy it deployed under previous curbs.
Libya’s National Oil Corp. will carry out operations as usual across the country after security forces quashed a deadly attack on the state company’s headquarters in the capital Tripoli, the NOC’s chairman said.
Production capacity of Zohr project, developed by the consortium of Eni, Rosneft, BP and Mubadala together with the Egyptian oil and gas companies, has been increased by more than 25% to more than 2 Bcfd.
Iraq is pumping crude at record levels and the violent street protests that engulfed the oil-rich south have not affected energy facilities in OPEC’s No. 2 producer.
Sound Energy, the Morocco focussed upstream gas company, is pleased to announce the award of the production concession relating to the Tendrara gas discovery in Eastern Morocco by the Moroccan Ministry of Energy.
Saudi Aramco has awarded the first large-scope integrated services contract for its Marjan oilfield – the first of three major offshore expansions in Saudi Arabia, and the company’s largest upstream development project this year – to Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE).
OPEC crude production rose in August to the highest level this year as a recovery in Libyan output helped to offset a cut in Iranian exports due to U.S. sanctions.
Discounts, bartering and smuggling are among the tactics Iran may lean on to keep almost 800,000 bpd of its oil exports flowing after U.S. sanctions resume in November.
Iran’s oil exports are tumbling again as the country’s key buyers in Asia take fewer cargoes in the weeks before U.S. sanctions take full effect.
Eni announces a gas discovery in the Egyptian Western Desert. The discovery well has been drilled on the Faramid South exploration prospect located in East Obayed concession, 30 km North-West of the Melehia Concession.
Iraq sees a need to increase crude exports and says it’s ready to ship more as soon as OPEC agrees how members will share a collective supply boost, according to the acting director-general of the state-run Oil Marketing Co.
Petrofac has received a provisional letter of award for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth $600 million with Sonatrach for EPC1 of the Tinhert Field Development Project in Algeria. Formal contract signing is expected to take place in September 2018.
One thing that became clear in one of the Tuesday morning sessions at ONS is that China remains an important oil trading partner and lynchpin of stability for the MENA (Middle East/North Africa) region. In the session entitled, “The Lego Blocks of Energy and Geopolitics,” two analysts explained the relationship of China to the region, and also the stability, or lack thereof, among some key oil producers.
Total SA’s withdrawal from Iran’s giant South Pars gas field has given China another chance to secure a stake in the world’s most coveted energy assets: abundant and low-cost Middle Eastern oil and gas.
South Sudan restarted crude production in a key oil region almost five years after facilities were shuttered by civil war.
Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is focusing on buying a strategic stake in chemical giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp., putting work on its potential initial public offering on hold, according to people familiar with the matter.