Gas exports to Turkey paused for 7 days - MEHR NEWS AGENCY

News ID: 3809056
Sat 29 October 2016 - 13:47

TEHRAN, Oct. 29 (MNA) – NIGC announced on Friday that exports of Iranian gas to Turkey will remain ceased for seven days due to construction processes.

The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) confirmed the halt in Iran’s natural gas exports to Turkey; “due to an explosion in a gas export pipeline on Turkish territories, the gas flow to the neighboring country has reached a temporarily hiatus.”

“Turkey's Butash Gas Company made correspondences to inform NIGC on the gas incident,” said an official asserting “on Thursday evening at 21:30 p.m., the transmission line to Turkey exploded deep under the ground 12 kilometers from Bazargan border and gas export to the neighboring country is temporarily interrupted.”

Cyprus revives LNG import plans - INTERFAX

Cyprus’s Vasilikos gas-fired power station(J&P Group)

28 October 2016
Verity Ratcliffe

Cyprus is preparing to launch an independent study into importing LNG as Nicosia looks to revive plans for an LNG purchase tender.

State-owned Natural Gas Public Co. (DEFA) has invited consultants to submit bids to carry out the research. Up to 10 bids are expected from companies including Gaffney, Cline & Associates, KPMG, Wood Mackenzie, DEP Levant Oil & Gas, DNVGL, Arntzen de Besche and Genesis Oil and Gas.

"The objective of the study is, based on the analysis of the various options of LNG supplies, to identify and propose an option/project, an appropriate process and a timetable for the supply of gas to Cyprus [as soon as possible] and before 2020," the tender documents say.

EGPC, Kuwait Energy sign agreement on Iraq's Siba gas field - NATURAL GAS WORLD

October 28th, 2016 8:35amShardul Sharma

Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation has inked an agreement with Kuwait Energy to buy stake in Siba gas field in Iraq’s Basra region, the Egyptian oil ministry said October 26. The field has reserves of 555bn ft³ of natural gas and 37mn barrels of condensate.

The ministry stated that EGPC will have a 15% interest in the field. It expects production to be 70mn ft³/d by 2017 which is likely to rise to 100-150mn ft³/d. Egyptian Petrojet will be the general contractor of the field development project through carrying out all the executive and engineering works of the project at costs of $200mn.

This is the second partnership between the two sides outside Egypt. Kuwait Energy farmed out a10% working interest in Block 9 in southern Iraq to EGPC and now has 60%.

Libya’s oil output reaches 670 thousand bpd - ECOFIN AGENCY

Friday, 28 October 2016 - 08:54Anita Fatunji

(Ecofin Agency) - Libya has witnessed an extraordinary increase in oil production reaching 670 thousand barrels per day, according to the head of the media office of the Libyan Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation (NOC), Mohammed Al-Maghribi.

“That is all because the NOC has resumed work in some previously-shut oilfields,” he said.

The country’s oil production has been gradually increasing, following the reopening of key terminals and oilfields as well as the resumption of exportation. An official at the NOC, Ibrahim Al-Uwami, said that Libya’s oil output is steadily rising and is expected to reach 1.5 million bpd once the necessary budget for refurbishment procedures in the oilfields and terminals is provided for the NOC.

“That would skyrocket our oil production in no time, coupled with reopening Al-Sharara and Al-Feel oilfields in the south,” Al-Uwami explained.

Israel-Turkish pipeline hinges on Cyprus issue solution - NEW EUROPE

OCTOBER 28, 2016 00:04 
Kostis Geropoulos

Gazprom strives to secure its market in Turkey, fighting against additional Azeri, Iranian, Kurdish or East Mediterranean gas.

ATHENS – The rapprochement between Tel Aviv and Ankara will give fresh impetus to a pipeline from Israel to Turkey, experts told New Europe in Athens on October 25.

During a meeting of Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz and his Turkish counterpart Berat Albaryrak at the World Energy Council in Istanbul on October 13, Tel Aviv and Ankara agreed to examine the feasibility of the pipeline.

