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Japan’s JGC announced last week that it had entitled to conduct research in those waters.
been awarded a $3.75bn contract to build new On August 17, Turkey’s state-owned TPAO
refining facilities on land adjacent to the existing extended the drilling schedule for its Yavuz
210,000 barrel per day (bpd) Shuaiba refinery drillship offshore Cyprus to mid-September in
outside Basra in southern Iraq. The company a move that appears set to ramp up tensions in
said that it had received a lump sum engineer- the region further.
ing, procurement, construction and commis- Turkey has previously drilled wells in waters
sioning (EPCC) contract covering a 34,500 bpd claimed by Cyprus. Yavuz is currently one of two
fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, a 55,000 bpd Turkish drillships in the Eastern Mediterranean,
vacuum distillation unit and a 40,000 bpd diesel and a third is reported to be coming to the region
desulphurisation unit. soon.
Meanwhile, Tehran Oil Refinery’s managing European Union foreign ministers have held
director Hamed Aramanfar has said that the urgent talks on the matter, with Turkey indicat-
facility will soon begin production of gasoline ing a willingness to enter a dialogue with the bloc
compliant with Euro-V standards, following the over the issue. However, there is no sign of the
completion of maintenance and upgrade work. tensions being scaled down as yet.
Elsewhere in the region, Tupras, Turkey’s Meanwhile, normal oil and gas operations Allseas is now
largest company by turnover, swung to a net – and decommissioning – continue in other preparing to
loss of TRY185mn in Q2 from a net profit of European waters. This week, offshore contrac-
TRY870mn a year ago, according to a stock tor Allseas announced that it had completed the remove the
exchange filing. The loss in the quarter was removal of processing and accommodation top-
mainly the result of the sharp drop in Brent sides and flare jackets as part of the Tyra redevel- Ninian Northern
crude oil prices and capacity reductions amid opment project for Total in Danish waters. The
lower demand brought on by the coronavirus structures will be transported to specialist yards platform in the
(COVID-19) pandemic, Seker Invest says. in Denmark and the Netherlands for recycling. UK North Sea
A new platform will be installed at Tyra, which
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping produces around 90% of Denmark’s gas output,
the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East, by 2022.
then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor. Allseas is now preparing to remove the Nin-
ian Northern platform, which is located east of
Europe: Tensions escalate in Eastern Med Shetland in the UK North Sea. This will be the
Tensions have been escalating between final job of the year for Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit
Greece and Turkey over drilling in contested heavy-lift vessel, which also carried out the Tyra
waters in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the removals.
French government has been bolstering Paris’
military presence in the region in recent days. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
This comes after Turkey sent a seismic Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
research vessel, escorted by warships, into NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor.
waters between the Greek island of Crete and
Cyprus to explore for potential offshore gas FSU: Azeri export volumes steady
and oil reserves, spurred by similar discoveries While Azerbaijan kept export volumes of crude
in other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. and oil products steady in the first seven months
Greece claims that part of the area falls within of this year, according to local media reports cit-
its own continental shelf and has demanded that ing State Customs Committee data, the value of
the ships withdraw, but Turkey insists that it is the shipments plunged.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 33 19•August•2020