Saudi Arabia - joining the dots

A series of blog entries exploring Saudi Arabia's role in the oil markets with a brief look at the history of the royal family and politics that dictate and influence the Kingdom's oil policy

Thursday, 21 December 2017

AWE: an unexpected union

The AWE Board has unanimously recommended a revised bid by Mineral Resources (“MinRes”). The offer terms are A$0.415 in cash and between 0.0198 and 0.0277 MinRes shares per AWE share. The exchange ratio will depend on the VWAP for the 10 days prior to the scheme vote. The previous offer was a full scrip offer at A$0.81. This values the offer at an implied price of c.A$0.83 per AWE share and will be implemented by a Scheme of Arrangement, which...

Wednesday, 20 December 2017

Zohr record breaker

In record time for a deepwater gas development of this scale, Eni has announced first production from Zohr. The field was discovered in August 2015 and FID taken in early 2016 - Eni achieved first gas from discovery in 2.5 years. Zohr is the largest gas discovery ever made offshore Egypt and is located in the Shorouk block. The field has begun production at 350mmcfpd and is expected to grow to 1bcfpd by mid-2018. The speed of development is a...

Tuesday, 19 December 2017

Kurdistan producers get paid for September

DNO and Genel Energy have reported receipt of USD54 million from the KRG for September crude sales from the Tawke licence - shared by DNO (USD40.7 million) and Genel (USD13.6 million) in line with the interests in the licence. In addition, a payment of USD10.8 million has been received by Genel and DNO, representing 7.5% of gross Tawke licence revenues during October 2017, as provided for under the receivables settlement agreement. Separately, the Taq Taq field partners have received a payment of $9.7m from the KRG for September oil sales - Genel's...

Monday, 18 December 2017

Maersk Drilling exits Egyptian JV in line with strategy

Maersk continues to review and streamline its business portfolio. As part of that strategy, it announced today of its exit of the Egyptian rig company joint venture. Press release A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S ("A.P. Moller - Maersk") and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation ("EGPC") has today signed an agreement whereby EGPC will acquire A.P. Moller - Maersk’s 50 percent shareholding in Egyptian Drilling Company ("EDC") for USD 100m in an all-cash transaction. Following the transaction EGPC will become sole owner of EDC and will as part of the agreement...

Saturday, 16 December 2017

CNPC could take over Total's interests in Iran

CNPC is considering taking over Total's stake in a the giant South Pars development if Total needs to exit Iran to comply with any new U.S. sanctions. In October, President Trump refused to certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal leading to a Congressional vote on whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran. The date of the vote has not yet been set , but if sanctions are reimposed they could prohibit companies working in Iran from also operating in the United States. For Total, the stakes are high, where they have much larger operations in...

Friday, 15 December 2017

Aker BP submits three PDOs

Aker BP ASA (Aker BP) has submitted the Plans for Development and Operations ("PDOs") for the Valhall Flank West, Ærfugl (formerly Snadd) and Skogul (formerly Storklakken) fields to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. Valhall Flank East This development represents an extension on the western Flank of the Valhall field. It will be developed from a new Normally Unmanned Installation and will be tied back to the Valhall field centre....

Tuesday, 12 December 2017

Kosmos dry well at Lamantin

Lamantin-1 on Block C-12 offshore Mauritaniawas was drilled to a TD of 5,150m and designed to evaluate a previously untested structure. The logs and samples collected suggests the reservoir objective was water bearing with small amounts of hydrocarbons. The well will now be plugged and abandoned. Kosmos will drill the Requin Tigre prospect next and is targeting 60tcf. The well is epected to take around 60 da...