Page 13 - EurOil Week 41

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This field is now due to become the third produc- weather-related disruptions, this time caused by
ing section of Stabroek in 2024. Hurricane Delta.
The storm also disrupted onshore operations
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping at refineries and other facilities when it made
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click landfall in Louisiana on October 9 as a Category
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor . 2 hurricane. This disruption came after a num-
ber of downstream facilities were shut down in
Mideast: Divestments, debates and deals late August by Hurricane Laura, which in some
Saudi Aramco has admitted that it is considering cases caused damage that delayed restart efforts.
divesting non-core assets as it seeks to “optimise” Reuters quoted sources familiar with the sit-
its portfolio. The Saudi giant is also planning to uation as saying that Total’s 225,500 barrel per
double down on upstream expansion efforts, day refinery lost power as a result of Delta, while
but it has said that certain assets – that is, assets Valero Energy’s 335,000 bpd facility lost a cool-
understood to be in the midstream or down- ing tower and Motiva Enterprises shut a small
stream sectors – could be sold off in a move unit at its 607,000 bpd refinery.
necessitated by the burden of a promise to pay Offshore, meanwhile, Hurricane Delta was
out a $75bn dividend. the latest in a series of storms including Hurri- Hurricane Delta
Despite having the industry’s most robust canes Laura and Sally that forced the evacuation
financials, Aramco has delayed major projects. of manned platforms in the Gulf. According was the latest in
The company has been acutely affected by the oil to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental
price crash and a prolonged period of subdued Enforcement (BSEE), staff from more than 280 a series of storms
demand. production platforms and drilling rigs were
Meanwhile in Israel, towards which Riyadh has evacuated ahead of Delta’s arrival in the region, that forced
shown signs of softening its approach, Chevron causing most Gulf oil output and 62% of gas pro- the evacuation
has ruffled feathers following its purchase of Noble duction to go offline.
Energy, the operator of the offshore Leviathan natu- As of October 14, staff from around 57 pro- of manned
ral gas field. The US major has allegedly cut supplies duction platforms, or 8.9% of the manned plat-
to Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) and is demanding that forms in the Gulf, remained evacuated, while platforms in the
gas sales prices be revised upwards. 30.7% of oil and 18.0% of gas output remained
In the UAE, ADNOC has handed out another shut in. Gulf of Mexico
infrastructure deal to a Chinese state-backed The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is already
engineering firm. This time, ADNOC Gas Pro- the second most active in recent history, and only
cessing (AGP) awarded a front-end engineering three more named storms are needed to match
and design (FEED) contract to China Petroleum the record set in 2005. For Gulf oil producers,
Pipeline Engineering (CPPE) for work on the this comes during a year of unprecedented vola-
country’s gas grid, including new gas stations tility caused by a short-lived Saudi Arabia-Rus-
and the extension of the network. In September, sia price war and significantly exacerbated by the
the same firm was awarded a deal to replace two coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. And while
major pipelines running from onshore oilfields there have been hopes that disruptions to out-
to the Jebel Dhanna terminal. put in the Gulf would help to prop up oil prices,
this does not appear to be playing out, with West
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Texas Intermediate (WTI) below $40 per barrel
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click as of October 12 It has since recovered above the
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor. $40 mark.

Quarterly losses mount in North America If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
Production has been coming back online in the the North American oil and gas sector then please click
US Gulf of Mexico this week following the latest here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor .™

Week 41 15•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13