Eni reportedly to sell 20% Zohr stake to Lukoil - ENERGY EGYPT / ITALIAN INSIDER

April 2, 2016

Italian energy company Eni reportedly will sell 20 percent of the Zohr gas field, the largest gas discovery in the Mediterranean and made by Eni last year, to Russian Lukoil, industry sources say. The works are coming along quickly and at the end of February they received the extraction authorisation.

The extraction is planned to get underway in 2017 and will have recovered 500,000 barrels by 2019. The project is valued at five billion euros, but the investment in the fields will come to 12 billion. It’s also for this reason that the administrative director Eni Claudio Descalzi has said on several occasions that Eni won’t get far with 100 percent of Zohr in its pocket.

There is also another gas field that will be partly sold before Zohr, however. It is in the Mozambique Channel, where Eni has been operating for months to reduce the cost by involving other partners. It’s slightly different however, as the Area Four gas is part of a large area of fields therefore will take 50 billion of investment.

Netanyahu loses gas battle but wins war - JERUSALEM POST

02.04.2016

Why the High Court ruling cleared the last legal hoops to making the natural gas deal a reality.
Listening to the rhetoric of the critics and the supporters of the High Court of Justice’s landmark decision striking down the government’s natural gas policy, one would imagine that it was a low point of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership and a high point for opponents of the policy.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

To understand why, it is important to look not just at the overall result. Admittedly the High Court did strike down, or at least suspend for around a year, the gas policy.

But break down the disparate, multiple decisions and votes the High Court made on several extraordinary issues beforehand, and you will find that while opponents of the deal won the battle and will probably achieve some changes they want in the industry framework, Netanyahu won on a vast majority of the issues – and many of his wins were not obvious ones.

So let’s look at the votes, starting with the votes against the deal.

Turkey can’t replace Russian gas with Qatari LNG - ASIA TIMES NEWS

The world's biggest Liquefied Natural Gas tanker Duhail
crosses the Suez Canal in thei file photo

BY SALMAN RAFI on APRIL 1, 2016

Turkey made a smart move in December 2015 when it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar to replace Russian gas with liquefied natural gas (LNG) from that Gulf country.

By showing Russia it can find alternative sources of gas supply, Turkey probably hoped to extract some concessions with regard to the role of Kurds in the future of Syria.

While Turkey inked the LNG deal to serve its own interests, Russia was taking some positive steps. In March, the Russian military began its partial pull-out from Syria. In another surprise move, Russia lifted the ban on flights to Antalya, a resort destination in Turkey popular with Russian tourists.

DESFA deal hits buffers - NATURAL GAS EUROPE

March 31st, 2016

The long-running attempt to sell the Greek gas grid operator Desfa to Azerbaijan’s Socar hit another setback, but the latter says it still expects to complete a deal by 2017.

Socar’s purchase of a controlling stake of Desfa is of great importance to Azerbaijan, giving it control of a European gas supplier and enhancing its role in providing energy security for Europe, the company sources said.

Socar is keen on LNG business too. The plans to upgrade the country’s LNG terminal in Revythoussa near Athens will meet these interests and is important for gas supply in the wider region beyond current route of the southern gas corridor.

“Currently we are in the process of reducing the stake of Desfa through sales to potential buyers in Europe and this process is expected to be completed in late 2016”, sources told NGE.

Gas, oil exploration deal signed with new investor - THE JORDAN TIMES

Mohammad Ghazal - Mar 29,2016

AMMAN — The National Petroleum Company and IPG, a UK-based company, signed a production sharing agreement on Tuesday to explore for oil and gas in the eastern parts of the Kingdom.

Under the deal, IPG will work on increasing output from Al Risheh gas field to reach around 50 million cubic feet per day during the first year of the contract. Currently, gas output from Al Risheh gas field is around 12-13 million cubic feet per day.

“This is a very important agreement for Jordan to increase production from Al Risheh gas field and explore for oil and gas in Al Safawi area,” Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ibrahim Saif said on Tuesday at a press conference to sign the deal.

The four-year agreement can be prolonged for one more year, said the minister.

