Page 8 - MEOG Week 41
P. 8
MEOG PiPeLines & transPort MEOG
Red Sea tanker story keeps rolling
iran/saUDi
LAST week’s news that an Iranian tanker had been struck by objects off Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast remains in the headlines despite detail about the apparent attack being thin on the ground.
The National Iranian Tanker Co. (NITC) said that its vessel, the Sabiti, had been around 96 km from the Saudi port of Jeddah when blasts occurred, which “were probably caused by mis- sile strikes”. The tanker firm denied however, that the tanker was on fire, as had been suggested by various local Iranian media reports.
On October 11 NITC released images of the Sabiti, which is capable of carrying around 1mn barrels of crude. These appeared to show damage to the hull, and oil leaking into the sea.
The Saudi Press Agency this week said that the Saudi coastguard had received a distress call from the vessel, which had turned off its track- ing system and did not respond to Saudi offers of assistance.
Reuters quoted Refinitiv ship tracking infor- mation as showing that the vessel was not fully loaded, estimating its draft at 53%. The tracking data shows that the Sabiti is en route to Larak, off Iran’s south coast, under its own power.
Revinitiv intelligence shows that the Sabiti has passed through the Suez Canal at least twice
in the last several months despite its tracking system having been switched off for around two months.
Response to the apparent attack has been muted, with governments calling only for peace and stability. Middle East Oil & Gas (MEOG) spoke this week to sources in Iran, who did little to provide clarity on the situation. “We continue to operate under the assumption that this was an attack, but in truth, we have reason to doubt whether or not this was an attack, and some are questioning whether any incident has in fact occurred,” on source said.
On October 13, Iranian President hassan Rouhani said that investigations would continue to determine the cause of the strike on the ves- sel. “It would be a grave mistake for a country to think they could create insecurity in the region without a response,” he said.
Any disruption to the Bab-el Mandeb Strait would cause severe problems for those reliant on the Suez Canal and the SUMED pipeline through which a combined 5.54mn barrels per day of oil pass.
Meanwhile, later that day, the Port and Mar- itime Organization of Iran (PMO) released a statement saying that Saudi authorities had refused to provide help to the Iranian tanker.
Bidders compete for EastMed pipeline work
east meD
SEVERAL sources have been quoted by Upstream this week as saying that three parties are contending for a major contract to build the planned EastMed pipeline. The bidders are said to be Wood, Sea Engineering Associates (SEA) and a joint venture of Italy’s Saipem and Austral- ia’s Worley.
The ambitious conduit project calls for a 1,443-km link sending gas from the 623-bn cubic metre Leviathan asset and from Cyprus’s as-yet-undeveloped 127-bcm Aphrodite field via Crete to Greece and Italy.
however, the estimated $8bn scheme has been on the drawing board for four years and has thrown up numerous political and logistical obstacles. Bidding for the 31-month front-end engineering and design contract follows pre- FEED work, which was carried out by IntecSea of Australia. A four-way intergovernmental memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the project was signed in December 2017, with vol- umes mooted at 12-16 bcm per year.
The quartet agreed to facilitate studies and regulatory permits – with a stated aim of achiev- ing completion before 2025. The timing of the FEED work would seemingly fit within this timeline, with that work to be completed in early 2023. IGI Poseidon, a 50:50 JV between Greece’s DEPA and Italy’s Edison, has been conducting preliminary work on the project, supported by EU funding.
Meanwhile, tensions in the East Mediterra- nean have been heightened by Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez’s announcement that the Yavuz drillship would begin work on an explora- tion well south-west of Cyprus.
A week ago, the Yavuz was located around 90km south-west of Cyprus, near acreage held by Italy’s Eni and French super-major Total.
In January, during a meeting in Nicosia with Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, Turk- ish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey would send a drillship to the “Cyprus area” in February.
P8
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 41 15•October•2019
