Page 12 - MEOG Week 05

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Militants strike Syrian oil refinery
syrIa
SYRIAN state media have said that technicians are evaluating the damage and making repairs. But the extent of this damage is unclear. Petro- leum Minister Ali Ghanem told state television that there would there no disruption to the re n- ery’s operation.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack – the third targeting Syria’s oil and gas industry in less than a year. however, govern- ment-run news agency SANA claimed it was carried out by “terrorists.”
e a ected pipelines are used to bring oil to the facility. “ e aim of the attack is to cease [oil] imports into Syria,” Ghanem said, noting that his ministry had prepared plans for such events. e Banias re nery is capable of processing up to 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil.
Syria is already su ering oil shortages, mak- ing it all the more vulnerable to such attacks. Western sanctions have made importing oil di cult, while many of its oil elds are now con- trolled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF) in the country’s east.
Before the Syrian con ict began in 2011, the
country exported around half of the 350,000 bpd it produced, but its output is now only 24,000 bpd.
Sabotage attacks damaged ve underwater pipelines o Banias in June last year, with the oil ministry again blaming unidenti ed terrorists. And in December, rockets were red at Syria’s main homs refinery, causing minor damage, according to the government, but disrupting production. e homs plant can handle up to 120,000 bpd of crude.
What oil Syria does get mostly comes from Iran and Russia, as well as, ironically, from the oil elds that have been seized by Kurdish forces. Damascus is unlikely to reclaim these fields anytime soon. Despite withdrawing most of its forces from Syria, the US has kept some troops there to guard the elds, to avoid them falling into the hands of other actors, such as the Syrian government, Russia or extremist groups.™
ProJeCts & ComPanIes
UAE finds world’s biggest gas field since 2005
Uae
DUBAI and Abu Dhabi made what could be the world’s largest natural gas discovery since 2005 as the two biggest sheikhdoms in the United Arab Emirates aim to push the country to energy self-su ciency.
The Jebel Ali reservoir located between the two emirates has 80 trillion cubic feet of gas resources, according to tweets by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dha- bi’s crown prince, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the U.A.E.’s prime minis- ter and Dubai’s ruler. e country is seeking to become self-su cient in gas supply by 2030, a step that would allow it to break its reliance on imports from Qatar, with which it has been locked in a 2 1/2-year diplomatic dispute
“ is is an enormous discovery for the UAE,” said Liam Yates, an analyst at consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. The deposit could meet the country’s entire gas demand for nearly three dec- ades, depending on the amount of gas that can be recovered from the reservoir, he said.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the govern- ment-owned energy giant known as Adnoc, will jointly develop the reservoir with distributor the
Dubai Supply Authority.
e UAE, an OPEC member and a major oil
exporter, is looking to gas and other sources of energy to diversify and guarantee security of supply. e burgeoning Middle Eastern business and tourism hub is building nuclear, solar and coal- red power plants, while Adnoc has invited international companies to help tap previously inaccessible gas deposits.
e Jebel Ali discovery is the biggest since the Galkynysh eld was found in Turkmenistan 15 years ago, according to Yates. e announced resources would make it the fourth-biggest gas eld in the Middle East behind Qatar’s North field and Iran’s South Pars, which are part of the same Persian Gulf deposit that make up the world’s largest o shore gas eld. Abu Dhabi’s Bab eld is the third-largest, according to WoodMac.
While the UAE is among the world’s 10 big- gest holders of gas reserves, the Jebel Ali project marks the rst time Adnoc has explored for the fuel in Dubai. e company drilled more than 10 wells to make its discovery, and will use both standard and unconventional drilling tech- niques to pump out the fuel, it said.™
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w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 05 05•February•2020