Saturday, May 21, 2016

Circle Oil offers its stake in North West Gemsa field for sale - ENERGY EGYPT / POWER NEWS

May 21, 2016

Circle Oil Plc, the Irish incorporated oil and gas exploration, development and production company, is looking to sell its 40% stake in North West Gemsa field.

The concessions are operated by a joint production company PetroAmir, whose partners include: EGPC, Zhen Hua (NPIC – 50% working interest and operator); Circle Oil Egypt Limited (40% working interest); and SDX Energy (10% working interest).

The NW Gemsa exploration license, which was converted to Al Amir and Geyad development leases, and lies in the Gulf of Suez area, has been put on offer by the company and the closing date for receiving offers was May 10th, according to Geol. Hassan Hataba, General Manager of PetroAmir.

Geol. Hataba cited difficult economic conditions, like many other oil companies, as the reason for putting up its stake for sale. He added that while several factors, such as declining in oil prices, increasing expenses and the company’s obligations to banks were the reasons for considering the sale.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Noble drops Cyprus’ Block 12 - IN-CYPRUS.COM / CYPRUS WEEKLY

19/05/2016

Noble Energy said on Thursday it is giving up its rights to Cyprus’ offshore Block 12 but will retain its interest in the Aphrodite field.

Noble told Bloomberg news that when the third and final exploration period expires on May 23 the acreage outside of the Aphrodite development area will be released and returned to the government.

The writing was on the wall from October last year, when Noble announced it would postpone drilling an additional exploration well from October until May 2016, when the licence expires.

The Block 12 partners, Noble Energy, Delek Holdings and BG, now owned by Shell, are supposed to submit a development plan this month for the Aphrodite field, which holds an estimated 4.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Israel, Egypt Said Close to Accord on Natural Gas Dispute - BLOOMBERG

May 18, 2016
David Wainer, Yaacov Benmeleh, Jonathan Ferziger

Israel said willing to compromise on fine Egypt must pay
Damages have hurt progress on exporting Israeli gas to Egypt

Israel and Egypt are nearing a compromise that would sweep away a major obstacle to a multibillion-dollar natural gas deal.

Israel may agree to settle for half of the $1.73 billion fine Egypt was ordered to pay it so talks on exporting Israeli offshore gas there can go ahead, two people familiar with the negotiations said, requesting anonymity because the talks are private. Payments would be spread over 14 years, one of the people said.

Negotiations are still under way, and authorities in both countries would have to approve any final figure, the people familiar said. State-owned Israel Electric Corp., which had sought the award from Egypt, and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

Anastasiades, Netanyahu new meeting focusing on energy - CYPRUS WEEKLY

incyprus — 18/05/2016

President Nicos Anastasiades and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are set to meet within the second half of the year to push ahead with energy-related joint initiatives.

The meeting, the exact date of which will be announced soon, followed a long telephone conversation on Tuesday evening between the two leaders at the initiative of Anastasiades.

“New initiatives between the neigbouring countries focusing on the lucrative energy sector will be on the agenda of the meeting,” insiders told daily Phileleftheros.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Rosneft Eyes Building Hydrocarbon Terminal in Egypt's Suez Canal Zone - SPUTNIK NEWS / REUTERS

REUTERS/ Amr Abdallah Dalsh
17.05.2016(updated 12:55 17.05.2016)

Rosneft is looking into the possibility of building an oil and gas terminal in Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone, the Russian trade envoy to Egypt said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Preparations for talks on the hydrocarbon terminal project between Rosneft and Suez economic zone authorities are underway, he added, noting that in 2015, the Russian trade representation in Egypt passed a total of 11 oil and gas development proposals from the Egyptian authorities to Russian companies.

"Currently, the proposal to build a hydrocarbon terminal in the Suez Canal zone has been looked into the most. The Rosneft company is planning to take part in the project from the Russian side," Fedor Lukashin said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Monday, May 16, 2016

EGAS to rent gasification ship located in Jordan with 500m cubic feet capacity - DAILY NEWS EGYPT

Gas line with Amman to re-open this summer, importing 200m cubic feet daily

Mohamed Adel May 16, 2016

The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) plans to rent a gasification ship located in Jordan with a capacity of 500m cubic feet of gas daily and to host it in a private port controlled by SUMED in Ain Sokhna in 2017.

A prominent official at EGAS told Daily News Egypt that Egypt has contracted to rent about 200m cubic feet of gas from the full capacity of the gasification ship in Jordan since the end of 2015.

He added that Egypt received quantities estimated at approximately 200m cubic feet of gas daily through the pipeline coming from Jordan last summer.

The official mentioned the re-opening of the gas pipeline between Egypt and Jordan and the import of 200m cubic feet per day to meet summer’s fuel requirements for power plants.

Norwegian Statoil to explore for natural gas in Turkey - DAILY SABAH / ANADOLU AGENCY

16/5/2016

Norwegian-based energy company Statoil signed a binding letter agreement for a license, together with Canadian Valeura, to explore for natural gas in Turkey's Thrace region. The exploration license covers an area of 540 square kilometers.

According to the company's written statement, the agreement was signed with Valeura, whose previous natural gas exploration has mainly focused on Tekirdağ's Banarlı district.

While Statoil has a 50 percent share in the Canadian company's Banarlı Licenses, the rest will belong to Valeura, which is currently traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Delek, Noble to return Cyprus Block 12 rights - GLOBES

16/05/2016, Hedy Cohen

Delek and Noble Energy will retain rights to the Aphrodite natural gas field that they have already discovered.

Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) and Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) are expected to hand back exploration rights in Block 12 to the Cypriot government. The two companies have held the rights for seven years and are supposed to continue exploration drilling but have not done so, and next week the rights expire.

Delek and Noble Energy have already discovered the Aphrodite field in Block 12 containing 125 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas and nine million barrels of condensate. It is the only gas field to date discovered in Cyprus Shell and Noble energy each hold a 35% stake and Delek holds 30% (Avner Oil and Gas LP (TASE: AVNR.L) and Delek Drilling LP (TASE: DEDR.L) each have a 15% stake).

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Israeli gas can be exported to Europe through Turkey after four years - TREND NEWS

15 May 2016, Baku, Azerbaijan
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

It will be possible to export the Israeli gas to Europe through Turkey at least after four years, Israel's Consul-General in Istanbul Shai Cohen told the Hurriyet newspaper.

Currently, Israel has a real potential to supply its natural gas to European markets, he added.

The diplomat noted that first of all, the approval of Knesset (Israel's parliament) is needed for starting the supply of Israeli gas to European markets through Turkey.

Earlier, the CEO of Turkish Turcas Petrol A.S. Batu Aksoy said that 15 energy companies have expressed interest in joining the consortium which is planned to be created for transporting the Israeli gas to Europe through Turkey.