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Mideast: Divestments, debates and deals The storm also disrupted onshore operations
Saudi Aramco has admitted that it is considering at refineries and other facilities when it made
divesting non-core assets as it seeks to “optimise” landfall in Louisiana on October 9 as a Category
its portfolio. The Saudi giant is also planning to 2 hurricane. This disruption came after a num-
double down on upstream expansion efforts, ber of downstream facilities were shut down in
but it has said that certain assets – that is, assets late August by Hurricane Laura, which in some
understood to be in the midstream or down- cases caused damage that delayed restart efforts.
stream sectors – could be sold off in a move Reuters quoted sources familiar with the sit-
necessitated by the burden of a promise to pay uation as saying that Total’s 225,500 barrel per
out a $75bn dividend. day refinery lost power as a result of Delta, while
Despite having the industry’s most robust Valero Energy’s 335,000 bpd facility lost a cool-
financials, Aramco has delayed major projects. ing tower and Motiva Enterprises shut a small
The company has been acutely affected by the oil unit at its 607,000 bpd refinery.
price crash and a prolonged period of subdued Offshore, meanwhile, Hurricane Delta was
demand. the latest in a series of storms including Hurri-
Meanwhile in Israel, towards which Riyadh canes Laura and Sally that forced the evacuation Hurricane Delta
has shown signs of softening its approach, Chev- of manned platforms in the Gulf. According
ron has ruffled feathers following its purchase of to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental was the latest in
Noble Energy, the operator of the offshore Levi- Enforcement (BSEE), staff from more than 280 a series of storms
athan natural gas field. The US major has alleg- production platforms and drilling rigs were
edly cut supplies to Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) evacuated ahead of Delta’s arrival in the region, that forced
and is demanding that gas sales prices be revised causing most Gulf oil output and 62% of gas pro-
upwards. duction to go offline. the evacuation
In the UAE, ADNOC has handed out another As of October 12, staff from around 124 pro-
infrastructure deal to a Chinese state-backed duction platforms, or 19.3% of manned plat- of manned
engineering firm. This time, ADNOC Gas Pro- forms in the Gulf, remained evacuated, while platforms in the
cessing (AGP) awarded a front-end engineering 69.4% of oil and 47.1% of gas output were shut in.
and design (FEED) contract to China Petroleum The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is already Gulf of Mexico
Pipeline Engineering (CPPE) for work on the the second most active in recent history, and only
country’s gas grid, including new gas stations three more named storms are needed to match
and the extension of the network. In September, the record set in 2005. For Gulf oil producers,
the same firm was awarded a deal to replace two this comes during a year of unprecedented vola-
major pipelines running from onshore oilfields tility caused by a short-lived Saudi Arabia-Rus-
to the Jebel Dhanna terminal. sia price war and significantly exacerbated by the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. And while
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping there have been hopes that disruptions to out-
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click put in the Gulf would help to prop up oil prices,
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor. this does not appear to be playing out, with West
Texas Intermediate (WTI) below $40 per barrel
Quarterly losses mount in North America as of October 12.
Production has been coming back online in the
US Gulf of Mexico this week following the latest If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
weather-related disruptions, this time caused by the North American oil and gas sector then please click
Hurricane Delta. here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor .™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 15•October•2020