One Cyprus? - FOREIGN AFFAIRS

October 27, 2016Jonathan Gorvett

A Deal Is Close, But Not Certain

At the end of this month, the island of Cyprus is scheduled to undergo another division, adding to its long history of intercommunal splits. At 4 AM on October 31, the southern, Greek side of the island will set its clocks back by one hour in accordance with European winter time. Yet for the first time ever, on the other side of the UN-patrolled buffer zone dividing the south from the [illegally occupied by Turkey] Turkish-majority north, time will stay the same. There, in the [so-called] Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), the breakaway state recognized only by Turkey, clocks will align with those in Ankara instead, following the Turkish government’s recent decision to abolish daylight saving time.

Unwanted: The $10 Billion Gas Deal With Israel That Jordan Needs - BLOOMBERG

October 27, 2016 — 2:01 AM EEST
Donna Abu-Nasr

• Regular street protests held to condemn import agreement
• Jordan shows there’s still resistance to closer economic ties

For one hour every Sunday, Alaa Wishah and his family sit at home in the dark.

The pharmacist in Jordan’s capital of Amman isn’t trying to save money. Wishah, his wife and their three children are joining the protest against a $10 billion energy import agreement with Israel that has revived old animosities in this part of the world.

"Even if the alternatives are harder and more expensive, we don’t want to get gas from the Zionist entity," said Wishah, 40. "It’s not theirs; it belongs to the Palestinians."

What Israel can learn from Norway - GLOBES

27/10/2016, 18:30
Aharon (Orni) Izakson

Norway's experience in managing its oil and gas revenues and building its energy industry should guide Israeli policy makers.
It was reported recently that in an offering of shares and warrants by Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT), Norges Bank, the central bank of Norway, bought shares to the tune of NIS 200 million, and holds 2.6% of the Israeli bank. Norges Bank manages the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, the Government Pension Fund Global, worth some $890 billion, deriving from oil and gas profits. The fund's capital is being kept for a rainy day, such as when Norway's oil and gas reserves are depleted. The Norwegian government is allowed to include in its annual budget up to 4% of the value of the fund's holdings.

Leviathan gas pipeline to Greece would cost $5.7b - GLOBES

27/10/2016, 09:43
Nati Yefet

The EU Commissioner, which financed a feasibility study, has recognized the pipeline as a Project of Common Interest.

A feasibility study conducted by IGI-Poseidon, which was commissioned by the EU Commissioner, has found that laying a natural gas pipeline from the Leviathan offshore gas field via Cyprus to Greece would cost about $5.7 billion. This was reported by the Ministry of Natural Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources director general Shaul Meridor who met in Athens with his counterparts from Greece, Cyprus and Italy and a senior official from the EU Energy Commission.

All the participants in the meeting expressed support for the project and decided to continue moving ahead with it, despite the major complexity of laying such a pipeline in deep waters. The pipeline would convey natural gas from fields in both Israel and Cyprus and potential discoveries in Greece's economic waters. The EU has recognized the project as a Project of Common Interest (PCI) and consequently financed the feasibility study.

Energy Minister Albayrak suggests East Mediterranean gas may serve as a positive alternative - DAILY SABAH / ANADOLU AGENCY

27.10.2016

Turkey considers East Mediterrinean natural gas as a positive alternative tool to bring peace to its region and to ensure energy supply security, the country's Energy Minister Albayrak says

Recalling that East Mediterrinean natural gas has been on Turkey's agenda for a long while, Albayrak said they discussed this issue with the Israeli minister at the 23rd World Energy Congress. Turkey and Israel have agreed to establish a mutual energy dialogue, further strengthening ties between the countries following a six-year pause in relations, Israeli Energy and Water Resources Minister Yuval Steinitz said during the congress.

