Is Egypt’s Oil And Gas Sector Set To Boom? - OILPRICE.com

Nov 06, 2021, 10:00 AM CDT
Felicity Bradstock

• Italian oil major, Eni, announced this week that it has made three new oil and gas discoveries in the Meleiha region of western Egypt.
• The new discovery further adds to Egypt’s recent announcement that it expects to become self-sufficient in oil by as early as 2023.
• Eni’s finds are just the latest in several significant oil and gas discoveries over the last decade.

As Eni makes a new oil and gas discovery in Western Egypt, the future of energy in the oil-rich nation looks promising. After record production figures were hit in September for the first time since 1957, with an output of 65,000 bpd, as well as plans for new refineries and high levels of LNG production, Egypt looks set to not only become self-sufficient in energy but also to become a major exporter.

Lebanon’s High Risk Offshore Oil & Gas Boom - OIL PRICE / YAHOO

August 24, 2019

Cyril Widdershoven

The least known offshore oil and gas frontier in the East-Mediterranean, Lebanon is preparing itself for a possible entrance into the producer’s league.

At the end of 2019, most probably November – December, offshore drilling is expected to start, targeting some prolific basins. The offshore success stories in Israel, Cyprus and Egypt, have supported the appetite of Beirut to take the plunge too. Nada Boustani, Lebanon’s Minister of Energy and Water, also reiterated that the country’s second licensing round is receiving lots of interest. Lebanon estimates its natural gas reserves at 25 trillion cubic feet (tcf) based on seismic studies, but these have not been confirmed by drilling and may not amount to reserves that are commercially viable.

In an interview given to the international press this week, Boustani showed extreme optimism about the expected results, hoping that an offshore gas discovery would give a big boost to the currently struggling Lebanese economy.

Lebanon launches its second offshore oil & gas licensing round - MIDDLE EAST STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES

April 5, 2019

The cabinet approved the launching of Lebanon’s second offshore oil & gas licensing round in its latest session on April 4, 2019. Energy Minister Nada Boustani officially announced the launching of the tender in a press conference on April 5.

Five blocks are on offer: Blocks 1 and 2 in the northern part of Lebanon’s Exclusive Economic Zone, Blocks 8 and 10 in the south, and Block 5 in the middle of the EEZ.

As in the first licensing round, interested companies must form a consortium of at least three companies, one of which an operator, to place bids. The deadline to place bids is on January 31, 2020.

The Lebanese Petroleum Administration has recently announced some changes to the process. The tender won’t be preceded by a separate pre-qualification round, as in the first licensing round. The pre-qualification round will be mainstreamed in the process, giving companies more time to consider participating. The evaluation of pre-qualification applications will take place in the first weeks of February 2020, with pre-qualification results expected to be announced on the third week of February. It will be followed with the evaluation of submitted bids, a step that should be completed by mid-March 2020. Negotiations with the provisional winners will then take place, and if results are satisfactory, the Council of Ministers would be expected to approve the licensing by mid-April 2020.

Azeri natural gas sellers book 8.6 Bcm/year long-term capacity to Italy: TAP - S&P GLOBAL PLATTS

Brussels, 23 Aug 2018 | 11:28 UTC
Author: Siobhan Hall; Editor: Alisdair Bowles

• 10 Bcm/year Greece
• -Italy TAP gas link to open in 2020
• Shah Deniz 2 sellers have 25-year capacity contracts
• TAP to offer short-term capacity in future auctions

Brussels — Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 natural gas field producers have booked around 8.6 Bcm/year of long-term capacity to Italy in the planned 10 Bcm/year Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, developer TAP's head of communication, Lisa Givert, told S&P Global Platts on Thursday.

TAP is the last leg of the so-called Southern Gas Corridor that is to enable Europe to import gas initially from the 16 Bcm/year Shah Deniz 2 field, a new supply source.

Are Eni and Lukoil investing in USD 700 mn gas plant in the Western Desert? - ENTERPRISE

Monday, 14 May 2018

INVESTMENT WATCH- Are Eni and Lukoil investing in USD 700 mn gas plant the in Western Desert? Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Lukoil plan to invest USD 700 mn to develop a natural gas processing plant in the Western Desert, said Mohamed El Kaffas, chairman of Eni joint venture AGIBA. The plant is expected to have a capacity of 100 mcf/d with plans to ship the processed gas to Alexandria through a 200 km pipeline, he tells Egypt Today. The plant is expected to be completed in three years. AGIBA plans to drill 28 wells in the Western Desert concessions in tandem with the development of the plant.

Caveat emptor: We have not seen this story covered anywhere else in the press and we await comment from Eni confirming the project.

