Egypt hikes natural gas prices by up to 75 percent - THE SEATTLE TIMES / AP

July 21, 2018 at 9:41 am

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt raised natural gas prices for households and businesses on Saturday by between 33.3 and 75 percent, the latest among tough austerity measures aimed at rebuilding the country’s economy battered by years of unrest since a 2011 uprising.

The government’s decision, published in the official gazette on Saturday, should come into effect starting August. It sets the price for gas consumption of up to 30 cubic meters to 0.175 Egyptian pounds up from 0.100 pounds per cubic meter, an increase of 75 percent.

Meanwhile, gas consumption between 30-60 cubic meters went up by 42.8 percent, from 0.175 Egyptian pounds to 0.250 pounds per cubic meter. Consumption of over 60 cubic meters was upped by 33.3 percent, from 0.225 pounds to 0.300 pounds per cubic meter.

The move is likely to further fan the flames of popular discontent, especially among poor and middle-class Egyptians who have borne the brunt of the government’s economic reform program.

Turkey’s Rise Sparks New Friendship Between Israel and Greece - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

B.Netanyahu (L), N.Anastasiades (C), A.Tsipras, May 2018,Cyprus

July 21, 2018 7:00 a.m. ETYaroslav Trofimov

Greece’s leftist Syriza party ditches its antagonism toward Israel and cooperates with Netanyahu’s government as Ankara asserts power in region

ATHENS—It’s hard to find a better example of how geopolitical realities trump ideology than the blossoming friendship between Israel and Greece.

As the leader of Greece’s leftist Syriza party before gaining office in 2015, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called to expel Israel’s ambassador and close Greek ports to U.S. arms shipments heading to Israel.

Syriza’s leftist allies in Europe still demonize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government. Many of them back the boycott, sanctions and disinvestment campaign against Israel.

Not Mr. Tsipras—who intensified cooperation with Israel instead. The leaders of Israel, Greece and Cyprus are holding regular trilateral summits—the fourth was in May—and the Israeli air force uses Greek airspace for training. The three countries, plus Egypt, are jointly developing the eastern Mediterranean’s natural-gas reserves.

The key reason for all this: Turkey.

DEEPS looks to tap into promising potential of Oil and Gas sector in Lebanon - ZAWYA

21 JULY, 2018

Beirut: A new specialized oil and gas services company, DEEPS, opened office in Lebanon recently. It was formed as an investment that looks to serve international companies that will be operating offshore the Lebanese coasts through an integrated package of the industry’s services. DEEPS is committed to provide its Lebanese and international partners excellence in service and results.

The new firm was founded by an elite group of investors and partners who possess a massive know-how and industry expertise, including well-known figures in the gas rich Egyptian market, namely Salah Hafez and Hesham Ismail who commanded high positions in the oil and gas industry and were part of the North African nation’s rise in the sector during the last decades.

Snam-led consortium in 535 mln euro deal for stake in Greece's gas grid operator DESFA- INDIA TIMES / REUTERS

July 20, 2018, 16:39 IST

ATHENS: A consortium led by Italy's Snam will take a majority stake in Greek gas grid operator DESFA under a 535 million euro ($623 million) deal signed on Friday, the country's HRADF privatisation agency said.

A consortium of Snam, Spain's Enagas Internacional and Belgium's Fluxys will buy a 66 percent stake from the government and top Greek oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum .

TSE Petrofac JV secures PMC services contract in Turkey - WORLD OIL

JULY/19/2018

ST. HELIER -- Petrofac, in a joint venture (JV) with Turkish Standards Institution (TSE), has secured a three-year, multi-million-dollar Project Management Consultancy (PMC) services contract in support of the BOTAŞ North Marmara Underground Gas Storage Expansion Project (Phase III) in Turkey.

The existing facility, located approximately 60 km west of Istanbul, has been in operation since 2007 and BOTAŞ intends to expand its working gas capacity to 4.6 Bcm. The TSE Petrofac JV is responsible for managing and supervising areas which will cover the main phases and scopes of work. These include detailed design, engineering, procurement, construction, drilling and decommissioning, along with commissioning and start-up activities.

Cyprus presses on with FSRU despite pipeline proposalProposals for a pipeline linking - INTERFAX

The Vassiliko gas-fired power station in Cyprus

18 July 2018
Verity Ratcliffe

Cyprus is preparing to tender a contract for the supply of an FSRU to be moored at Vassiliko. Plans for the project are progressing despite a proposal to pipe gas to Cyprus from offshore Israel, according to an official at Cypriot state-owned utility DEFA.

Companies will be invited to submit bids within the next few weeks, Andreas Pentaliotis, gas officer at DEFA, told Interfax Natural Gas Daily. After the tender for the FSRU, DEFA will hold two tenders for LNG supply.

Security Issues Continue to Plague Libya's Oil-Supply Growth - RIGZONE / BLOOMBERG

Wednesday, July 18, 2018Salma El Wardany

(Bloomberg) -- Just as Libya resumes oil exports from recently shuttered ports, an attack on its largest field is setting back progress yet again.

An incursion by gunmen into the Sharara field on Saturday and the kidnapping of workers there forced the National Oil Corp. to cut production and put a ban on exports. It’s the latest in a string of security incidents that have hobbled Libyan shipments despite repeated attempts to restore flows in the politically divided nation.

“This incident required us to shut down and evacuate a number of stations,” NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in a statement. The kidnappers released two of the four abducted workers later the same day but still hold two others.

POLITICS: Geopolitical Role of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean - FINANCIAL MIRROR

18 July, 2018
Nikos Christodoulides, Cyprus' Foreign Minister

One of the most capturing narratives on Cyprus’s geography is the one provided by US Ambassador Thomas Boyatt, in a presentation at the Foreign Service Institute in Washington DC.