Greece Says Total-Led Group Preferred Bidder To Drill For Offshore Gas - OIL PRICE

Oct 26, 2016, 2:13 PM CDTTsvetana Paraskova
Greece said on Wednesday that it is naming a consortium led by France’s Total SA (NYSE:TOT) and comprised of Italy’s Edison and Greece’s largest refiner, Hellenic Petroleum, as the preferred bidder to drill for gas in an offshore block in the Ionian Sea west of the country.

Back in February of this year, a Hellenic Petroleum official said that Total, Hellenic Petroleum and Edison had filed a joint financial bid for block 2 in the Ionian Sea, Reuters reported back at the time.

According to Greece’s energy ministry’s statement today, a committee that has been reviewing the bids will invite the Total-led consortium to finalize the deal.

Atwood Advantage starts Tamar Drilling - NATURAL GAS WORLD

October 26th, 2016 8:45amYa'acov Zalel

The drilling ship Atwood Advantage has arrived at Israeli waters has started drilling in Tamar, 100 km offshore. It is the first drilling ship in Israeli waters in three years and its first assignment is the Tamar 8 well which will supply gas to the Israeli domestic market. The drilling is expected to last four months and the investment is estimated at $265mn. When the drilling is completed the vessel might move over to drill Leviathan 5.

However, Leviathan is still awaiting the final investment decision (FID). It has only one big customer, the Jordanian national power company Nepco, which signed a long-term contract to purchase up to 3bn m³/yr for 15 years. Noble Energy, Leviathan's operator said a FID is expected by the end of the year. Experts said that in order to get a positive FID the partners need such agreements to exceed 6bn m³/yr.

Egypt: Eni to add 80Mmcfpd of gas from the Nooros field by the end of November - ECOFIN AGENCY

Wednesday, 26 October 2016 - 12:59Anita Fatunji

(Ecofin Agency) - In Egypt, Eni plans to add 80Mmcfpd of gas from its Nooros concession to the national grid by the end of November 2016.

According to a source with the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), the total gas production from Nooros is set to increase from 850Mmcfpd to 930Mmcfpd by the end of November. This is to occur after the drilling of a number of development wells and adding them to the project’s production, Egypt Oil &Gas reports.

Connecting these wells to the national gas grid will help fill the natural decrease gap in local gas production, which is estimated at 600Mmcf each year with an average of around 50Mmcf per month.

Russia needs EU guarantees to extend Turkish Stream to Europe - RUSSIA TODAY

Published time: 25 Oct, 2016 14:30

Moscow has become more wary about doing gas deals with Brussels after the EU blocked Russia's South Stream pipeline, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"After the failure of South Stream, we will be ready to extend Turkish Stream to the territory of the European Union only after we received an unambiguous formal paper that guarantees the implementation of this project," Lavrov said on Tuesday, speaking to European businessmen in Moscow.

Lavrov stressed that, according to experts, "in the foreseeable future it will be very difficult for EU countries to live without Russian energy resources.”

An agreement to build the Turkish Stream pipeline was reached in December 2014. It was assumed the pipeline would replace South Stream that had been blocked by the EU.

EP: Development of gas resources in Cyprus should be actively pursued - FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE / CNA

The MEPs call for the prioritisation of gas production in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Caspian regions, as well as for interconnecting landlocked countries in Central and South-East Europe to these new capacities in order to diversify supply sources in those regions.
FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE CYPRUS•
Tuesday, 25 October, 2016

The development of the domestic conventional gas resources discovered in Cyprus should be actively pursued, a resolution adopted on Tuesday by the European Parliament in its plenary session, in Strasbourg, stresses.

The resolution further notes that new LNG capacity being developed in the Mediterranean could form the basis of an infrastructure hub.

The MEPs call for the prioritisation of gas production in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Caspian regions, as well as for interconnecting landlocked countries in Central and South-East Europe to these new capacities in order to diversify supply sources in those regions.

Israeli, Cypriot officials to meet for natural gas talks - ISRAEL HAYOM

Tuesday October 25, 2016Hezi Sternlicht

• Senior officials from energy ministries to try to finalize agreement on the development of shared gas fields Aphrodite and Yishai 

• Israeli official to fly to Athens on Thursday to discuss the building of tripartite pipeline to export gas from Israel.

