Page 10 - MEOG Week 41

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This field is now due to become the third produc- US Gulf of Mexico this week following the latest
ing section of Stabroek in 2024. weather-related disruptions, this time caused by
Hurricane Delta.
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping The storm also disrupted onshore operations
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click at refineries and other facilities when it made
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor. landfall in Louisiana on October 9 as a Category
2 hurricane. This disruption came after a num-
Mideast: Divestments, debates and deals ber of downstream facilities were shut down in
Saudi Aramco has admitted that it is considering late August by Hurricane Laura, which in some
divesting non-core assets as it seeks to “optimise” cases caused damage that delayed restart efforts.
its portfolio. The Saudi giant is also planning to Reuters quoted sources familiar with the sit-
double down on upstream expansion efforts, uation as saying that Total’s 225,500 barrel per
but it has said that certain assets – that is, assets day refinery lost power as a result of Delta, while
understood to be in the midstream or down- Valero Energy’s 335,000 bpd facility lost a cool-
stream sectors – could be sold off in a move ing tower and Motiva Enterprises shut a small
necessitated by the burden of a promise to pay unit at its 607,000 bpd refinery.
out a $75bn dividend. Offshore, meanwhile, Hurricane Delta was Hurricane Delta
Despite having the industry’s most robust the latest in a series of storms including Hurri-
financials, Aramco has delayed major projects. canes Laura and Sally that forced the evacuation was the latest in
The company has been acutely affected by the oil of manned platforms in the Gulf. According
price crash and a prolonged period of subdued to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental a series of storms
demand. Enforcement (BSEE), staff from more than 280
Meanwhile in Israel, towards which Riyadh production platforms and drilling rigs were that forced
has shown signs of softening its approach, Chev- evacuated ahead of Delta’s arrival in the region, the evacuation
ron has ruffled feathers following its purchase of causing most Gulf oil output and 62% of gas pro-
Noble Energy, the operator of the offshore Levi- duction to go offline. of manned
athan natural gas field. The US major has alleg- As of October 12, staff from around 124
edly cut supplies to Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) production platforms, or 19.3% of the manned platforms in the
and is demanding that gas sales prices be revised platforms in the Gulf, remained evacuated, while
upwards. 69.4% of oil and 47.1% of gas output remained Gulf of Mexico
In the UAE, ADNOC has handed out another shut in.
infrastructure deal to a Chinese state-backed The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is already
engineering firm. This time, ADNOC Gas Pro- the second most active in recent history, and only
cessing (AGP) awarded a front-end engineering three more named storms are needed to match
and design (FEED) contract to China Petroleum the record set in 2005. For Gulf oil producers,
Pipeline Engineering (CPPE) for work on the this comes during a year of unprecedented vola-
country’s gas grid, including new gas stations tility caused by a short-lived Saudi Arabia-Rus-
and the extension of the network. In September, sia price war and significantly exacerbated by the
the same firm was awarded a deal to replace two coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. And while
major pipelines running from onshore oilfields there have been hopes that disruptions to out-
to the Jebel Dhanna terminal. put in the Gulf would help to prop up oil prices,
this does not appear to be playing out, with West
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Texas Intermediate (WTI) below $40 per barrel
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click as of October 12.
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor.
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
Quarterly losses mount in North America the North American oil and gas sector then please click
Production has been coming back online in the here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 14•October•2020