Page 6 - MEOG Week 27

MEOG P i P e L ines & trans P ort MEOG

Houthi team sent to repair tanker

as Yemen increases output

yemen AN official from Yemen’s Houthi-led govern- The vessel has a total storage capacity of 3mn
ment announced last week that a maintenance barrels in 34 tanks, and was previously used to
team had been sent to repair the Safer floating store and export oil produced in the central oil-
storage and offloading (FSO) vessel, which fields of Marib.
remains anchored offshore.
Supreme Political Council representative increasing output
Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi was quoted by Mid- in June, the Saudi-backed government of Abd-
dle East Monitor as saying that the repair crew rabbu Mansour Hadi said that it had plans to
may be unable to prevent the vessel from leaking increase oil exports. Hadi’s energy minister Aws
because access to the required equipment was Abdullah al-Awd told reuters: “The oil minis-
being prevented by the Saudi-led coalition. try has put forward a plan to re-export crude oil
“The republic of Yemen has done its best, from all oilfields in Marib and Shabwa … and we
despite [a] lack of necessary resources,” he added. have succeeded in rehabilitating al-Nashama oil
in July last year, UN officials were prevented port on the Arabian Sea.”
from visiting Safer to assess the scale of the dam- The plans would see total oil production
age amid fears that gas build-up in storage tanks increase by 25% to 75,000 barrels per day, a far
could lead to an explosion. cry from the pre-civil unrest level of 127,000 bpd
The vessel is moored near the red Sea port of in 2014.
ras isa, north of Hodeidah, and is still thought in June 2019, Australia’s Petsec Energy said
to have a cargo of more than 1mn barrels of oil that it was preparing for the restart of production
on board. A solution is yet to be found that will and that work had commenced on an oil tran-
lead to the safe unloading of the cargo, with the sit pipeline ahead of completion by the end of
Houthis demanding guarantees that they will the year. it also noted that Austria-based OMV
be entitled to the oil, which is worth $40-45mn had “maintained oil production in the order of
(GBP31-35mn) at current crude prices. 14,000 [bpd] since April 2018 in the neighbour-
Meanwhile, the Houthis have insisted that the ing Block S-2 from its Habban oilfield (350mn
Saudi coalition should be held accountable for barrels)” with shipments of 500,000 barrels
any leaks. made every “1 to 2 months”.™

Iran resumes gas exports to Turkey

iran irAN has resumed the export of natural gas to “The export of iranian gas to Turkey is contin-
Turkey three months after the cross-border pipe- uing like before.”
line between the two countries was damaged in The natural gas pipeline was damaged in an
a militant attack, Mohammad Askari, a spokes- explosion that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
person for the National iranian Gas Co. (NiGC) (PKK) claimed was the result of an attack that
told irNA on July 1. it mounted. Turkey and iran view the PKK as a
Top iranian officials raised concerns after terrorist group.
Turkey failed to move quickly to repair the iran exports around 10bcm per year of gas to
14bcm per year Tabriz-Ankara gas pipeline. Turkey, though the flow of natural gas to Turkey
Analysts speculated that Turkey was attempting via the pipeline has been interrupted around a
to use the situation – which also saw it import dozen times since it became operational in 2001.
much higher volumes than usual of cheaper liq- Meanwhile, iran’s Foreign Minister Moham-
uefied natural gas (LNG) – to pressure iran for a mad Javad Zarif visited Turkey in June to discuss
future price cut in gas supplied under contract. a variety of topics. He was quoted by the Tehran
“With the completion of repairing the gas Times as saying: “i deemed it necessary to have
pipeline for export in Turkish soil, the exports a trip to Turkey to discuss economic relations,
have resumed,” Askari was reported as saying. energy cooperation, and regional issues.”™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 27 08•July•2020