Senior energy officials from Israel and Cyprus were scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the development of two natural gas fields, Aphrodite and Yishai, which lie on the maritime border between the two nations.

Shaul Meridor, the director general of Israel's National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Ministry, was to meet with his Cypriot counterpart, Stelios D. Himonas, the permanent secretary of Cyprus' Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Ministry. The meeting is the latest effort to finalize an agreement that would pave the way for joint projects on those fields.

Egypt: No confirmation yet on whether Saudi oil aid will resume in November – El-Molla - ECOFIN AGENCY

Tuesday, 25 October 2016 - 13:01Anita Fatunji

(Ecofin Agency) - Egyptian Oil Minister, Tarek El-Molla (photo), on Tuesday revealed that no confirmation has been received yet as regards when Saudi Arabia’s will recommence the supply of petroleum to the country.

This is coming after supplies were postponed at the beginning of this month.

“The contract is in effect for five years so whether it's interrupted for a week or a month or two or three the contract is in effect and still on,” El-Molla said adding that there was no confirmation about whether or not the aid would resume next month.

In March, Saudi Arabia agreed to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products per month for five years under a $23 billion deal signed between Saudi Aramco and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) but Egypt stopped receiving its aid some weeks ago, Reuters reports.

The spokesman for the Egyptian Oil Ministry, Hamdy Abdel-Aziz, on October 10, 2016, said that, Aramco officially informed Cairo that the agreed oil products for October will not be supplied. He stated that the reason might be technical or logistical stressing that the Saudi company did not cancel the $23 billion deal.

Gas helps to warm Russia, Turkey relations after tumultuous 12 months - PLATTS

October 25, 2016 05:01 UTC

Moving toward the brink of war is about as serious as a geopolitical relationship can get — and that is where Moscow and Ankara found themselves after NATO member Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet on the border with Syria on November 24 last year.

Diplomatic efforts succeeded in calming the immediate tensions, but nonetheless Moscow’s reaction was a pledge to “seriously reevaluate” its relationship with Ankara.

As well as a raft of economic sanctions, part of the geopolitical rhetoric was a move by the Kremlin to halt all talks around the already complex negotiation process on the planned TurkStream gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey under the Black Sea.

The link — originally intended as a 63 Bcm/year South Stream replacement — had already been downgraded to a two-line 31.5 Bcm/year project, and talks were becoming increasingly protracted as Ankara insisted the pipeline’s realization be linked to a gas discount on Russian gas imports.

Petrobel lets contract for Zohr gas processing plant - OIL & GAS JOURNAL

HOUSTON, Oct. 24
10/24/2016
By Robert Brelsford
OGJ Downstream Technology Editor

Belayim Petroleum Co. (Petrobel), a joint venture of wholly owned Eni SPA subsidiary IEOC Production BV and Egyptian General Petroleum Corp., has let a contract to a division of Siemens AG to provide processing equipment for a gas plant connected to the first-phase development of deepwater Zohr natural gas field on the the Shorouk block offshore Egypt (OGJ, Sept. 7, 2015, p. 60).

Siemens Power & Gas’ Dresser-Rand business will deliver three of its proprietary SGT-400 industrial gas turbines, including associated electrical generators, to supply electric power to a gas plant currently under construction in Egypt dedicated to processing natural gas production from Zohr field, Siemens said.

Total’s plans in limbo after logistics contract blunder, ENI, Noble hint at logistics move abroad - CYPRUS MAIL

October 24th, 2016

ENERGY giant Total’s plans to explore for hydrocarbons offshore Cyprus are stuck in limbo, while ENI and Noble Energy are intimating they are considering moving their onshore logistics base to Egypt and Israel, respectively, unless they are able to continue operating out of the port of Larnaca.

In early October, Total and EDT offshore, an oil and gas services company, signed a contract where the latter would provide the former onshore logistics services out of the port of Limassol supporting Total’s drilling programme.

