Page 6 - AfrOil Week 35

AfrOil NEWSBASE’S ROUNDUP GLOBAL (NRG) AfrOil

NRG: Risks to stability

Oil prices have changed very little in recent weeks, disappointing hopes for a rebound

in late summer. And prices could falter if fears of a second COVID-19 wave are realised

COMMENTARY WELCOME to the latest edition of NewsBase’s in Spain and some other European countries is
Roundup Global (NRG), in which our team of disconcerting.
international editors provide you with a snap-
shot of some of the key issues affecting their Asia: MedcoEnergi eyes Australian assets
regional beats. Get the NRG Oil & Gas Editor’s Indonesia’s MedcoEnergi is reportedly pur-
Picks to your inbox every week for free. Just sign suing a clutch of upstream assets in Australia,
up here. despite having swung into the red in the first
Oil prices have remained relatively stable over quarter.
the past week, despite hurricanes that temporarily Medco is understood to have progressed
took some 2mn barrels per day (bpd) of oil supply to the second round of bids for Italian major
in the US Gulf of Mexico offline. Brent remains at Eni’s energy projects, local daily The Australian
just above the $45 per barrel mark, having seen reported on August 30. The Indonesian devel-
very little change over the last month. This has dis- oper is facing off against partners Macquarie and
appointed those that had hoped for a late-summer Neptune Energy, though other contenders may
rebound. still reach the second round, which is being run
Prices have also been supported by news in by Citi.
Libya, where the Libyan National Army (LNA) Eni’s assets include a 10.99% stake in Darwin
has rejected a ceasefire with the government. This LNG and the plant’s feedstock field Bayu-Undan,
means the country’s oilfields will remain shut-in for as well as a 100% stake in the producing Blacktip
longer. natural gas field and attached Yelcherr process-
Fuel demand remains stuck below pre-coro- ing plant.
navirus (COVID-19) levels, even though low The Italian major also owns stakes in four
prices have encouraged consumption. Meanwhile, exploration licences, including the Joint Petro-
countries across the world are bracing for a second leum Development Area in the Timor Sea and
wave of the virus, which risks derailing the mar- the undeveloped Evans Shoal gas field, which
ket’s recovery. A surge in cases in the last few days could be a potential backfill for Darwin LNG.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 35 02•September•2020