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The expansion of Aramco’s fleet is part of the unusual high for the time of year.
Saudi Vision 2030 national strategy, aimed at The continent’s LNG imports soared in 2019,
diversifying the country’s economy away from as higher production capacity in the US and
crude oil sales. Bahri had sought to make a foray elsewhere drove down prices. This encouraged
into LNG shipping by chartering vessels to carry increased consumption, but also gave traders an
US LNG, but this plan was shelved after the oil incentive to store more volumes.
price collapse. Towards the end of last year companies
In neighbouring Kuwait, state-owned KNPC also expanded their stocks in anticipation of a
has reached a milestone at its Clean Fuels Project potential disruption to Russian gas supplies via
(CFP), which involves upgrading its refineries Ukraine. This disruption was averted as Moscow
to produce Euro-5 standard fuels. Texas-based and Kyiv were able to agree an 11th-hour deal Rosneft revealed
Fluor said its joint venture with South Korean covering continued transit in 2020. Besides the
firms Daewoo Engineering & Construction and pandemic, milder weather earlier this year also last week that it
Hyundai Heavy Industries, FDH JV, had com- weighed down on demand.
pleted the provisional handover of installations UK producer Premier Oil unveiled a plan was drilling two
at the Mina Abdullah refinery to KNPC. last week to settle some of its debts and alle-
The 270,000 barrel per day Mina Abdullah viate shareholder concerns about the state of more wells in the
and 466,000 bpd Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries are its finances. The company is seeking to raise Kara Sea
both undergoing modernisation and expansion. $530mn from its investors as part of a $2.9bn
Once the work is completed, their combined refinancing move. It also wants to raise a further
throughput capacity will reach 800,000 bpd. $230mn to fund its takeover of some of BP’s oil-
KNPC is also building a 615,000 bpd grassroots fields in the North Sea.
plant, Al-Zour, as part of the CFP. But after a
series of delays, the company is yet to provide a If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
definitive timeframe for the project’s completion Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
and commissioning. NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor.

If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping FSU: Rosneft returns to Arctic offshore
the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East, Given low prices and the unpredictable market
then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor. outlook, it is somewhat surprising that Rosneft
has chosen this moment to resume costly drilling
Europe: UK offshore decarbonisation in the offshore Arctic.
The US has moved closer to imposing tougher In a meeting with Russian President Vladimir
sanctions on Russia’s embattled Nord Stream Putin, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin revealed last
2 project. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo week that the company was drilling two more
announced last week that his department would wells in the Kara Sea. These sites are not far from
remove an exemption protecting the pipeline where Rosneft and ExxonMobil made the 2014
from a US sanctions package introduced in 2017. Pobeda oil discovery, estimated to exceed 900mn
At the same time, another sanctions bill is mak- barrels in size.
ing its way through US Congress. Exxon was forced to exit the project because
Europe’s gas storage facilities were almost of US sanctions against Russia, and all work was
90% full on August 18, data published by Gas halted. Rosneft’s decision to resume drilling on
Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows, marking an the shelf is oddly timed.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 27•August•2020