EMC 2021 . 2021 SEPT 14-16 . NICOSIA
APRIL 9TH, 2016 EVIE ANDREOU
The contracts with the company providing services to French energy giant Total, scheduled to drill for gas later this year, will be signed in July, Transport Minister Marios Demetriades said on Saturday.
According to Demetriades, at the moment there is a tender competition for companies to provide services to Total, which has agreed to relocate from Larnaca to Limassol port.
The government has been trying to convince the hydrocarbon companies, interested in drilling for natural gas off Cyprus, ENI, Noble and Total, to relocate to Limassol, after the Larnaca municipal council decided in February not to extend the stay of MedServ, the company providing support services to ENI and Total.
Istanbul (Platts)--8 Apr 2016
Turkey is planning new legislation to further open the country's gas market, which is currently dominated by state gas importer and transmission operator Botas, Mustafa Yilmaz head of Turkey's energy regulator EPDK said in an interview published in Turkish business daily Dunya Thursday.
The new gas market law would facilitate the unbundling of Botas and the holding of new tenders for the transfer of Botas' import volumes to the private sector to enable the operation of a liberalized gas market, Yilmaz said.
Yilmaz added that Turkey's energy market is ready for such a move, pointing out that previous tenders for the transfer of volumes from Botas' import contracts had experienced limited success because the market was not ready.
by Jonathan Ferziger & Elliott Gotkine, April 7, 2016
Israel’s offshore natural gas fields, potentially the largest in the Mediterranean Sea, could boost energy trade in the region and even help Europe diversify away from Russian fuel, according to U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
The U.S. hopes Israel can resolve domestic challenges blocking development of its Mediterranean gas field “in a timely way,” considering that they contain substantial quantities for exports, Moniz said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Israel’s gas exports “can be used in a strategic way” in the region and beyond, he said.
07/04/2016, Hedy Cohen
EMC's Noach Hager exemplifies how government policy is failing Israel's natural gas industry.
It was exactly two years ago that Noach Hager, an economist at Bank Leumi at the time, published the report titled “The Potential of Natural Gas in the Israeli Economy”, where he outlined that “regulation is the main barrier for the timely development of Leviathan”, and outrageously forecasted that “the earliest Leviathan will be able to produce first gas for the domestic market will be in 2019”.
Hager invested three years in studying for a MSc in Energy Management, with the hopes of contributing to the “bright” future of Israel’s natural gas industry. During the formulation of natural gas agreement one year ago, Hager published his master’s thesis on the establishment of a state-owned gas company to participate alongside private companies in Israel’s upstream industry.
Thu Apr 7, 2016
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian Oil Minister Tarek al-Molla replaced the heads of state oil company EGPC and state gas company EGAS on Thursday, part of a slew of new appointments in the Egyptian energy sector.
Mohamed al-Masry will replace Khaled Abdel Badie as head of EGAS, while Tarek al-Hadidi will take over from Masry as head of EGPC.
(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Mark Potter)
© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved
April 6, 2016
British Petroleum (BP) had signed a number of deals with Egypt concerning the development of Atoll gas discovery in March in the North Damietta Offshore Concession in the East Nile Delta, the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum announced Tuesday.
The investments of this phase are estimated at a $1 billion out of $3 billion allocated for that discovery, the ministry stated, adding that the agreements were signed between the group and the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).
It is expected that this field has 1.5 trillion cubic meters of gas and 31 million barrels (mmbbl) of condensates. The production is expected to start in 2018, according to the BP Group official website.
5.4.2016
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will start exporting oil through Iran as part of an agreement due to be signed in a months time, a Kurdish official told Rudaw on Tuesday.
“A delegation from the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources met with Iran’s Ministry of Oil for talks on exporting Kurdistan’s oil through Iran,” said Abdullah Akreyi, head of Iran-KRG relations in Kurdistan’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
“There is a month left for final agreement between the two sides,” Akreyi added.“Talks about exporting Kurdistan’s oil through Tabriz and Kermanshah provinces are progressing and in the final stage with only one month left for both sides to sign the agreement."
Tuesday, 5th April 2016
The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), and British company BP signed agreements to facilitate gas production from the Atoll field, Tarek El Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, said, according to a press release received by Egypt Oil & Gas.
