Saturday, January 28, 2017

Turkey to Get Discounted Iranian Gas as Compensation - FINANCIAL TRIBUNE (IRAN)

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Iran, which must pay Turkey $1.9 billion in compensation for overpricing its gas exports to the Eurasian country between 2011 and 2015, will offer discount on future gas supplies to clear the amount, Turkey's energy minister said.

"In the coming years, Turkey will ensure its gas supplies at feasible costs," Berat Albayrak was quoted as saying by Anadolu News Agency, Eqtesad Online reported.

Iran signed a contract in 1996 to export up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Turkey over 25 years. But Turkey's state-owned oil and gas company Botas appealed in March 2012 to the International Court of Arbitration saying that Tehran had overcharged.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Trump's energy secretary pick would deepen US-Israeli ties in sector - JERUSALEM POST


27 JANUARY 2017 06:30Sharon Udasin

Under the new administration the US stands to become a global leader in the natural gas sector, particularly in liquefied natural gas.

If former Texas governor Rick Perry becomes energy secretary, American-Israeli relations in the sector stand the chance to become stronger than ever, industry stakeholders told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

“Rick Perry is a friend of Israel and has visited Israel,” said Zvi Rome, chairman of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce’s energy committee.

“What we have learned – we the energy committee here in Israel – is that this administration will take a fresh look at all energy issues in the US, where the lead concern is to allow energy companies to take their natural leadership position in the world.”

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Lebanon relaunches first oil and gas licensing round - REUTERS

Lebanon's Minister of Energy and Water, Cesar Abou Khalil
REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Thu Jan 26, 2017 | 9:58am EST
Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Susan Thomas and Susan Fenton

Lebanon relaunched its first oil and gas exploration and production licensing round after a three-year delay, its energy minister said on Thursday, kick-starting the development of a hydrocarbon industry stalled by national political paralysis.

Lebanon has opened five offshore blocks (1,4,8,9 and 10) for bidding in a first licensing round, Minister of Energy and Water Cesar Abou Khalil told a news conference.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

ENERGY: Lakkotrypis meets oil companies ahead of 3rd licensing round - FINANCIAL MIRROR

25 January, 2017

Cyprus Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis met with officials from companies and consortia that have been selected to negotiate with the government under the third licensing round for offshore hydrocarbons exploration in Blocks 6, 8, and 10 in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Cyprus.

Lakkotrypis said that on January 13 he held separate meeting with all the companies that have been selected, noting that the object of these meetings was to agree on the dates, the methodology and the procedure to be followed in order to bring the outcome of the negotiations before the Cabinet early in March. 

EastMed pipeline commercially viable - CYPRUS MAIL / CNA

January 25, 2017

EastMed pipeline is commercially viable and technically feasible, according to a study presented in Brussels to the EU Directorate-General for Energy and the director generals of the Ministries of Energy of Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Italy.

According to the study conducted by EDISON, the estimated cost of EastMed is 6 billion dollars.

Relevant sources told CNA that after the presentation of the study, there was a discussion between the delegations of the four countries with the European Commission, in order to prepare the meeting of the Energy Ministers of the four countries and the EU Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, scheduled for next May in Israel.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

IEC buys Dalia gas more cheaply than Tamar - GLOBES

24 Jan, 2017 14:12
Nati Yefet

The Electric Corporation will save $1.34 million on its fuel costs.


Sources inform "Globes" that Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) board of directors last Thursday approved a deal to buy surplus natural gas from Dalia Energies, owner of the Dalia power station, for 50 days at a price that will save the company at least $1 million. While IEC buys gas from the Tamar reservoir at $5.80 per mmbtu, it will pay less than $5 for the gas from Dalia. Dalia, the largest power station in Israel, has a 900 megawatt capacity, enabling it to supply 7% of Israel's electricity.

The IEC decision followed the start of a two-month shutdown of one of Dalia's two turbines earlier this month, shortly after the other turbine ended a two-month shutdown. As reported to "Globes," each turbine generates NIS 32 million a month in revenue, meaning that the four-month shutdown of one turbine will reduce Dalia's revenue by nearly NIS 130 million. Adding several million dollars for repairing each turbine brings the projected damage suffered by Dalia to NIS 150 million. A malfunctioning turbine is not a rare event; IEC combined cycle turbines are shut down an average of 29 days.

Egypt to increase gas production up to 50 percent by mid-2018 - AHRAM ONLINE


Reuters
Tuesday 24 Jan 2017

Egypt's Petroleum Minister Tarek EL-Molla said that Egypt is aiming to increase its natural gas production up to 50 percent by mid-2018, as well as completing the infrastructure development projects of Misr Fertilizers Production Company (MOPCO) and The Egyptian Company for Ethylene Production (ETHYDCO) petrochemicals factories.

El-Molla's statement came during his participation in the Egyptian-British business council meetings held in London.

The minister stated before the council that Egypt has announced two major international bids for gas and petroleum excavation in 2016, in addition to the inking of 76 agreements and securing $31 billion of investments during the upcoming 3-4 years, to speed up gas excavation in the Zohr, North Alexandria and Atoll fields.

