Page 12 - DMEA Week 03 2020

DMEA
NEWS IN BRIEF
DMEA
REFINING
L&T wins refining contract in Kuwait
Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation (KNPC), the national oil refining company of Kuwait, has reportedly awarded a contract to Indian engineering firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to replace a number of substations at Kuwait’s Al-Ahmadi oil refinery.
According to Reuters, the substations contract will be worth $122mn and is part of Kuwait’s multi-billion dollar ‘clean fuel project’, which will comprise expanding its refining output.
The contract works will include replacing the old substations at the refinery, the report stated.
It added that L&T also fought off competition from six other global bidders, including the UK’s Petrofac, US-based Fluor, China’s Sinopec, SNC-Lavalin of Canada, Egypt’s ENPPI Petroleum Company, and Kuwait’s Al Ahleia Switchgear Company.
FUELS
Palestine asks Israel’s
permission to import fuel
from Iraq
Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammed Shtayyeh, said the Palestinian Authority filed a formal request to Israel four months ago to allow the import of fuel from Iraq but has not received a response, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.
In a lengthy interview with the paper, Shtayyeh said his cabinet wants to reduce economic dependence on Israel and diversify its economic resources.
“We were in Iraq, Jordan, Egypt; we will travel to Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Similarly, we will link up more to international markets, we will import directly from abroad and export to those markets. There’s no reason that our economic relationships must be limited to Israel. Diversification is the name
of the game; we are diversifying our resources here,” he said.
The Palestinian prime minister explained that Iraq has agreed to sell the Palestinian Authority fuel at reduced prices, noting that fuel is the largest spending in the budget.
According to Shtayyeh, the Palestinian Authority imports three million litres of fuel from Israel on a daily basis, which costs more than $188mn per month, noting that
importing fuel from Iraq will reduce pressure on the budget.
However, the spokesperson of the Coordinator of (Israeli) Government Activities in the (Palestinian) Territories (COGAT) denied receiving the official request from the Palestinian Authority.
Protests against fuel crisis in Sudan
Unprecedented fuel prices and long
lines of vehicles at petrol stations led to demonstrations in Khartoum, El Obeid, Nyala and Port Sudan. Activists accused the deep state of causing the fuel crisis.
In Nyala, capital of South Darfur, vehicles lined up in long queues in front of petrol stations on January 20.
The owners of vehicles asserted that a gallon of petrol at the black market costs SDG 220 ($4.90), compared to SDG 45 ($1) at the petrol stations. A gallon of diesel costs SDG 125 ($2.80) at the black market and SDG 35 ($0.8) at a gasoline station.
Activists accused the deep state of causing the fuel crisis, because the security services specify the amount of fuel for each petrol station. That should be 1500 gallons a day. However, only 900 gallons are distributed each day, the activists said.
TV footage showed a majority of MPs in parliament’s lower house stand up to back the motion, which was decided after 58 out of the 130-strong legislature last month demanded such a ban in a letter to the legislature.
The motion passed on January 19 will
be send to the government for its approval and must be sent back to the legislature for a formal vote.
The text states that “the government,
its ministries and state institutions and companies are prohibited from importing gas from Israel”.
On Friday hundreds of Jordanians took
to the streets of Amman denouncing the “shameful” deal with Israel and calling on the government to scrap it, holding up placards “we will not be partners in the crime”.
Jordan imports nearly 98% of its energy needs, and has long relied on gas, heavy fuel oil and diesel to run its power plants.
The cash-strapped desert kingdom with few natural resources has defended the deal saying it would cut $600mn a year from the state’s energy bill. For years Jordan had relied on Egyptian gas supplies but a spate of attacks on the export pipeline that runs through the restive Sinai Peninsula had disrupted that flow.
India may seek
renegotiation of LNG price
from Qatar: Dharmendra
Pradhan
India may seek to reopen the pricing of its long-term LNG import contract with Qatar
to reflect falling rates of the spot or current market, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday. “Energy Minister of Qatar
is coming for bilateral discussion (to India) at the end of the month. We will discuss all the aspects,” Pradhan told reporters on January 23.
He was asked if the government is looking at renegotiating liquefied natural gas (LNG) contracts in view of the fall in prices of the fuel available in spot or current market.
India imports 8.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Qatar under two long-term contracts and has tied up 5.8 million tonnes
a year supplies from the US. It also has a 2.5 million tonnes import contract with Gazprom of Russia and a 1.44 million tonnes deal with the Gorgon project of Australia.
While long-term LNG from Qatar comes for $8.5-9 per million British thermal unit, the same gas is available in the spot market for less than half the price.
TRANSPORT
Jordan parliament demands ban on Israel gas imports
Jordan’s parliament on January 19 voted in favour of a law to ban gas imports from Israel, weeks after the Jewish state began pumping it to the kingdom in a $10bndeal. It remained unclear however whether the government
in Amman would back the legislative push against an agreement which it has said improves energy security for Jordanians.
Earlier this month Israel began exporting gas from the offshore Leviathan field to neighbours Jordan and Egypt -- the only two Arab countries it has peace treaties with -- under a 15-year agreement.
The deal struck with the Amman government sparked streets protests in Jordan, where many consider Israel as an enemy.
“The majority has voted to send an urgent motion to the government” requesting a
law banning Israeli gas imports to Jordan, parliamentary speaker Atef Tarawneh said, in remarks carried live by state television.
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Week 03 23•January•2020