Geopolitical factors to restrict ELPE tender participation - ENERGY PRESS

18/04/2018

Geopolitical factors constraining the range of participants in order to safeguard matters such as national and regional security will inevitably be incorporated into the terms of an international tender offering 50.1 percent of ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum), expected to be announced by TAIPED, the state privatization fund, any day now, possibly even today.

Though the terms to be applied to the ELPE tender remain unclear, Russian, Iranian and Chinese players, for example, stand little chance of emerging as candidates, given the current geopolitical climate in the southeast Meditteranean, polarized by US-Russian tension.

Also, European powers such as Germany, France and Italy have been requesting increasingly strict measures from Brussels for protection of strategically important European enterprises against Chinese acquisitions. ELPE belongs to this category.

PetroChina said to agree to 2018 deal to lift Libya oil - WORLD OIL / BLOOMBERG

March/1/2018

Salma El Wardany, Laura Hurst

CAIRO and LONDON (Bloomberg) -- PetroChina Co. agreed to an annual contract to buy Libyan crude after similar deals by oil majors like Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc, underscoring a recovery in the North African country’s production even as its political uncertainty persists.

The term contract is the Chinese oil producer’s first with Libya’s National Oil Corp. since 2013, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media. BP and Shell also agreed in January to annual deals to buy crude from Libya.

NOC’s list of 2017 term buyers -- including Eni SpA, Total SA, OMV AG, Repsol SA, Rosneft PJSC, Lukoil PJSC and Glencore Plc -- will continue for 2018, and only Shell, BP and PetroChina will be added to the list, the person said.

SCPX project: construction complete at majority of facilities in Georgia - TREND NEWS AGENCY

30 December 2017 10:04 (UTC+04:00)

Construction work has been completed at majority of facilities as part of the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPX) project in Georgia, Trend learned from Georgia’s Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development.

"SCPX compressor stations’ construction is progressing. The first compressor station (CSG1), as well as pressure reduction station at Georgian-Turkish border (Area 81), the 62-kilometer SCPX pipeline extension, including connection with TANAP at the Turkish border is completed," said the source in the ministry.

The construction of the second compressor station (CSG2) is 90 percent complete, added the source.

"The expansion of South Caucasus pipeline is one of the most important developments in terms of energy security of Georgia and larger region, said the source.

Few takers for Israel's new gas exploration tenders - GLOBES

11 May, 2017 10:30
Nati Yefet

Burdensome regulation, limited export opportunities and geopolitical isolation mean there is scant interest in the licenses on offer.

The Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources' tender is likely to yield meager results, even though the deadline for participating in it was postponed from April until July. According to various energy market sources, three to five companies are expected to take part in the tender, even though it involves 24 marine blocks, and despite the grandiose declarations issued when the tender was announced last November. The Association of Oil and Gas Exploration Industries in Israel termed the tender a "historic decision," and Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz has since repeated at every opportunity his intention of turning Israel into a "regional natural gas power."

Lebanon prequalifies eight more energy firms for offshore blocks - REUTERS

Wed Apr 26, 2017 8:42am GMT(Reporting By Ellen Francis and Angus McDowall; Editing by Edmund Blair)

BEIRUT, April 26 (Reuters) - Lebanon's government has prequalified eight more companies to bid for its first round of offshore exploration and production licences after prequalifying 46 companies in 2013, Energy and Water Minister Cesar Abou Khalil said on Wednesday.

The bidding process for offshore blocks 1, 4, 8, 9 and 10, three of which border Israeli waters, was postponed for years because of political paralysis in Lebanon until the formation of a new government late last year.

Rosneft and Russia's Evolving Oil Strategy Explained - THE DIPLOMAT

March 10, 2017
Nicholas Trickett

Russia’s recent deals in the Middle East aren’t just about expanding its influence, they’re part of a larger strategy.

Rosneft is deploying its preferred long-term prepayment model to political effect in Kurdistan and Libya, distributing risks between producers and consumers and taking advantage of its access to state money. That model has also earned it closer ties to trading houses like Glencore and Trafigura. The firm applied the same approach to securing a customer for its Venezuelan production—another risky market—in India with its acquisition of Essar Oil.

Who needs the Southern Gas Corridor? - ENERGY POST

February 28, 2017
Anna Roggenbuck

In its dogged pursuit of the Southern Gas Corridor, the European Commission is shutting its eyes to the human rights record of the Azerbaijani regime, writes Anna Roggenbuck, policy officer at CEE Bankwatch Network. According to Roggenbuck, there is no justification for this massive gas pipeline project, since it is also bad for the climate and, as recent events show, will not even help reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian gas.

