Page 7 - DMEA Week 06 2022

DMEA COMPANIES & PERFORMANCE DMEA

Syria racks up oil losses from war

MIDDLE EAST SYRIA’S Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral 15% to the Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources
Resources this week revealed that the country’s and 6% to the Ministry of Industry.
oil sector has lost more than $100bn since the The country’s two refineries at Homs and
ongoing civil war began in 2011. Baniyas processed a combined total of 5.7mn
Over the period, the ministry said that the tonnes (114,000 bpd) of products, comprising
total combined losses amount to $100.5bn, 944,000 tonnes (21,800 bpd) of premium gaso-
without providing clarity over whether this fig- line, 11,000 tonnes of regular gasoline, 1.52mn
ure relates to damage to infrastructure, loss of tonnes (31,000 bpd) of diesel, 2.73mn tonnes
revenues or both. (48,300 bpd) of fuel oil and 77,000 tonnes of
From the country’s proven reserves of 2.5bn asphalt.
barrels of oil and 241bn cubic metres of gas, oil On a more positive note, Oil and Mineral
production was running at around 375,000- Resources Minister Bassam Tohme announced
400,000 barrels per day (bpd) and gas at around at the weekend that a new gas field had been dis-
35mn cubic metres per day before civil war covered with the Zamlat al-Mahr 1 well at Pal-
broke out in 2011. The ministry said that during myra near Homs.
2021, oil output averaged 85,900 bpd, of which The ministry said that evaluation work would
only 16,000 bpd reached the country’s refineries, establish the level of gas expected to flow from
alleging that the remainder was being “stolen by the field into the national gas grid, while more
the US occupation forces and their mercenaries wells will be drilled in the hope of expanding the
from the occupied fields in the eastern region”. discovery.™
Meanwhile, a Russian Foreign Intelligence
Service report on February 8 said: “Washington
is still actively involved in the illegal trade in oil
from the occupied territories of north-east Syria.
Every month, up to 3mn barrels [100,000 bpd]
of crude oil are extracted from fields in the prov-
inces of Al Hasakah, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor.”
The ministry added that gas production is
running at a rate of 12.5 mcm per day. Of this,
79% was delivered to the Ministry of Electricity,

SUPPLY & PROCESSING

Sonatrach, DEPA extend LNG supply deal

AFRICA ALGERIA’S national oil company (NOC) stressed the long-standing relationship between
Sonatrach and Greece’s state-owned natural gas the two companies.
company DEPA confirmed on February 4 that Xifaras commented: “The renewal of the
they had extended their long-term LNG supply LNG supply contract with Sonatrach seals our
contract the day before. long-term, constructive co-operation with a
In separate press releases, the two companies market partner. The signing of this agreement,
reported that they had agreed to increase the by adapting the terms to current trends, meets
term of their existing contract while also adapt- DEPA Commerce’s strategic goal of providing
ing the terms of that contract to bring them into its customers with sufficient quantities of nat-
line with current trends and anticipated future ural gas at competitive prices from reliable and
developments in global energy markets. They diversified sources, thus ‘shielding’ the country’s
also stated that the changes would take effect energy security.”
retroactively as of January 1, 2022. Greece imported its first cargo of Algerian
Neither the Greek company nor the Alge- LNG in 2000, and since then, Algeria has become
rian NOC specified the length of the contract the Southern European country’s largest single
extension. Nor did either party offer insight as supplier of LNG. Sonatrach delivers cargoes
to the nature of the changes in the terms of the from the Skikda LNG plant to the Revythousa
contract. regasification terminal, a facility in the Gulf of
DEPA noted in its statement that the agree- Megara near Athens that is owned by DESFA, a
ment to extend the contract had been signed fully-owned subsidiary of DEPA. According to
online. The signatories were DEPA’s CEO Kon- previous reports, the volume of these shipments
stantinos Xifaras and Sonatrach’s vice-president amounts to the equivalent of about 500mn-1bn
for marketing Fatiha Neffah, both of whom cubic metres per year of gas.™

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