Egyptian investor and owner of IPG Yehya Al Koumi, whose company was granted concession rights to explore for gas and oil in Al Risheh gas field and Al Safawai area near the borders with Iraq, said the company enjoys international expertise and is home to world-renowned experts in the area.

Pavlopoulos sees closer ties ahead of three-day Israel trip - KATHIMERINI

29.03.2016

Ahead of a three-day official visit to Israel on Thursday, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos praised relations between the two countries, saying they were never better.

“Relations between the two countries are at a peak, including both the economy and tourism,” he told daily newspaper Israel Hayom Tuesday and hailed the energy cooperation between Greece, Israel and Cyprus as a pillar of stability in the region and a source of prosperity.

“We are together on a path toward a very promising and demanding future,” he said.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Koutras’ response to journalists’ questions on the Turkish Foreign Ministry announcement regarding the call for the third round of tenders for licensing of exploration in the Cypriot EEZ - HELLENIC REPUBLIC

Monday, 28 March 2016

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Konstantinos Koutras stated the following in response to journalists’ questions on the Turkish Foreign Ministry announcement regarding the call for the third round of tenders for licensing of exploration for hydrocarbons in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone (EEZ):

“The Republic of Cyprus is a member state of the United Nations and the European Union, and, like every sovereign state, it is exercising its sovereign rights over the EEZ and continental shelf deriving from international law, customary and conventional.

Turkey needs to abandon its threatening rhetoric and respect the inalienable rights of the sovereign Republic of Cyprus. The incitement of artificial crises and tensions does not benefit the course of the negotiations or the management of the unstable situation in the Eastern Mediterranean. In fact, it is extremely counterproductive.”

Israel top court strikes down gas development deal - MIDDLE EAST EYE

Court suspended ruling for one year to allow parliament time to amend objectionable stability clause

Monday 28 March 2016

Israel's top court on Sunday struck down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's landmark natural gas policy aimed at paving the way for the exploitation of Mediterranean gas reserves, while suspending formally striking the law for one year so that he and parliament can fix an objectionable clause.

A panel of Supreme Court justices said in their ruling that a clause in the plan that prevented it from being changed for a decade was unacceptable.

"We have decided to cancel the gas deal because of the stability clause" that would have barred future governments from altering the deal, the justices said. They suspended the ruling for a year to enable parliament to amend the agreement.

Berri: Ban was Receptive of Lebanese Request for U.N. to Demarcate Maritime Border - NAHARNET

28-3-2016

Speaker Nabih Berri revealed that the demarcation of Lebanon's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Mediterranean was among the issues he discussed with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during his visit to the country last week, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Monday.

Berri told the daily that Ban was “receptive of an official Lebanese request that the U.N. demarcate the Lebanon's EEZ, which borders Israel.”

This was a major topic of discussion between Ban and Prime Minister Tammam Salam as well, added the speaker.

Noble Energy CEO expresses displeasure over gas deal - Y NET TEWS

03.28.16

David L. Stover, Noble Energy's Chairman, President, and CEO, commented, "The Court's ruling, while recognizing that timely natural gas development is a matter of strategic national interest for Israel, is disappointing and represents another risk to Leviathan timing.

Development of a project of this magnitude, where large investments are to be made over multiple years, requires Israel to provide a stable investment climate.

“Noble Energy has consistently maintained that stability is a minimum condition for project development, and our position has not changed. As we have stated before, we will vigorously defend our rights related to our assets to protect shareholder value. It is now up to the government of Israel to deliver a solution which at least meets the terms of the Framework, and to do so quickly."

Israel Supreme Court Rules Against Offshore-Gas Deal - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Deal to be suspended for one year; government required to amend terms

By ORR HIRSCHAUGE and RORY JONES

March 27, 2016

TEL AVIV—Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday ruled against a landmark deal to develop and export the country’s offshore gas reserves, a major setback for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who campaigned for it.

The panel of judges called the deal unconstitutional, citing a clause in its framework that gave energy companies pricing and regulatory stability for 10 years regardless of potential shifts in the government. The main stakeholders in the fields, U.S.-based Noble Energy Inc. and Israeli partner Delek Group Ltd, had argued that the stability clause was required for them to make the investments necessary to develop the fields.