Amid much fanfare at the signing ceremony – attended by energy minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis and transport minister Marios Demetriades – Total announced they were poised to drill their first exploratory well in Block 11 of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone, in April 2017.

Egypt launches record LNG tender for 96 cargoes -trade - REUTERS

Mon Oct 24, 2016 | 10:58am BST

By Oleg Vukmanovic, Editing by Susan Fenton and Jason Neely

Egypt launched the world's biggest tender for liquefied natural gas (LNG) on Sunday as officials from top energy companies and trading houses converged on Cairo undeterred by new rules forcing them to wait even longer to get paid.

After months of speculation and delay, state-run Egypt Natural Gas Holding (EGAS) released tender documents on Sunday bidding to secure 96 LNG shipments in 2017 and 2018, participants in the tender told Reuters.

An additional 12 optional cargoes were included in the tender, which EGAS may decide not to award, they said.

It is the biggest mid-term LNG buy tender ever issued, trade sources said.

Cyprus funding, budget, natural gas, EC and Turkey on agenda of EP plenary - FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE / CNA

Monday, 24 October, 2016

The plenary session of the European Parliament, that convenes this week in Strasbourg, is expected to vote on prolonging top-up in EU funding for projects in Cyprus.

The members of the European Parliament are expected to vote on Tuesday on a special provision whereby the EU would pay up to 85% of project costs in Cyprus until the closure of the 2014-2020 programmes.

They will also vote on plans to prolong a 10% increase in the EU contribution towards project costs in Greece until 30 June of the year following the end of its economic adjustment programme.

Dresser-Rand to deliver turbine-generator sets for Zohr offshore Egypt - OFFSHORE MAG

24/10/2016
Offshore staff

MUNICH, Germany – Belayim Petroleum Co. (Petrobel) has ordered three model SGT-400 industrial gas turbines and associated electrical generators from Siemens’ Dresser-Rand business.

Petrobel, a joint venture between Eni and Egypt’s General Petroleum Corp. (EGPC), is developing the Zohr gas field offshore Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea.

The order scope also encompasses a service package that includes spare parts supply and on-site maintenance. The turbine-generator sets are slated for delivery in early 2017.

Christopher Rossi, CEO of the Dresser-Rand business, said: “Following the major billion-euro power plant order Siemens secured from Egypt last June, our power generation technology will further support the nation’s efforts to grow its economy and expand its reliable energy supply.

Egypt chases own energy sources as government struggle to meet demand - REUTERS

Sun Oct 23, 2016 | 10:43am EDTWriting by Eric Knecht, Editing by Lin Noueihed/Ruth Pitchford

By Ehab Farouk | CAIRO

Egypt will boost production of natural gas to 5 billion cubic feet per day in the 2017-2018 fiscal year as the giant Zohr field comes online, but will still also ramp up gas imports to feed a spike in consumption, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla said.

Once an energy exporter, Egypt has turned into a net importer in recent years, squeezed by declining production and increasing consumption. The shortfall and squeezed finances have forced the government to ration gas supplies to industry, with some plants unable to operate at full capacity as a result.

Egypt's Oil Ministry is racing to reverse that trend, speeding up the development of major gas discoveries with a stated goal of achieving energy self-sufficiency by 2020-21.

Cyprus and Egypt in for the long haul - IN CYPRUS / CYPRUS WEEKLY

October 23, 2016

Cyprus and Egypt will definitely implement an interstate agreement providing for natural gas from the island’s Aphrodite field to be sold to neighbouring Cairo whose domestic needs are vast.

But an ambitious pipeline project linking the two neighbouring countries as well as Greece could end up being just a ‘trilateral’ dream, informed sources told the Cyprus Weekly.

“Cyprus and Egypt will definitely cooperate on the sale of gas, that’s a given. The interstate agreement has been signed and it is going to be implemented, the Egyptian President will be visiting Nicosia in April-May for the final touches,” the insider said.