Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 36

FSUOGM NRG FSUOGM

DMEA: Iraq stays the course Gas (IOG) and Corallian Energy.
Iraq may be a key Middle Eastern oil producer, Meanwhile, OGA, the country’s upstream
but after years of conflict and under-investment, regulator, says it is holding off on further rounds
it lacks the refining capacity to meet domestic for a while, while the government reviews its
fuel demand. As a result, it typically chalks up a licensing policy to ensure it aligns with climate
$2.5bn annual bill for imports of gasoline, diesel goals – namely, the UK’s pledge to make its
and other key oil products. economy net-zero in carbon emissions by 2050.
The country has a number of new refining The British government does still expect oil and
projects in the works, but many of them are at an gas to play a key role in energy security over the
early stage of development. coming decades, so it is trying to ensure that the
In fact, given the economic crisis Iraq is fac- country produces enough fossil fuels to meet
ing, these schemes seem more like a wish list future demand, without compromising on its
than a concrete programme for developing the climate goals. OGA, the UK’s
sector. Over in Norway, state-owned Equinor has
However, the country is making tangible pro- suffered setbacks at the Johan Castberg oilfield upstream
gress in some areas. Last month it hired Japan’s in the Barents Sea, one of its largest ongoing regulator, is
JGC to build various new processing units at the upstream projects. The company has encoun-
Shuaiba oil refinery for $3.75bn. In late August, tered problems with the hull of the floating pro- holding off on
Iraq’s Oil Ministry also ordered the capacity of duction, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit that
the Sumood refinery to be raised to 140,000 bar- has been installed at the field. There are issues further offshore
rels per day (bpd) within months, from 75,000 with the hull’s welding, and errors have been
bpd at present. At a later stage, its output will found in the analysis programme used to test licensing rounds
reach 280,000 bpd. fatigue. for a while
The plant was significantly damaged during Corrective work could mean that the project,
the ISIS invasion and occupation, and again currently due on stream in 2023, falls behind
when it was retaken by Iraqi forces. Iraq plans to schedule.
restore its output by modernising and repairing
its processing trains. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
Meanwhile Baghdad has not given up on Europe’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
longstanding plans to build a $8bn petrochemi- NewsBase’s EurOil Monitor .
cal complex in Nibras. The Oil Ministry said on
August 31 that a final agreement on the venture FSU: Navalny, Novichok, Nord Stream 2
with Royal Dutch Shell would be signed before The poisoning of Russian dissident Alexei Nav-
the end of the year, despite market challenges. alny has placed Germany in a difficult position.
For years, the government of German Chan-
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping cellor Angela Merkel has been a staunch sup-
the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East, porter of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. But
then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor. now, after revelations that a Soviet-era nerve
agent known as Novichok was used in Navalny’s
UK licensing awards attempted assassination, a number of German
The UK has offered for award some 113 licences politicians have called on Berlin to withdraw its
to 65 companies in its latest offshore licensing support.
round. The winners of the round included a Some of these calls have come from Merkel’s
broad range of companies, ranging from majors own CDU party, including from Norbert Rott-
such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total, gen, chairman of the parliament’s foreign affairs
to mid-sized players such as Neptune Energy, committee and party leadership candidate. He
Chrysaor and Premier Oil and smaller inde- has said Nord Stream 2 should be halted “as a
pendents like Deltic Energy, Independent Oil & joint European response.”

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 36 09•September•2020