Ministers, ambassadors and envoys from at least 15 countries, including Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission’s Vice President for the Energy Union, gathered in the Azerbaijani capital last week to discuss the progress on the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), the largest energy project the EU is currently pursuing.

But over the past couple of months, it seems the European Commission’s justifications for this controversial undertaking have been crumbling by the day.

Eni talks to big oil about stake sale in giant Egypt gas field - sources - REUTERS

Fri Aug 12, 2016 10:07am EDT

By Stephen Jewkes and Oleg Vukmanovic | MILAN

Aug 12 Italy's Eni is talking to oil companies including Lukoil, ExxonMobil, Total and BP about selling at least a 20 percent stake in its giant gas field in Egypt, industry sources said.

Eni owns the whole of Zohr and has said it is interested in bringing in partners as part of its strategy of selling some of its prize acreage to help meet a target of raising 5 billion euros from asset disposal over the next two years.

Analyst have said a 25 percent stake in the Zohr field, the Mediterranean's biggest, could fetch up to 2 billion euros ($2.24 billion).

Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi has said any deal on Zohr would have to wait until next year when final appraisals are complete and production kicks in.

"It may be early days but Eni has started talking," said one banker familiar with the Italian group.

Eni, Total and Exxon did not comment, while BP said it did not comment on rumour and speculation. Lukoil declined immediate comment.

Eni reportedly to sell 20% Zohr stake to Lukoil - ENERGY EGYPT / ITALIAN INSIDER

April 2, 2016

Italian energy company Eni reportedly will sell 20 percent of the Zohr gas field, the largest gas discovery in the Mediterranean and made by Eni last year, to Russian Lukoil, industry sources say. The works are coming along quickly and at the end of February they received the extraction authorisation.

The extraction is planned to get underway in 2017 and will have recovered 500,000 barrels by 2019. The project is valued at five billion euros, but the investment in the fields will come to 12 billion. It’s also for this reason that the administrative director Eni Claudio Descalzi has said on several occasions that Eni won’t get far with 100 percent of Zohr in its pocket.

There is also another gas field that will be partly sold before Zohr, however. It is in the Mozambique Channel, where Eni has been operating for months to reduce the cost by involving other partners. It’s slightly different however, as the Area Four gas is part of a large area of fields therefore will take 50 billion of investment.

Russian interest in East Med and Cyprus gas - IN CYPRUS / CYPRUS WEEKLY

Charles Ellinas — 20/03/2016

In a week that saw Russia pulling some of its armed forces out of Syria and signs of increasing cooperation between Russia and the US in the region, it is important to examine Russian interest in energy, and particularly gas, in the wider East Med and Cyprus.

Many in the past tried to explain this interest on the basis of Russia protecting its global energy interests and particularly its dominance of the EU gas market. However, the contention that Russia’s involvement in Syria is driven by natural gas interests may be far-fetched.

Russia’s deep involvement in Syria, and cooperation with the US, has changed the East Med regional reality, redirecting the bloody conflict from a dead end to another path.

These issues are examined in this article.

Νέους ορίζοντες συνεργασίας βλέπει ο Ρώσος πρέσβης | Φιλελεύθερος

Τρίτη, 17 Δεκεμβρίου 2013 5:40 μμ

Πιθανό το ρωσικό ενεργειακό ενδιαφέρον στην περιοχή
Λευκωσία: Κύπρος και Ρωσία μπορούν να διανοίξουν νέους ορίζοντες συνεργασίας στον ενεργειακό τομέα, δήλωσε σήμερα ο Πρέσβης της Ρωσίας στην Κύπρο Stanislav Osadchiy, εκφράζοντας παράλληλα την πεποίθησή του ότι ρωσικές εταιρείες θα επιδείξουν ενδιαφέρον στην περιοχή.

Χαιρετίζοντας το Συνέδριο για τις «Ενεργειακές σχέσεις ΕΕ-Ρωσίας και τις περιπτώσεις της Ελλάδας και της Κύπρου», στο Πανεπιστήμιο Λευκωσίας, ο κ. Osadchiy είπε ότι οι ρωσικές εταιρείες πετρελαίου και φυσικού αερίου παρακολουθούν στενά τις εξελίξεις αναφορικά με τα κοιτάσματα υδρογονανθράκων στην αποκλειστική οικονομική ζώνη της Κύπρου, σημειώνοντας παράλληλα την πρόθεση της κυπριακής Κυβέρνησης να μετατρέψει τη χώρα σε περιφερειακό ενεργειακό κόμβο.