Egyptian government reconsiders decision to reduce natural gas prices - DAILY NEWS EGYPT

No official notification received from Industry Ministry to apply the decision, says EGAS

Fatma Ahmed May 7, 2016

The Egyptian government did not execute the decision to sell natural gas to iron factories at the price of $4.5 per million British thermal units (Btu) until now, according to the head of the Metallurgical Industries Chamber, Gamal Al-Garhy.

“Nowadays, the company is challenged due to the shortage of natural gas. It will stop supplying high-production factories in the summer months, which coincides with high electricity consumption,” Al-Garhy explained.

The Egyptian government announced on Monday that it is reconsidering its decision to sell natural gas to the iron factories at $4.5 per million Btu instead of $7. This is in order to reduce the price of steel for consumers.

Russia's Rosneft says delivers first LNG cargo to Egypt - REUTERS

Fri May 6, 2016

MOSCOW May 6 (Reuters) - Russian oil giant Rosneft said on Friday it had delivered its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo to Egypt.

It said the GOLAR ICE tanker supplied the cargo to the port of Ain Sukhna as part of a deal agreed in August 2015.

Rosneft does not produce LNG itself and the deliver was the first ever in its trading activity. The cargo was bought off from the global spot market, Rosneft said. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Jack Stubbs)

Tamar gas is jewel in Noble's tarnished crown - GLOBES

05/05/2016, 16:05
Yaakov Tzalel

Noble Energy's first quarter loss would have been far worse without the Israeli offshore gas field, Yaakov Tzalel observes.

The Tamar natural gas reservoir is among the world's most attractive energy sites, according to Noble Energy president and CEO David Stover. Noble Energy yesterday published its first quarter financial statements. Despite the quality of the Tamar site, the company posted a $422 million operating loss, an increase of 220%, compared with its loss in the first quarter of 2015, and a $287 million net loss, more than a 10-fold increase. Had oil prices, which recently jumped 50% been just $10 a barrel higher, Noble Energy's quarterly revenue would have been $835 million, $130 million more than they actually were. That might not have turned its loss into a profit, but it would have made the company's struggle to survive much easier.

OTC 2016: Israel to Hold Oil, Gas Bid Round in 2016 - RIGZONE

by Andreas Exarheas
Thursday, May 05, 2016

Israel is scheduled to hold an international oil and gas bid round this year, confirmed Eitan Levon, consul general of Israel to the Southwest US, in a presentation at OTC in Houston.

Addressing industry delegates, Levon revealed that the Levant basin could still hold undiscovered resources of 6.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent. In a statement in November, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said experts estimate that there are between 10,000 and 15,000 billion cubic meters of gas in the East Mediterranean basin.

Greece's sole oil producer boosts output by 30 percent - REUTERS

4 May 2016

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's sole oil producer, Energean Oil & Gas, has stepped up daily production by about 30 percent since early January, it said on Wednesday, as the debt-ridden country seeks to tap into its limited oil reserves.

Plunging crude prices have deterred spending on oil projects around the world but Greece is pushing ahead with investment in the industry in a bid to reduce dependence on oil imports and boost public finances.

Many analysts are now growing more confident that a new-two-year rout in oil prices has ended.

Energean, 45 percent owned by hedge fund Third Point (TPOG.L), said it had increased production to more than 4,000 barrels per day from its two oil fields off the northern Greek island of Thassos.

OTC: Egypt eyes free-market future as gas demand requires more development - OIL & GAS JOURNAL

HOUSTON, 05/03/2016
By Tayvis Dunnahoe
OGJ Exploration Editor

The recent Zohr discovery in Egypt’s Mediterranean basin has given the country an impetus to further its move to an open oil economy, according Minister Tarek Elmolla of Egypt’s Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry (OGJ Online, Mar. 10, 2016).

Among paying down its debt, reforming its subsidy programs, and adjusting natural gas prices, “attracting foreign investment is one of our biggest challenges,” Elmolla told attendees of a May 3 panel discussion at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

Egypt’s daily natural gas demand currently outpaces its production. The country has become increasingly dependent on gas, which makes up 53% of its total energy mix and 63% of its electricity-generating feedstock, Elmolla said.

Energy to top the agenda during Russian president’s Athens visit - KATHIMERINI

03.05.2016
CHRYSSA LIAGGOU

Russian President Vladimir Putin is arriving in Greece on May 28, with the main subject topping his agenda being the promotion of a new conduit for the transmission of Russian natural gas via Bulgaria and Greece, including the utilization of the plan for the Interconnector Greece-Italy (IGI) pipeline.

The Russian president’s energy agenda also includes the revival of Russian companies’s interest in the privatizations of the Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) and Hellenic Petroleum, should they go ahead, as well as Russian electricity companies’ joint ventures with Public Power Corporation (PPC). The Russian interest in Thessaloniki Port Authority and Trainose will also be reassessed.

Azerbaijan’s SOCAR: No financial obstacles to developing TANAP project - TREND NEWS AGENCY

2 May 2016
Baku, Azerbaijan

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

There are no financial obstacles to developing the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, Vagif Aliyev, head of the investments department at the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), told the Natural Gas Europe website.

"Despite the low oil price and the need for foreign loans, the development of TANAP continues to follow the projected schedule," he said.

The Board of Directors of the World Bank will approve the allocation of $1 billion loan to Turkey on July 7, 2016 for financing the TANAP project.

Egypt gas impact: Cyprus and Israel - IN CYPRUS / CYPRUS WEEKLY

Charles Ellinas Charles Ellinas — 01/05/2016

This week and next I will analyze the rapid developments in Egypt’s gas projects, and its progress to self-sufficiency, and the impact this has on Cyprus and Israel gas.

Egypt in context
Current demand for natural gas in Egypt is 52bcm/y and may reach 65-70bcm/y over the coming 10 years.

A combination of a switch to renewables, reduction of subsidies, higher gas prices and an awareness campaign by the Egyptian government on ways to rationalize energy consumption should help stem the rampant increase in demand.

But even with these, without new gas coming online the gas deficit of 7bcm/y in 2015 will carry on increasing.

The challenge is that gas production has already declined this year to 42bcm/y, due to past-government misguided policies, requiring expensive LNG imports.