Turkey's natural gas war - CHINA.ORG

By Wang Jin, 23 April 2016

Turkey is trying to handle the potential natural gas crisis caused by the volatile situation in the Middle East and its tense ties with Russia.

Turkey has taken diversified measures to handle the potential natural gas crisis caused by the volatile situation in the Middle East and its tense ties with Russia.

So far, Russia has been the largest gas supplier of Turkey, delivering gas to the latter via Ukraine or the Black Sea. However, because of the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukraine route may be closed by 2019. Turkey thus has to develop a Plan B.

Additionally, the relations between Turkey and Russia have also been less than friendly. In the recent years, the two sides have differed widely on a series of major regional issues, such as the Ukraine crisis and the Syria crisis. At the end of last year, the bilateral ties worsened further as Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet. Given this background, Turkey is eager to reduce its reliance on Russian gas to avoid being "abducted" by the latter in international affairs.

Heads of International Oil Companies’ view at the 8th Mediterranean Offshore Conference (MOC 2016) - ENERGY EGYPT

April 22, 2016

Hisham Mekkawy, BP Regional President of North Africa reviewed the company’s experience in Egypt, pointing out that BP is proud of its long history of partnership with Egypt, which extends for more than 50 years. As BP is the largest foreign investor in Egypt, and Egypt is one of the largest countries of BP’s investments Worldwide, with total investments of about $ 25 billion.

Egyptian mega gas find in limbo as Eni cuts jobs - THE NATIONAL

LeAnne Graves, April 21, 2016 
Egypt’s mega gas discovery hangs in limbo as its developer cuts jobs, potentially adding it to the long list of energy projects affected as the near two-year lull in oil prices hammers budgets.

Eni, the company that discovered the offshore field on the Zohr Prospect, has begun to downsize its upstream division in Egypt, according to people fami­liar with the matter, suggesting that the pace of exploration could now slow.

The Italian firm last August announced the Zohr discovery, one of the Mediterranean’s largest gas finds with an estimated 850 billion cubic metres or 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

However, extracting the resource will be expensive and offshore investments have suffered as a result of low oil prices. The United Kingdom, for instance, will receive less than £1 billion (Dh5.3bn) for new projects this year compared to the £8bn annually over the past five years, according to the trade organisation Oil and Gas UK.

Israel, Greece, Cyprus mull joint natural gas projects - GLOBES

The top officials from all three Ministries of Energy met to discuss potential - though highly unlikely energy ventures.

20/04/2016, Hedy Cohen

Ministry of Energy director-general Shaul Meridor met Wednesday with his counterparts from Cyprus and Greece to discuss potential cooperation opportunities in the energy sector. The session was a follow-up to a meeting held in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia.

The topics of discussion included the potential of natural gas in the Middle East, the possibility of exporting from the Israeli and Cypriot reservoirs, a natural gas pipeline to Greece, renewable energy, fuel alternatives, the integration of natural gas into public transportation, and the laying of a pipe to channel electricity between Israel and Europe.

EU allocates €68m to promote Egypt Gas Connection - DAILY NEWS EGYPT

Other partners include the French Development Agency (AFD) that will contribute a €70m loan, and the World Bank, which offered a $500m loan

Ahmed Adly, 19 April 2016

The European Union (EU) has allocated a €68m grant to the Egypt Gas Connection Project to support key priorities in Egypt’s energy sector and boost its economic development, according to a statement from the EU delegation in Egypt.

Other partners include the French Development Agency (AFD) that will contribute a €70m loan, and the World Bank, which offered a $500m loan.

Among its immediate priorities, the Egyptian government has identified the need to increase the household use of natural gas.

Egypt gas agreements: from production sharing to tax/royalty - DAILY NEWS EGYPT

Nagy Iskander April 18, 2016

All oil exploration and production concession agreements in Egypt have been operating according to Production Sharing Agreements since 1973. This was a shift from the tax/royalty system towards equal sharing agreements concluded between the government, represented by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), and foreign companies, with a view to reduce the pressure on the state budget. The sharing system was also prevalent in developing countries with respect to prospecting and producing crude oil, and was then known as the Indonesian model.

With the beginning of gas exploration activities in Egypt in the mid-1980s, the production sharing agreements were modified to accommodate the gas industry. Prior to this change, partners were not permitted to share gas unless it was exported as liquefied natural gas (LNG). The amendment was made to generally include gas in such agreements using a special formula for pricing. It could be said that it was acceptable to use this system for gas in shallow water and superficial layers.

Noble looking to sell up to 1% of Leviathan: Report - NATURAL GAS EUROPE

April 18th, 2016

US independent Noble Energy is seeking to divest of up to 15% in Leviathan gas field offshore Israel, according to Calcalist, an Israeli daily business newspaper.

Noble has a 40% stake in the 620bn m3 gas field. The rest is held by Israeli firms Delek Group (45%) and Ratio (15%). Last week it was reported that Noble was considering selling off 11% in Tamar gas field in which the company has a 36% shareholding. In both cases the backdrop to the selloff is Noble's need for cash. However, there are quite a few differences between the two cases.

Tamar is already a producing gas with a healthy revenue stream and cash flows, due to the lucrative contract between Tamar Partnership and its anchor customer, Israel Electric Corp. (IEC), Israel's biggest electricity producer, and other Israeli customers. Noble is also committed to reducing its stake in Tamar to 25% in six years' time, according to the natural gas regulatory framework.

Minister of Petroleum to open the 8th Offshore Mediterranean Conference (MOC 2016) in Alexandria - ENERGY EGYPT

April 17, 2016 by ENERGY EGYPT Leave a comment

On next Tuesday 19th April, 2016, Eng. Tarek El Molla Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources to open in Alexandria the 8th Mediterranean Offshore Conference & Exhibition MOC 2016, which will be held for 3 days. The conference is accompanied by an exhibition with the participation of many local, Arab and international companies, where multiple activities in the fields of oil and gas industry and the latest technologies used in the industry are exhibited.

The Egyptian Petroleum Sector has always worked to increase the technical and scientific quality of the technical sessions, the MOC Conference is now recognized as a highly professional and well-attended arena to discuss the latest discoveries in the oil & gas industry.

The conference sessions will be held in the overwhelming complex that is world-known as the Library of Alexandria. The Library management will make available to MOC attendees the facilities of the BACC – Bibliotheca Alexandrina Conference Centre, a state-of-the-art meeting facility, which includes 3 main conference halls and several seminar rooms.