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

Saturday, 24 March 2018

Bidders pull out of Alba sale by Statoil and Mitsui

Deloitte has launched the sale of Endeavour Energy UK. The US parent company of Endeavour Energy UK is going through bankruptcy proceedings and Deloitte has been appointed to monetise the company’s UK unit. Endeavour Energy UK owns a 25.7% in Alba amongst other North Sea assets. This is larger than Statoil’s 17% or Mitsui’s 13.3% stake which is being marketed. Although Statoil and Mitsui have been trying to sell their stakes since the end of...

The oil market is recovering

Oil inventories have been worked down and beginning to return to historical normalised levels, driven by a mix of robust demand growth on the one hand and concerted efforts by OPEC plus friends to cap production on the other. While 12-18 months ago heightened geopolitical tensions and operational outages barely moved oil prices, such events are now needle moving news. The outage of Forties at the end of last year and intermittent headline grabbing...

Friday, 23 March 2018

Double success for Energean – IPO and FID

Energean put the East Med on the map this week propelling the region into the headlines. Energean debuted on the London Stock Exchange at the beginning of this week with its Initial Public Offering and USD460 million of new money putting the company’s market capitalisation at just under USD1 billion. The company’s flagship asset is its 70% stake in the Karish & Tanin gas fields offshore Israel which contain 2.4tcf of gas and 33mmboe of light...

Thursday, 22 March 2018

Delek and Noble seeking to acquire gas pipeline to Egypt

Following Noble and Delek’s agreement to sell 64bcm of gas into Egypt via Egyptian intermediary Dolphinus Holdings, the two upstream companies have commenced discussions to acquire EMG, the business which owns the Arish-Ashkelon pipeline (otherwise known as the EMG pipeline). This is one of the routes contemplated by Noble and Delek as part of plans to export gas into the wider East Med and Europe. The 64bcm of gas will be sourced from Tamar...

Monday, 19 March 2018

Petsec increases interest in Block 7 offshore Yemen to 100%

Petsec has acquired Oil Search's 40% interest in Block 7. Full announcement below. Petsec Energy has completed the transaction with Oil Search to acquire all of the shares of its subsidiary Oil Search (ROY) Limited which holds a 40% working interest (34% participating interest) in the Al Barqa (Block 7) licence and operatorship, in the Republic of Yemen. Completion of the Oil Search agreement follows the 2016 transaction with KUFPEC (25% working...

Sunday, 18 March 2018

Total enters into two new 40 year concessions with ADNOC

Total has extended its commitment to the Abu Dhabi by entering into two new 40 year concessions with ADNOC for USD1.45 billion. This follows the deal last week between Eni and ADNOC. Total has been granted a 5% interest in Lower Zakum and 20% interest in the new Umm, Shaif & Nasr concession. Total notes that the access cost equates to USD1/boe of reserves. Comparison of transactions Total Eni Lower Zakum 5% 5% Uum, Shaif & Nasr 20% 10% Price Paid USD1.45 billion USD875 million ...

Saturday, 17 March 2018

Leviathan and Aphrodite gas to fuel ELNG at Idku

As widely reported, Shell has been in talks to buy gas from Israel’s Leviathan field and Cyrpus’ Aphrodite field. It is understood that Shell are looking to contract up to 10bcm p.a. for 10 years in a deal worth up to USD25 billion. Shell would use the gas to properly restart LNG exports from Egyptian LNG at the Idku liquefaction plant. BG Group was the operator of the plant prior to its acquisition by Shell and previously had a non-binding 15...