UAE’s Dana Gas hires adviser to sell Egypt assets - MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

July 28, 2019 at 11:24 am

United Arab Emirates’ Dana Gas has hired investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) to advise it on the sale of its Egyptian assets, worth over $500 million, two sources familiar with the matter said, as the company shifts its focus to its Kurdistan operation, Reuters reported in an exclusive on Sunday.

The Abu Dhabi-listed energy producer – whose main assets are in Egypt and in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) – has been considering an alternative listing in London, and focusing on a single geographical area could be appealing to future investors in the company, said one of the sources. The sources did not wish to be identified because the information has not been made public.

A spokesman for Dana Gas declined to comment while TPH did not immediately respond to a request for comment, sent outside working hours.

Dana’s exploration and production assets in Egypt are onshore the Nile Delta except for Block 6 in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

In May Dana began drilling at the offshore Merak well in Block 6, saying it could hold up to 4 trillion cubic feet of gas.

On Sunday Dana said in a bourse filing that the drilling has not found commercial hydrocarbons and that the well is being abandoned. It added its operations in Egypt continue production normally.

Libya’s El-Sharara oilfield shut down: NOC - MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

July 20, 2019 at 8:19 pm

Libya’s El-Sharara oilfield has been shut down, the country’s state oil firm confirmed on Saturday, Anadolu reports.

In a statement, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said it has launched an investigation into suspected valve closure in the Hamada area in western Libya.

It, however, said production from the nearby El Feel oilfield had not been affected by the incident.

El-Sharara oilfield produces more than 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day, forming roughly one-third of the oil-rich country’s production.

Libya holds Africa’s largest crude reserves, but eight years of conflict and violence in the country since the 2011 ouster of ruler Muammar Gaddafi have hobbled production and exports.

Egypt’s arrears to foreign oil firms fall $900m - MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

July 12, 2019 at 4:04 pm

The total arrears that Egypt owed to foreign oil companies dropped to $900 million at the end of June, down from $1.2 billion a year earlier, the country’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla told Reuters yesterday.

The minister added that Egypt would pay the remaining dues “soon, God willing”, but did not set a specific date for payment.

The monthly bill of arrears paid to foreign companies amounts to $700 million,” he said.

Arrears have fallen by 25 per cent from their level at the end of the 2017/2018 fiscal year when they stood at $1.2 billion. In June 2017, Egypt owed $2.4 billion to foreign companies, a sum which has now fallen by 62.5 per cent.

Eni, BP, Shell and Edison have dominated Egypt’s oil and gas exploration and production activities in recent years.

Foreign oil companies’ arrears had accumulated after the January 2011 uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak to reach $6.3 billion in the 2011/2012 fiscal year.

Jordan allocates initial $2 million for joint pipeline project with Israel - MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

January 2, 2018 at 3:07 am

The gas will mostly be coming from the offshore Leviathan natural gas field, being developed off the coast of Haifa

Jordan has allocated 1.5 million dinars (around $2.1 million) in the 2018 national budget for a gas pipeline linking the Hashemite Kingdom with Israel. According to Al-Ghad newspaper on Sunday, the cost of the joint Jordanian-Israeli project is expected to rise to 3 million dinars ($4.2 million) in 2019, and to 6 million dinars ($8.5 million) by 2020. The pipeline will pass over the Sheikh Hussein border crossing, 90 km from Amman.

In September 2016, Jordan’s government-owned National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) and Noble Energy signed an agreement to import 40 per cent of the Kingdom’s electricity-generating needs from Israel. Noble Energy owns 39 per cent of the Leviathan natural gas field in Israeli territorial waters.

Major oil pipeline between Iraq and Turkey to bypass Kurdish region - MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

October 11, 2017 at 2:16 am

Iraq and Turkey have intensified their efforts to isolate independent seeking Kurds by bypassing the region while re-opening a disused oil pipeline between the two countries.

The central government in Iraq wants to restore one of its oldest pipelines that run from Kirkuk in the Kurdish region of Iraq to Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in Southern Turkey. The pipeline was damaged in areas occupied by Daesh until Iraqi forces regained control of the region late last year.

Iraq’s oil minister, Abdul Karim Luaibi Bahedh announced in a statement today, repairs to the pipeline, which was once a key artery of Iraq’s oil export.

Saudi Aramco begins oil supplies to Egypt - MEMO

October 12, 2016 at 3:44 am

File photo from a Saudi-Aramco oil processing plant

Saudi Aramco restarted supplies of refined oil to Egypt, Tuesday, despite apparently failing to do so one day before and a beginnings of a broader potential rift between the two countries.

According to Hamdi Abdulaziz, a spokesman for Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), shipments have already started arriving.

Egypt and Saudi agreed on a deal worth $23 billion in April that would enable Aramco – the Kingdom’s state-owned oil company – to deliver 700,000 tons of petroleum products every month for five years.

However, reports emerged Monday that Egypt has not yet received shipments. On Monday, Aramco said that the delay in shipments is temporary, according to the Saudi news website Al-Mnatiq.

Egypt imports liquefied natural gas worth $2.2bn - MEMO

September 22, 2016 at 7:30 pm 

The Egyptian Holding Company for Natural Gas (EGAS), owned by the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, announced yesterday that it had bought 89 shipments of liquefied natural gas during the fiscal year 2015/2016 at a cost of $2.2 billion to fill the current gap between production and consumption.

In Egypt, the fiscal year begins early July, according to the General Budget Law.

The company announced, according to a statement issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum, that during the fiscal year 2015/2016 14 new discoveries were made and reserves reached 31.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 38 million barrels of condensate.

Revealed: Egypt negotiates purchasing Israeli gas through Cyprus | MEMO

MEMO SPECIAL REPORT
Wednesday, 27 November 2013 10:38

"Cyprus must do everything possible to secure use of Israeli gas at a planned LNG terminal on the island, or else risk jeopardising the whole project," Charles Ellinas, national gas company head in Cyprus told Cyprus Gas News on Saturday. Ellinas argued that the estimated 5 trillion cubic feet in Cyprus' exclusive economic zone (EEZ) was simply not enough to justify the construction of a costly liquefaction plant at Vassilikos.

This project is a plan by the eastern Mediterranean country to tap into the Asian market, known to be more lucrative than Europe's, by collaborating with Israel on their already existing reserves. In return, Israel will have easier access to the European market and will not have to invest in LNG facilities, which Cyprus is in the process of constructing.