Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 25

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

NRG: Cautious steps forward

Oil companies are looking to move ahead with plans that were stymied by low prices and weak demand

COMMENTARY WELCOME to the seventh edition of News- LNG available at stations along the N3 road
Base’s Roundup Global (NRG), in which our between Durban and Johannesburg.
team of international editors provide you with a In Morocco, UK-listed Chariot Oil & Gas is
snapshot of some of the key issues affecting their looking to export gas from the Lixus offshore site
regional beats. Get the NRG Oil & Gas Editor’s to Spain. The company has already begun talks
Picks to your inbox every week for free. Just sign with Spanish companies and hopes to fast-track
up here. the development of Lixus, which may contain as
Oil prices have remained relatively stable so much as 62.3bn cubic metres of gas.
far in June. This is among the factors prompt- Chariot’s announcement came shortly before
ing oil and gas players around the world to move the US major ConocoPhillips said it had won an
cautiously forward with plans that have been exploration permit covering the Mesorif coastal
complicated by the market downturn and the area in the northern part of the country. Under
collapse in global demand. the permit, ConocoPhillips will conduct geolog-
Some companies are using this opportunity ical and geophysical studies and then collect 2D
to snap up assets on the cheap, while others are seismic data in order to assess the area’s potential.
merely starting to restore production that has In other news, Ethiopia has released data
been shut in over recent months. Meanwhile, revealing the extent to which the coronavirus
news of more “carbon neutral” cargoes of lique- (COVID-19) pandemic affected the country’s
fied natural gas (LNG) illustrates that the energy petroleum product markets. According to
transition remains a significant driver of new Tadesse Hailemariam, the CEO of the Ethiopian
industry developments. Petroleum Supply Enterprise (EPSE), gasoline
and diesel consumption went down by about
African gas opportunities 20% between March and May, while jet fuel con-
Companies based in two African countries are sumption dropped by around 70%.
looking to open up new markets for natural gas.
In South Africa, Renergen, a local company, If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
has teamed up with a subsidiary of France’s Total Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
to sell LNG for retail use. The partners aim to NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor.
promote the use of LNG as a fuel for long-haul
trucking. Renergen will supply the LNG within Asia: Thai asset spending spree
the framework of its Victoria project, and Total Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production
will sell the LNG at its filling stations. Once the (PTTEP) is aiming to use the same adverse busi-
former company’s gas liquefaction comes online ness conditions that forced it to cut its invest-
next year, the latter company will begin making ment plans to expand its upstream portfolio.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 25 25•June•2020