Page 18 - MEOG Week 47

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50% owned by BP, has expressed satisfaction If you’d like to read more about the key events
with the government’s four-year tender scheme, shaping the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then
under which producers can offer gas to the please click here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor.
market at a price of up to $3.70 per mmBtu.
The tenders will cover 70mn cubic metres per North America: Pipeline and production
day, equivalent to just over half of current pro- moves in Canada amid net zero push
duction, and they may save the country around It has been a busy news week for the Canadian
$5bn by reducing the need to import gas to cover oil and gas industry. TC Energy announced that
seasonal demand. it had signed a deal paving the way for a poten-
As Rodolfo Freyre, PAE’s vice-president of tial investment in Keystone XL, Imperial Oil
gas, electricity and commercial development, unveiled spending and output plans and more
said: “Thank goodness the gas plan is being details of the country’s path to net-zero green-
implemented, because if you don’t stop this level house gas (GHG) emissions emerged.
of decline [in gas production], it will continue TC Energy said on November 17 that it had
to decline.” signed a definitive agreement with Natural Law
Energy (NLE), a group that comprises several
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping First Nations. The deal allows NLE to invest up
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click to CAD1bn ($764mn) in the Keystone XL pro-
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor. ject – a cross-border pipeline that would carry
oil from Alberta’s oil sands to the US. TC Energy
MEOG: Middle East stays busy with con- said similar deals could be struck with indige-
tracts, M&A and finds nous groups along the pipeline’s route in both the
The Middle East oil and gas sector has remained US and Canada. Imperial Oil said
busy over the past week with new contract The move comes as TC Energy prepares
awards, M&A interest and large discoveries all for US President-elect Joe Biden to take office. in its virtual
announced. There are fears that Biden could revoke the pro-
The biggest news came unsurprisingly from ject’s presidential permit, which would stop it investor day
Saudi Arabia, where state oil firm Saudi Aramco from being built, so the company will be keen to
has launched a new contracting pool for brown- demonstrate how Keystone XL aligns with Bid- presentation
field oil and gas projects and plant upgrades. en’s ‘Build Back Better’ agenda. that it would
Aramco prequalified seven companies and one Separately, Imperial Oil said in its virtual
consortium to bid exclusively on the work on a investor day presentation that it would raise raise capital
long-term agreement (LTA) basis similar to the capital expenditure and production in 2021
existing contracts offering automatic prequal- despite ongoing market volatility related to the expenditure and
ification for offshore EPCI work. While new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Imperial –
companies have entered Aramco’s ‘rig of trust’, which is majority-owned by ExxonMobil and is production in
Hyundai, Saipem and TehcnipFMC are all now one of Canada’s top four producers – is intending 2021.
represented in both pools. to spend CAD1.2bn ($916mn) in 2021, which
Meanwhile in Iraq, two state-owned Chi- would mark a rise of 33% on 2020. The com-
nese firms are reported to have shown an inter- pany is targeting a production increase of 5% to
est in acquiring ExxonMobil’s 34.7% stake in 415,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
the supergiant West Qurna-1 oilfield, with the These updates have come against the back-
US firm thought to have grown tired of issues drop of Canada taking another step down the
with developing the asset and the small returns path to decarbonisation. Canadian Prime Min-
on offer. Such a move would further emphasise ister Justin Trudeau unveiled further details
Iraq’s pivot towards Asia as Western firms bail of how he intends to achieve net zero by 2050.
out, citing challenging operating conditions and Trudeau’s Liberal Party has tabled a bill that
low returns on investment. would require the Canadian government to set
With ADNOC dominating recent news flow, new targets – and a plan on how to achieve those
it was not out of character that the UAE’s state targets – every five years between 2030 and 2050.
oil firm made the headlines again this week with
the announcement of 24bn barrels of oil found If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
across one unconventional and one conven- the North American oil and gas sector then please click
tional discovery. here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor.™

P18 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 25•November•2020