Gazprom eyes TAP for Russian gas - NATURAL GAS WORLD

January 24th, 2017John Roberts, William Powell

Gazprom has declared for the first time that it may be interested in using the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline as a method of delivering Russian gas to Italy. Addressing the European Gas conference in Vienna January 24, Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev (pictured below) said Russia has sufficient installed capacity upstream to deliver more than 100bn m³/yr of extra gas to Europe but that it faces an infrastructure problem.

He added: “In order to bring this gas to Europe we need additional infrastructure, which we are working on with our European partners – NordStream 2 and Turkish Stream. This capacity will not be sufficient to bring all this to Europe. So this is why we are talking to use available capacity on the Poseidon project that will be ready soon, or maybe TAP.”

Total to delay Block 11 drilling - CYPRUS MAIL

January 24, 2017
Elias Hazou
French oil major Total has alerted the government that its planned drilling for hydrocarbons in Cyprus’ economic waters will be pushed back to the summer.

According to daily Politis, the company has said that it will delay drilling its first exploratory well to June – rather than April, as indicated earlier.

The well, code-named Onisiforos, lies in Block 11, on which Total has a concession to explore for oil and gas.

The delay is attributed to the prior uncertainty over the location of the company’s onshore support base.

Monday, January 23, 2017

EGAS sets initial price of USD 0.4 per mbtu for private companies to use national gas grid - ENTERPRISE / AL SHOROUK

Monday, 23 January 2017

On step closer to deregulating the gas market: We have inched one step closer to seeing the gas market privatized as the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) has set a preliminary price of USD 0.4 per mbtu for private companies looking to use the national gas grid, unnamed sources tell Al Shorouk.

EGAS appears to have side-stepped forming the new regulator for the industry, which as per the Natural Gas Act is supposed to set prices, and moved directly on that front.

Russia sets to take part in gas pipeline construction from Iran to Turkey - CONSTRUCTION.RU

23.01.2017 17:13
Tatiana Kanunnikova

The Russian Federation is likely to take part in construction of Iranian gas pipeline, IGAT9, with a capacity of 35 cubic meters per year, Mehr news agency reports on Monday with the reference to Deputy Minister of Oil of Iran, Hamid Reza Araki.

“We welcome Russia’s participation in the project of construction of Iranian IGAT9 gas pipeline with investments in amount of $2,5 billion,” Hamid Reza Araki said.

Gas is planned to be transported through the pipeline from a field in South Pars to the border with Turkey for further transportation to Europe. A total investment in the gas pipeline is estimated at $2,5 billion.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Total SA: A solid performance - IN CYPRUS / CYPRUS WEEKELY

January 22, 2017
Dr. Charles Ellinas

During the oil price decline of the last two years, the one integrated major oil and gas company that has stood out as the most resilient and best-performing has been Total SA.

Total is about to start drilling in Block 11, with hopeful indications, and has been selected with ENI during the 3rd licensing round for the award of Block 6 – clearly an important player in the development of Cyprus’ hydrocarbons. In this article I have described the company, its performance and plans, and what these mean for Cyprus.

Electricity Ministry considers reducing fuel oil at power plants to cope with post-flotation financial burden - DAILY NEWS EGYPT

Sunday January 22, 2017Mohamed Farag

Liberation of exchange rate hiked burden to EGP 102bn per year

Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker is currently waiting for the cabinet to decide on one of the scenarios proposed to cope with the increasing financial burden on the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) following the flotation of the Egyptian pound.

Sources at the Ministry of Electricity said that the ministry is considering reducing the proportion of using fuel oil for production, especially as it costs more than gas. The price of fuel oil amounts to EGP 2,500 per tonne, while that of 1 Billion Thermal Units (BTUs) stands at $3bn.

Electricity Ministry meets with EDF Energy to discuss cooperating on Siemens power plants management - ENTERPRISE / AL BORSA

Sunday, 22 January 2017

Officials from the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company are meeting with a delegation from EDF Energy to discuss cooperating on managing the Siemens power plants, unnamed sources told Al Borsa

The Electricity Ministry had earlier issued a tender to receive the completed power plants from Siemens and assist the ministry in managing the power plants. Three companies presented bids including EDF Energy, RWE, and Parsons.

61 gas shipments in 1H17 – EGAS - ENTERPRISE / AL SHOROUK

Sunday, 22 January 2017

The first half of 2017 will see Egypt importing 61 liquefied gas shipments, with that number set to drop to 25 during 2H17, Al Shorouk reported EGAS chief Mohamed El Masry as saying. This comes as Egypt is looking to increase its production of natural gas to 5.3 bcf/d in FY2017-18, a source at EGAS told Reuters’ Arabic service. Egyptian gas output averaged around 4 bcf/d in FY2015-16 and is expected to average 5 bcf/d in FY2016-17. As more fields, particularly Zohr, are brought onstream, output is expected to increase to 6.8 bcf/d by FY2018-19. First gas from Zohr is expected by the end of this year.