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Middle East: Oil production breakthrough; evacuated 188 Gulf facilities, and shut in 635,000
Aramco sets prices for July bpd of oil and 878mn cubic feet (25mn cubic
The week’s developments in the Middle East have metres) per day of natural gas, according to fed-
centred on the milestone of Saturday’s important eral data.
meeting of OPEC and its allies, who managed Among those shutting in some of their out-
to break through the temporary difficulties and put was BP, which reduced production at its
deadlock to reach agreement to extend the oil Thunder Horse, Atlantis and Na Kika platforms.
production cuts through to the end of July. Royal Dutch Shell said on June 8 that its produc-
On this news, oil prices edged higher and tion had been unaffected by the storm, but that
this was followed by Saudi Aramco issuing their it would resume drilling activity and redeploy
prices for July; these prices exceeded market non-essential workers that had been evacuated
expectations and suggested that the oil market from the region.
was now walking away from the dire situation Murphy Oil also said on June 8 that it was
which enveloped it in March/April. beginning to return workers to offshore facilities.
That there is still a long way to go is high- Onshore, meanwhile, the active oil and gas
lighted by the perils facing OPEC’s second-larg- rig count has continued to shrink, and dropped Offshore
est member – Iraq. to 284 in the week up to June 5 – marking a thir-
The country’ prime minister has made an teenth straight week of declines. This compares producers in the
encouraging start to his tenure but he now has to with 793 active oil and gas rigs reported in the
try to find a way through the inexorable ripples first week of March. Oil rigs have accounted for Gulf of Mexico
of the massive cut to the state’s revenues from the majority of the decline, falling by 476 over evacuated 188
the collapse in the price of oil. To avoid financial this period, while the gas rig count decreased by
collapse and public service meltdown is his gov- 33. facilities before
ernment’s top priority. Also last week, data emerged showing how
A reminder of former times comes with pos- robust energy trade within North America was Tropical Storm
itive news from Abu Dhabi, where ADNOC is in 2019. The US Energy Information Admin-
looking to close a deal to sell a stake in its domes- istration (EIA) reported on June 5 that Canada Cristobal passed
tic gas pipeline network, and Oman, where PDO was the largest source of US energy imports last through the
has said it aims to increase its crude production year, and was second only behind Mexico as a
to 700,000 bpd by 2024. destination for US energy exports. region
Citing data from the US Census Bureau, the
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping EIA said that energy accounted for $85bn, or
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click 27%, of the value of all US imports from Can-
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor. ada in 2019. Meanwhile, the US exported $23bn
worth of energy to Canada last year, accounting
Offshore disruptions as North American on- for around 8% of all US exports to Canada. This
shore rigs keep falling was the second-highest level ever recorded, after
Oil producers in the US Gulf of Mexico were pre- 2014.
paring to resume disrupted operations this week,
after Tropical Storm Cristobal passed through If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
the region, bringing high winds and heavy rains. the North American oil and gas sector, then please click
Offshore producers were reported to have here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 10•June•2020