Page 7 - DMEA Week 43 2022

DMEA SECURITY & POLICY DMEA

A budget was never passed for 2022, with that Illustrating the division that remains within
for 2021 having also significantly overshot its the country, a former member of Oil and Energy
deadline. Meanwhile, Kurdish leaders said Committee, Ghalib Muhammad, was quoted by
they hoped the new regime in Baghdad could local media this week saying that the KRG’s rul-
help expedite the signing of a new oil and gas ing Barzani family ‘smuggles’ oil from Federal
law after the previous one was torn up by the to Kurdish territory. “The province of Kirkuk
Supreme Court in February. has five oilfields, and part of it is under the con-
While inaugurating the Lanaz refinery near trol of Barzani family, like Khurmala field, from
Erbil this week, Kurdistan Region Prime Min- which they obtain 170,000 bpd for the benefit
ister Masrour Barzani said: “I hope, following of Kar Company of [KRG President] Nechirvan
the inauguration of the next Iraqi government, Barzani.”
[that] both Erbil and Baghdad will be able to He added: “The other fields in Kirkuk Prov-
draft an oil and gas law.” ince belong to the federal government, but part
He suggested that “entities and individuals” of its oil is smuggled to Kurdistan, which is also
had misinterpreted and “violated” the coun- working to smuggle it to Turkey and other coun-
try’s 2005 constitution and called out “bad tries.” ™
governance.”
A day later, Judge Mohammed Ali Mahmoud
Nadeem of the Karkh Commercial Court invali-
dated contracts between the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) and Chinese firm Addax
Petroleum, Canada’s ShaMaran Petroleum and
UK-listed Gulf Keystone.
Media reports suggest the court is yet to
make a ruling on higher profile contracts held
by UAE-based Dana Gas and Russia’s Gazprom
Neft.
However, a similar previous ruling has had
little practical impact, with Kurdish authorities
denouncing the move and companies maintain-
ing and even increasing their operations in the
Kurdistan Region.
The Lanaz refinery will reach a crude pro-
cessing capacity of 79,000 barrels per day (bpd),
licensing Honeywell UOP technology. It also
exports 5,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of asphalt. Iraq brought the Lanaz refinery on stream this week (Photo: Lanaz refinery)

COMPANIES
Aramco chair tells investors to “stay

tuned” for further share divestment

MIDDLE EAST SAUDI Aramco chairman Yasir Al Rumayyan In February, Crown Prince Mohammed
teased the potential divestment of the compa- bin Salman (MbS) transferred 4% of Aramco’s
ny’s shares when speaking to reporters in Riyadh shares to PIF. Following the transfer, the Saudi
earlier this week. Al Rumayyan, who is also gov- state holds 94.3% of Aramco, the PIF 4% and the
ernor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the remaining 1.7% was sold during the company’s
Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, was quoted 2019 IPO on the local stock exchange, Tadawul
by Bloomberg as saying that investors should All Share Index (TASI).
“stay tuned” because Aramco has “a big divest- Based on the company’s current valuation of
ment programme.” around $2 trillion, the shares are estimated to be
The comments come as reports circulate worth $80bn and will yield the PIF an annual
about the company’s plans to list its Aramco dividend of roughly $3bn until at least 2024.
Trading Co. (ATC) division in a deal that is The Saudi Press Agency quoted the Crown
seen valuing the trader at around $30bn. Asked Prince as saying that the share transfer would
about the potential for an initial public offering support the Kingdom’s long-term strategy of
(IPO) of ATC and the timing of such a move, restructuring the Saudi economy in line with
Al Rumayyan said: “We are not precisely sure.” Vision 2030.

Week 43 27•October•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7