Page 4 - AsianOil Week 01 2021
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AsianOil GLOBAL AsianOil
OPEC picks new Secretary-
General as restrictions ease
POLICY OPEC this week elected its new secretary-gen- appointment was welcomed by Saudi Energy
eral, voting in Kuwaiti industry veteran Haitham Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who
al-Ghais, who will replace Nigerian Mohammed offered his “cordial congratulations”.
Barkindo in August. His election was announced Meanwhile, he was quoted by Al Arabiya as
a day before the group and its OPEC+ partners saying that he expects global oil demand to reach
decided to proceed with their planned easing of pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.
output restrictions in February. With OPEC+ having been nervous about the
Al-Ghais told Reuters that supporting “the impact of the mutating coronavirus (COVID-19)
continuation of this Declaration of Co-opera- when it last met, a JTC report on January 2 played
tion” into 2023 is one of his top priorities. “It’s in down the impact of the Omicron variant. It said
the wider interest of the industry and all the 23 Omicron “is expected to be mild and short-lived,
countries that have signed up to this agreement,” as the world becomes better equipped to manage
he added, noting that he would work to “preserve COVID-19 and its related challenges”, suggesting
and nurture” relations with Russia. that the group was unlikely to make any knee-
The secretary-general-elect spoke of his jerk reactions.
“unwavering” commitment to the Joint Tech- This indeed turned out to be the case when
nical Committee (JTC) and the Joint Ministe- the group reached a quick decision on January
rial Monitoring Committee (JMMC). “I have 4, proceeding with plans to ease production cuts
hands-on experience of what the JTC does, what by a further 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) next
the JMMC does. I’ve attended all these meetings month. However, with some members having
since 2017, I haven’t missed a single meeting, struggled to reach their targets, only a fraction
even when I had a broken leg,” he said. Al-Ghais’ of this is seen making its way on to the market.
SOUTH ASIA
Bangladesh announces methane
hydrate discovery in Bay of Bengal
PROJECTS & BANGLADESHI Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mineral Resources Division at the Bang-
COMPANIES AK Abdul Momen said on January 5 that his ladeshi Ministry of Power, Energy and Min-
country may hold “huge” methane hydrate eral Resources for further research, which will
deposits in the Bay of Bengal. include seismic surveying.
Momen and other MFA officials unveiled the Methane hydrates are ice-like structures that
results of a new study into the resource at a media contain large volumes of natural gas. They are
briefing by the ministry. According to the study, found all over the world in sea-floor sediments
Bangladesh could have 110-730bn cubic feet and permafrost. However, developing them is
(3.1-20.7bn cubic metres) of methane hydrate not currently considered economically viable
Methane hydrates are deposits in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) owing to the high costs and technical challenges
ice-like structures that areas. involved in their extraction. The idea of devel-
contain large volumes “Undoubtedly, the results of this study are oping methane hydrates had been gaining trac-
of natural gas. very encouraging for Bangladesh. This huge tion in the early 2010s when energy prices were
reserve of gas hydrates is a landmark event in consistently high, but when commodity prices
the context of Bangladesh, especially in the started falling from 2014, many countries that
next century, in resolving the energy crisis had been touting the resource backed away from
and as a source of environment-friendly fuels,” any exploration plans.
United News of Bangladesh quoted Momen as With energy prices and demand picking up,
saying. though, methane hydrate exploration could be
The study was undertaken by state-owned revived by some countries. This could be further
energy companies Petrobangla and Bapex, as aided by energy transition goals, with gas pre-
well as the National Oceanography Centre in senting a cleaner alternative to coal for power
Southampton, over the past three years. The generation as more and more countries pursue
findings will now be passed on to the Energy long-term decarbonisation targets.
P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 07•January•2022
