Greece's DEPA clinches $175-million deal with Shell on domestic gas supplier - INDIA TIMES / REUTERS

July 13, 2018, 15:43 IST

Athens: Greece's state-controlled DEPA gas company will buy out Shell's 49 per cent stake in a domestic gas supplier, Attiki Gas Supply Company, and a gas distributor in Athens and become the sole stakeholder in the two companies, it said on Friday.

The deal between DEPA and Shell, which was signed on Friday, is worth 150 million euros ($174.45 million) and is part of a scheme under Greece's latest international bailout which says that Athens needs to eliminate potential conflicts of interest between DEPA and domestic gas suppliers.

DEPA is 65 per cent owned by the state.

Elections in Turkey and Gas Discoveries in Egypt Bode Ill for Israel’s Natural-Gas Industry - MOSAIC

JULY 13 2018

While the dictates of economics, geography, and technology suggest that Turkey would be the best possible market for the natural gas beneath Israel’s coastal waters, politics dictate otherwise. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently reelected to the Turkish presidency, has been hostile to the Jewish state since first coming to power, and is unlikely to be eager to set up a gas pipeline between the two countries. But, write Oded Eran and Elai Rettig, further gas extraction is only worthwhile if the gas can be exported, and it is now unclear whether Egypt, the only viable alternative to Turkey, will be any more receptive:

Oil Ministry signs three new oil and gas exploration agreements in Gulf of Suez and North Sinai - ENTERPRISE

Thursday, 12 July 2018

Oil Ministry inks three new agreements for oil and gas exploration in North Sinai and the Gulf of Suez. The first agreement, between GHP Exploration Corp. and the South Valley Petroleum Holding Company, will see the company drill four new wells at a cost of about USD 6 mn at the West Gabal El Zeit concession in the Gulf of Suez, according to a ministry statement. The second agreement was signed between the EGPC and UK’s Perenco for exploration in the North Sinai offshore concession, while the third was with the EGPC for exploration in the Gulf of Suez’ Ras Fanar concession. The Oil Ministry is currently finalizing procedures for 18 other agreements that will be announced soon, according to Minister Tarek El Molla. The government had announced plans to step up exploration activities in FY2018-19 as the country marches toward natural gas self-sufficiency and bids to become a regional energy export hub.

Turkey Faces Ticking Time Bomb With Energy Loans of $51 Billion - BLOOMBERG

July 11, 2018, 7:00 AM GMT+3
Ercan Ersoy and Asli Kandemir

• Some power producers earn less than they owe in debt charges
• Lira’s plunge against dollar has driven up foreign-loan costs

Confronted with a plunging lira, Turkey’s central bank last month urged the general public to borrow in the currency in which they are paid. That warning came too late for the country’s energy companies.

Turkish power producers are emerging as one of the biggest risks to the nation’s banks after they plowed billions of dollars into new power generation, distribution projects and deals over the past 15 years. Now, with the lira depreciating faster than they can raise electricity prices, some utilities earn less per year than what they have to repay in foreign-currency loans, according to the Ankara-based Electricity Producers’ Association.

Their predicament highlights the far-reaching impact of the lira’s 68 percent slump against the dollar since the beginning of 2010 as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan moves his country toward authoritarianism. His grip on the country culminated this week with his swearing in for a five-year term as president with enhanced powers and the appointment of his son-in-law to oversee economic policy.

Libya oil chief warns output to drop every day as ports halted - WORLD OIL

JULY/9/2018
SALMA EL WARDANY

CAIRO (Bloomberg) -- Libya’s oil output will keep dropping day by day if major ports remain closed after clashes last month led to a political deadlock, the head of the country’s state energy producer said.

“Today, production is 527,000 bpd, tomorrow it will be lower, and after tomorrow it will be even lower and everyday it will keep falling,” Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of the Tripoli-based National Oil, said in a video statement posted on the company’s Facebook page. The nation was producing more than twice that amount before fighting in February forced an oil field in western Libya to shut down, he said.

Sanalla urged Khalifa Haftar, an army commander in the politically divided nation’s east, to transfer control of the closed oil ports to the NOC in Tripoli.

Eni announces second oil discovery in Egypt's Faghur basin - WORLD OIL

JULY/9/2018

MILAN -- Eni announces a second light oil discovery on the B1-X exploration prospect located in South West Meleiha license, in the Egyptian Western Desert, some 130 km North of the oasis of Siwa.

The well is the second one drilled by Eni to explore the deep geological sequences of the Faghur basin. SWM B1-X has been drilled 7 km away from the first discovery (SWM A2-X), to a TD of 4,523 m and encountered 35 m net of light oil in the Paleozoic sandstones of Dessouky formation of Carboniferous age and in the Alam El Bueib sandstones of Cretaceous Age.

The well has been opened to production in the Dessouky sandstones and delivered 5,130 bopd of light oil (37° API) with low associated gas.

Energean seen exporting Israeli gas to Cyprus - GLOBES

9 Jul, 2018 17:39
Sonia Gorodeisky

The company is waiting for approval for a pipeline to take gas to Cyprus from the Karish and Tanin gas reservoirs.

The Reuters news agency reported last week said that another export channel for Israeli natural gas was likely to be opened soon. Greek company Energean, which owns the Karish and Tanin gas reservoirs, is waiting for the go-ahead from Cyprus to build a gas pipeline from its floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) platform to Cyprus. The quantity to be supplied is fairly small - 0.5-1 BCM per year, less than what Israel is exporting to Jordan. If the deal goes through, however, it will be very important for the Israeli gas sector because it will open up another potential market.

Reuters said that the company was now waiting for official approval to build the pipeline. Energean CEO Mathios Rigas told Reuters, "We submitted a proposal to sell gas from the FPSO (floating production storage and offloading) facility to Cyprus."