Premier Tsipras Announces US’ ExxonMobil to Conduct Exploration South of Crete - GREEK REPORTER

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Jun 21, 2019Nick Kampouris

Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras announced on Friday that the Greek government and the American Energy giant ExxonMobil will sign an agreement regarding energy exploration and drilling next week.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels following the two-day European Council Summit, Tsipras said that Greece has reached an agreement with the US-based company, which will soon start to search for, and later exploit, natural gas deposits which are south and southwest of Crete, inside Greece’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

”Greece goes ahead with the exploitation of its own Exclusive Economic Zone, in the same manner that Cyprus does with its own,” the Greek Prime Minister noted after the Summit.

Tsipras said that, following years of planning and conducting the proper foreign policy, ”It is time to bear the fruits.”

Warehouse co-owned by Italy oil company Eni destroyed in Libya - CONSTRUCTION WEEK ONLINE

21 Jun 2019Neha Bhatia

A warehouse owned by Mellitah Oil and Gas Co, a joint venture of Italy's Eni and Libya National Oil Company (NOC), was destroyed in an airstrike, with three of the company's employees suffering minor injuries and "significant" material losses noted from the event, including the destruction of "valuable equipment and materials" in addition to the structure itself.

Citing a statement by Libya NOC, Construction Week's sister title Oil & Gas Middle East reported the company's chairman, Eng Mustafa Samalla, as saying: “This is another tragic loss caused by this unnecessary conflict.

“NOC infrastructure is being destroyed before our eyes. The lives of oil sector workers are continually being put at risk, as is the prospect of maintained oil production.”

In May 2019, Libya NOC announced plans to develop the North Hamada oilfield, operated by Nafusa Oil Operations, but the company continues to face challenges due to attacks such as the latest one.

According to OGME, Samalla told reporters last month that the continuation of instability in Libya could lead it to lose 95% of its oil production.

“Unfortunately if the situation will continue like this I’m afraid that maybe 95% of production will be lost,” Mustafa Sanalla told reporters in Jeddah, according to Reuters.

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Revythousa to help Bulgaria in LNG supply - KATHIMERINI

21.06.2019 : 20:30

Chryssa Liaggou

Less than a year after it was upgraded with a third tank, the gas terminal on the island of Revythousa is confirming its strategic role as a feeder of the broader Balkan market, as on August 31 it will receive the first liquefied natural gas load destined for Bulgaria that is procured directly by a Bulgarian company.

Energico, owned by a former official of gas grid operator Bulgartransgaz, will be the first Bulgarian company to make a direct LNG procurement through Revythousa to cover Bulgaria’s needs, as the islet off the Attica coast is the only facility that allows for the diversification of natural gas sources in Greece’s northern neighbor, which is almost 100 percent dependent on Russian gas.

That option will become even easier when the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria pipeline starts operating, along with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), in 2020.

EGAS refuses again to cut natural gas prices for heavy consumption factories - ENTERPRISE

Wednesday, 19 June 2019

The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company has once again refused another push for cutting natural gas prices for steel and ceramics factories, local press reported, citing an unnamed EGAS officials. EGAS said the current prices are appropriate for different industries. It said factories, who receive about 2.4 bcf/day of natural gas, are working at almost full capacity. Parliamentary sources quoted by local press said the government will continue to turn down requests in the meantime until it finishes studying the issue. Industry has been pressuring the government for years to cut natural gas prices saying that it is affecting their product prices and thus sales which is causing them to work under their full production capacity. The government had promised in 2016 to cut gas prices to USD 4.5 mmBtu from USD 7 mmBtu but didn’t deliver on it, with EGAS describing the decision at the time as a “waste”. Trade and Industry Minister Amr Nassar has said in March that it would currently be difficult to reduce gas prices for steel factories to USD 5 per MMBtu from USD 7.

Egypt grants Israel access to LNG plants after reaching gas settlement - ENTERPRISE

Wednesday, 19 June 2019

Israeli gas could start flowing to Egypt’s LNG plants as soon as next month at an initial rate of 150 mcf/d, rising to 700 mcf/d within two years, according to a domestic press report citing an unnamed government official. The news comes after a USD 500 mn settlement this week resolved a dispute longstanding dispute with the Israel Electric Corporation and will give the operators of Israel’s Leviathan field, Delek Drilling and Noble Energy, clear access to global export markets.

Damietta-bound? Look for the Leviathan gas to move through the Arish-Ashkelon pipeline to Damietta, one of two Egypt’s two LNG facilities as the Idku facility still has no link with Israel. The Arish-Ashkelon pipeline is set to be used to supply Alaa Arafa’s Dolphinus Holding with the first shipments under the USD 15 bn agreement signed last year. The shipments were planned to begin in 1Q2019 but sources told Bloomberg in March that the date had been pushed to mid-2019 as the pipeline still required further maintenance.

An Israeli investment still in the cards? We had noted last March that Delek was looking to acquire a stake in either the Idku or Damietta liquefaction facilities as part of its drive to “broaden its export footprint.”

Egypt to pay Israel USD 500 mn settlement to end seven-year gas dispute - ENTERPRISE

Monday, 17 June 2019

DISPUTE WATCH- Egypt to pay Israel USD 500 mn settlement to end seven-year gas dispute: Egypt has agreed to pay USD 500 mn over 8.5 years to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) as a settlement for halting natural gas shipments in 2012, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and EGAS said yesterday in a statement picked up by Reuters. Egypt agreed to the reduced fine in exchange for the IEC dropping its other claims that arose from an arbitration decision in 2015, when the International Chamber of Commerce ordered Egypt to pay USD 1.76 bn.

Background: The IEC admitted in April that it was willing to accept a USD 500 mn settlement, amounting to a USD 1.3 bn write-off of the original USD 1.76 bn fine. Egypt had appealed against the International Chamber of Commerce’s ruling, and made reducing the settlement a key condition for accepting a gas agreement with Israel. The two countries signed a USD 15 bn gas pact last year, which will see Delek Drilling and its partner Noble Energy supplying the Alaa Arafa-led Dolphinus Holding with 7 bcm of natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan and Tamar gas fields. Delek’s deputy CEO Yossi Gvura said earlier this month commercial sales of natural gas to Egypt could begin by the end of June. The gas dispute originates from 2012 when terrorist attacks in the Sinai resulted in the Egyptian government suspending shipments of natural gas to Israel.