“Cyprus is an island in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean. It sits there like an aircraft carrier and dominates between east and west, as well as between north and south. Every empire from the Egyptians to the British, which has sought to dominate the Middle East, has had to control Cyprus.”

It is this unique geographical position of Cyprus, at the south-eastern-most corner of the European Union, at the cross roads of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, which has to a very large extent defined the history of Cyprus. And while more often than not our geography has been more of a curse than a blessing, our determined efforts in the last few years have been to reverse this narrative, and turn our geographical position into a blessing, putting it at the forefront of our geostrategic value.

Apache signs $9m oil and gas exploration deal in Egypt's Western Desert - AHRAM ONLINE

Ahram Online , Wednesday 18 Jul 2018

United States oil and gas producer Apache Corporation signed a $9 million deal with Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum to explore and produce oil and gas in the Western Desert, the ministry said in a statement published by state news agency MENA on Wednesday.

The deal includes assigning $30 million (EGP 537 million) investment to dig seven wells in the area, the ministry said.

Apache is holder of one of the largest areas in Egypt's Western Desert, estimated at the end of 2017 as 5.6 million gross acres in 25 separate concessions, the company writes on its official website.

Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla said the new deal is part of the ministry's efforts to boost production and reserves of oil and natural gas, and to attract foreign investment.

The new agreement brings the total number of oil and gas deals signed by Egypt since 2014 to 87, the ministry added.

15th well from Nooros gas field comes online - ENTERPRISE

Wednesday, 18 July 2018

The 15th well at the Nooros gas field has come online, pumping an additional 180 mcf/d into the national grid, the Oil Ministry announced yesterday. The Nedco well allows production from the Nooros field to remain steady at 1.2 bcf/d. On a related note, Eni and EGPC JV Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel) — which completed work on the well in record timing of under two months — reportedly intends to pump an additional 0.5 bcf/d into the national gas grid by mid-2019, as it brings its South Balteem well online, sources tell Youm7.

The Egypt-Israel gas deal: What's the chance it will go up in smoke? - MIDDLE EAST EYE

Tuesday 17 July 2018 15:47 UTCDania Akkad

The rush is on to complete a $15bn deal to export Israeli gas to Egypt. But with nearly enough gas to supply itself, does Egypt even need it?

TEL AVIV - There is selling ice to the eskimos. And sand to the Arabs. Now there's gas to Egypt.

The rush is on to finalise a deal which would see $15bn worth of Israeli gas supplied to a private Egyptian company during the next decade.

The agreement between Israeli company Delek Drilling and Texas-based Noble Energy, who are partners in Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan fields, and the private Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings was first publicised in February.

Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean Alliance - BESA CENTER

July 17, 2018John M. Nomikos
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 897, July 17, 2018

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Eastern Mediterranean Alliance (Israel, Greece, and Cyprus) is emerging at a time of increasing global instability. All three states are firm democracies that promote peace, security, and environmental stability in the region. The tripartite alliance is strategically the most significant anchor of Greek security and economic progress.

Concrete steps over the past three years have set the foundations of an Eastern Mediterranean Alliance (EMA) comprising Israel, Greece, and Cyprus. The convergence of the three nations is the natural outcome of close democratic similarities and a joint desire for stability and progress in a region tormented by perennial Middle East strife, radical Islamism, and the morphing of Turkey into a fundamentalist Islamic autocracy.

The EMA is emerging at a time of increasing global instability. American retrenchment from traditional postwar strategic arrangements, the resurgence of Russia, a troubled EU, the illegal migration crisis, China’s rise as a global power, and much else leave little room for complacency.

Greek Energy Forum Newsletter, 16th July 2018 - GREEK ENERGY FORUM

16 July 2018

Lots of good news emerging out of Greece over the past two weeks:

Greece’s energy regulator, RAE, auctioned off a total of 277.32 MW in wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) capacities in in an auction held on July 2, obtaining prices lower than in the December 2016 pilot tender.

Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation for the financing of the Bulgarian side of the Greek-Bulgarian gas grid interconnector (IGB), while, in a concurrent development, the IGB consortium and the TAP consortium, constructing the gas pipeline to carry Azeri natural gas through northern Greece, Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to Italy, have also signed an interconnection agreement to link the two pipelines.

Greek shipowners, meanwhile, continued their ordering spree focused on the LNG Carrier segment.

And the Copelouzos group has made moves both in the renewables/conventional electricity sector and in the DEPA Trade sale.

On the other hand, however, Eurasia Interconnector and ITPO seem highly unlikely to reach an agreement regarding the development of the Crete link. RAE is pushing the two stakeholders to form a joint venture for the delivery of the project as per the MoU signed last October. However, the Eurasia Interconnector consortium does not favour this solution and insists that the project is included in its responsibilities i.e. the connection of the Greek, Cypriot and Israeli grids via Crete.

SDX flows gas from new well in Egypt - ENERGY VOICE

16/07/2018 6:14 am
Allister Thomas

London-listed SDX Energy has had a successful production test from an appraisal well in South Disouq, Egypt.

The SD-4X well flowed for two successive 12-hour periods at 5.4 and 8.6million standard cubic feet of gas (MMscfd) respectively.

It later had an extended 24-hour flow at 10.5MMscfd.

SDX has a 55% working interest and said the well gives it “additional confidence” to deliver a peak production rate of 50MMscfd in South Disouq.

President and CEO Paul Welch said: “We are very pleased to report another successful production test result, at our SD-4X appraisal well in South Disouq.

“We intend to connect this well to infrastructure located adjacent to our SD-1X discovery over the coming months.

“We are targeting a late Q4 2018 start-up of production in South Disouq and this well test result provides us with additional confidence to deliver on our planned plateau rate of 50 MMscfd of conventional natural gas.”