Page 12 - AsianOil Week 23

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Nigerian fuel deregulation; initiatives in shielding itself from potential punitive measures.
Angola, Iran In the North Sea, Premier Oil has managed to
Nigeria has removed a cap on gasoline pump renegotiate a lower price for a group of BP assets,
prices as it pushes ahead with deregulation of its while also making peace with its main creditor
fuel industry. The move is aimed at encouraging which opposed the deal. If completed, the trans-
private companies to import and sell gasoline, action will be a boon for North Sea M&A activ-
helping to boost the country supply security. ity, which has slumped since the March oil price
While the fuel industry has welcomed the move, collapse.
there are concerns that the government could North Sea juniors Egdon Resources and Cluff
backtrack on reforms once international fuel Natural Resources are pushing ahead with devel-
prices recover. Nigeria is heavily dependent opment plans, despite the current market condi-
on imports, and mere rumours of hikes in fuel tions. Egdon has secured licence extensions for
costs have triggered rioting in the past. The road the Resolution and Endeavour gas discoveries,
to market liberalisation is therefore politically bringing it one step closer to completing a farm-
fraught. out to Royal Dutch Shell. Cluff, meanwhile, says
In an encouraging development for Angola, it is still committed to drilling at the Pensacola
London-based investment firm Gemcorp is pre- and Selene finds, even though one of the wells
paring to take a final investment decision (FID) will be delayed by a year. It too is partnered with
by the end of this month on a new 60,000 bar- the Anglo-Dutch major.
rel per day (bpd) oil refinery in Cabinda. This If you’d like to read more about the key events
is one of three plants the Central African coun- shaping Europe’s oil and gas sector, then please
try wants to build to make motor fuel imports a click here for NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor.
thing of the past.
Meanwhile, Iran is looking to expand its gas- Russia commits to longer guts
oline storage, in response to a slump in demand Russia and its OPEC+ allies agreed a one-month
caused by the coronavirus and in preparation for extension to record output cuts in a meeting on
an expansion of the Persian Gulf Star refinery. June 6.
Iran was one of the countries hardest hit by the The alliance of oil producers will now keep
pandemic, with travel restrictions causing gaso- 9.7mn barrel per day (bpd) of supply offline until
line stockpiles to reach unprecedented levels last the end of July and then ease the cuts. OPEC+’s
month. decisiveness, together with recovering demand,
If you’d like to read more about the key events should help stabilise the market, with analysts
shaping the downstream sector of Africa and the forecasting that oil could rise back up to $50 per
Middle East, then please click here for News- barrel as a result.
Base’s DMEA Monitor. Those OPEC+ members that have failed to
keep their commitments so far, namely Iraq and
US wades into German affairs; North Sea Nigeria, will have to compensate for this with
developments greater reductions during the rest of the year.
The US is considering additional sanctions in a Low prices have not checked the Arctic ambi-
last-ditch attempt to prevent Russia from com- tions of Russia’s oil and gas companies.
pleting its Nord Stream 2 pipeline. But with a State oil firm Rosneft has reportedly asked
mere 6% of the pipeline left to lay, further puni- the government to auction off licences for three
tive action is unlikely to thwart the project and gas fields in Russia’s far north. It appears that the
could backfire by further straining Washington’s company’s plan is to establish its own LNG pro-
relations with Berlin. duction in the region. It has long coveted rival
Russia is expected to use two of its own pipe- Novatek’s success in the LNG sphere, but has
laying vessels to finish Nord Stream 2, which failed to advance any projects of its own.
would likely continue work even if the sanctions The company wants to develop the three gas
are applied. Gazprom also appears to have trans- deposits as part of its Vostok Oil project. Few
ferred one of the vessels to another company, details have been revealed about Vostok Oil,

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 11•June•2020