Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 48 2020

LatAmOil NEWSBASE’S ROUNDUP GLOBAL (NRG) LatAmOil

NRG: As OPEC meets, life goes on

Uncertainty about the future of production agreements is having an effect on crude oil prices

COMMENTARY WELCOME to the latest edition of NewsBase’s thousands of jobs and help to unlock East Afri-
Roundup Global (NRG), in which our team of ca’s potential.
international editors provide you with a snap-
shot of some of the key issues affecting their AfrOil: Challenges in East Africa
regional beats. Get the NRG Oil & Gas Editor’s In East Africa, upstream and midstream initia-
Picks to your inbox every week for free. Just sign tives face legal and political challenges.
up here. On the midstream side, four non-govern-
The oil market’s eyes are naturally on this mental organisations (NGOs) from Uganda,
week’s OPEC+ talks, which are inevitably hav- Kenya and Tanzania aim to block the con-
ing an impact on prices. But meanwhile, devel- struction of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline
opments continue across all of our regions. (EACOP). The groups have filed suit in the East
LNG makes its mark in several ways. Both African Court of Justice, arguing that work on
Thailand and Ghana have their eyes on major the project should not go forward because the
initiatives which have the benefit of support- governments of Uganda and Tanzania have
ing “a greener, more efficient energy economy” not conducted the required environmental and
and will help them meet increasingly important social impact assessment (ESIA).
international standards. News of the legal challenge emerged shortly
Supply aspects are also significant, as are after the African Development Bank (AfDB)
resource-sharing deals. International climate unveiled plans to provide financial support for
goals are becoming a familiar factor in energy small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
decisions, and an example of this is seen in that contribute to the EACOP project. The bank
Spain’s Repsol investment plans. intends to pay $1mn in grant money split equally
Our editors are watching major surveys that between Uganda and Tanzania. The Ugan-
are progressing in Guyana and the UAE, and in dan government has pledged to make another
this week’s NRG they highlight the East African $500,000 available to local SMEs, and the Tan-
Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which may create zanian authorities are looking at a similar plan.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 03•December•2020