These agreements conclude the construction, transportation, and processing of gas produced from the well which belongs to the Pharaonic Petroleum Company.
El Molla also reviewed the development plan and the early production programs of the Atoll well in the North Damietta Offshore Concession in the East Nile Delta, which was discovered in March 2015 and is considered one of the important recent gas discoveries.
Two panels at the Hadera EnergyTech Conference revolved around gas fields as an incentive to improve the geo-political situation in the region and around the issues of gas taxation in Israel
Dan Arkin | 4/04/2016
The discovery of gas fields is a tremendous incentive for the economic development of Israeli industries, for development of transportation and for the reduction of air pollution. It is also an incentive to create an infrastructure of improved and innovative international contacts and relationships with neighboring countries, such as Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey. This is the main conclusion of two panels of energy experts, who participated in the Hadera EnergyTech Conference held at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv.
All the speakers expressed their hope that the Israeli government and all relevant parties will rush to develop the Leviathan gas field, as well as other, new fields. Yossi Abu, CEO of Delek Drilling, said, "the use of gas is a revolution in public health due to reduction of air pollution. Gas is a key factor in positioning the geopolitical status of Israel ".
April 04th, 2016
There’s still a lot of optimism surrounding the eastern Mediterranean, despite a recent decision by the High Court in Jerusalem that will delay Israeli field developments and continuing disputes between Cairo and Shell concerning Egyptian field development.
Cyprus has demonstrated its confidence that the region’s fortunes will bounce back by announcing a third licensing round; while the European Commission’s Vice President for Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, has publicly stated EU backing for a pipeline to Greece.
It’s certainly a contradictory background, made all the more difficult to assess because access to the most commercially viable regional market, Turkey, depends on two major political developments: rapprochement between Israel and Turkey and a solution to the 41-year-old partition of Cyprus.
What this means is that there is a fundamental difference between what can be achieved in the short term and the much larger prospects and possibilities in the long term.
April 04th, 2016
At least six companies have submitted expressions of interests (EoI) in capacity of the gas interconnector that is to be built between Bulgaria and Greece, while the deadline for submitting EoI documents was extended due to continuing interest.
The six are: Greece’s Depa and Gastrade (of the Copelouzos group); Italy’s Edison; state-owned Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz; Azerbaijan’s Socar; and US Noble Energy, according to Bulgaria’s energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova.
The total adds up to some 4bn m³/yr, which exceeds the initial design capacity of the line, Bulgarian national radio reported.
Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria is related to security of supply and is also extremely important in terms of market development, Petkova said.
The pipeline is designed to pump around 3bn m³/yr with the option to boost it to 5bn m³/yr with the installation of an intermediate compression station.
Socar’s interest in IGB has been explained by the company plans to expand gas supply to the western Balkans.
April 03rd, 2016
Tamar’s performance last year proved a great one for its partners, according to NGE analysis. A robust growth in production to 8.3 bn m3 (+10.6%) was translated into a good set of financial data. Revenues grew 3.2% to $1.53bn while the operating cost grew by just 0.1% to $148.2mn, operating profit grew by 4.6% to $953mn, 62.2% of revenues, and net income totaled $751mn, (+18.3%) 49% of the revenues.
From an accounting point of view Tamar gas field is unusual as it is the five partners’ only asset in Israel and an isolated operating unit. This makes it easy to identify all its revenues, expenses, financial transaction and future cash flows.
The five partners are US Noble Energy with 36% and operator; Delek Group subsidiaries Delek Drilling and Avner each have 16.325%; Isramco has 28.75% and Alon Gas Exploration the remaining 4%.
03/04/2016, 12:09, Ran Dagoni, Washington
Visiting US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz will presumably raise Noble Energy's problems after the High Court of Justice disallowed the gas framework.
Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz said yesterday that he was not aware of pressures supposedly exerted on Israel by Noble Energy in the wake of the striking down of the stability clause in the Israeli government's agreement with the gas exploration companies by the High Court of Justice. Talking to "Globes", Steinitz said, "I hear what everyone is saying and I have not heard that Noble is applying pressure on me or on anyone else in Israel through US legislators."
