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provided for crude to be transported to Mom- The government has also indicted that it will
basa for export. In the meantime, Tullow still has include a sliding rate scale that will lower rates
185,000 barrels of unexported crude in storage at for domestic focused production. The new
port facilities in Mombasa. mechanism will be locked in place for five years,
though industry has already called for the Labor
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping government to match the opposition Liberal
Africa’s oil and gas sector, then please click here for Party’s election pledge of a 10-year freeze on
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor. royalties.

Asian variations If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
The pandemic has weighed on each of Asia’s Asia’s oil and gas sector, then please click here for
economies differently and as each country looks NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor.
to the future, different strategies are emerging.
Chinese oil importers have seized on cheap Nigerian fuel deregulation; initiatives in
oil prices as economic activity slowly gains Angola, Iran
momentum. Crude imports soared to a new Nigeria has removed a cap on gasoline pump
record of 47.97mn tonnes (11.34mn barrels per prices as it pushes ahead with deregulation of its
day) in May, General Administration of Cus- fuel industry. The move is aimed at encouraging
toms (GAC) data showed on June 7, easily out- private companies to import and sell gasoline,
stripping the previous record of 11.18mn bpd set helping to boost the country supply security.
in November 2019. The may figure takes daily While the fuel industry has welcomed the move,
import averages to 10.54mn bpd in the first five there are concerns that the government could
months, this compares with the full-year aver- backtrack on reforms once international fuel
age of 10.17mn bpd in 2019. The rebound could prices recover. Nigeria is heavily dependent on
continue, with commodity research firm Kpler imports, and mere rumours of hikes in fuel costs
telling Bloomberg this week that the imports have triggered rioting in the past. The road to mar-
could climb to 14mn bpd in June. ket liberalisation is therefore politically fraught.
Pakistan, meanwhile, is reportedly consid- In an encouraging development for Angola,
ering the deregulation of gasoline prices amid London-based investment firm Gemcorp is pre-
growing supply shortages that many within the paring to take a final investment decision (FID)
local industry had warned about some weeks by the end of this month on a new 60,000 bar-
ago. The Pakistani Energy Ministry’s Petroleum rel per day (bpd) oil refinery in Cabinda. This
Division has agreed in principle to “completely is one of three plants the Central African coun-
deregulate” pricing and marketing of gasoline, try wants to build to make motor fuel imports a
local news outlet Dawn reported on June 8. The thing of the past.
paper, citing an official record of the division’s Meanwhile, Iran is looking to expand its gas-
talks with oil marketing companies (OMCs), oline storage, in response to a slump in demand
said the ministry had decided to link gasoline caused by the coronavirus and in preparation for
prices to the S&P Global Platts Oilgram Price an expansion of the Persian Gulf Star refinery.
Report of the previous month. This would Iran was one of the countries hardest hit by the
replace the government’s current method of set- pandemic, with travel restrictions causing gaso-
ting prices based on state-owned Pakistan State line stockpiles to reach unprecedented levels last
Oil’s (PSO) import bill. month.
Australia’s Queensland State has unveiled a
new natural gas royalty model that will adopt a If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
volume-based approaching to calculating pay- the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East,
ments rather the current index-based system. then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor.

Week 23 11•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P5