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last week that its outlook for Peru LNG, the oper- Meanwhile, Norway’s DNO announced
ator of a natural gas liquefaction plant and export a milestone at its Peshkabir gas capture and
terminal in Pampa Melchorita, was negative. The injection project, announcing that 1bn cubic
consortium’s long-term foreign and local cur- feet (28mn cubic metres) of gas has now been
rency ratings have remained stable at BB-, but captured. The project will allow the company to
Fitch expects that the fall in global gas prices will reduce its carbon intensity to 7 kg of CO2e for
have a negative effect on its earnings. each barrel of oil equivalent (boe) produced.
Meanwhile, Venezuela claims to have caught
a US operative in the act of spying on the 971,000 If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
bpd Paraguana Refining Centre in Falcón State. the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click
President Nicolas Maduro made an announce- here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor.
ment to this effect on September 11 and added
that Venezuelan authorities had recently foiled a North America: Another storm brewing
plot aimed at halting operations at the El Palito Producers and refiners shut operations in the
refinery in Carabobo State. US Gulf of Mexico and on the Gulf Coast this
Maduro was speaking the day after Reuters week ahead of Hurricane Sally passing through
reported that at least two Iranian-flagged tankers the region and making landfall in Alabama on
appeared to be heading towards Venezuela. Iran September 16. (See: Gulf operations shut in again
successfully delivered five cargoes of gasoline as Hurricane Sally hits, page 9) The storm is the
to the South American country in late May and second in less than four weeks to result in shut-
early June, but its next attempt failed, as the US downs and evacuations after Hurricane Laura
seized four vessels loaded with Iranian fuel in passed through the Gulf and made landfall in Venezuela claims
August. The US government has imposed sanc- Louisiana in late August as a Category 4 storm.
tions on both Iran and Venezuela. Efforts to clean up damage from Laura are to have caught a
still ongoing in the Lake Charles area.
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental US operative in
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click Enforcement (BSEE) reported that as of Sep-
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor . tember 14, personnel had been evacuated from the act of spying
a total of 147 production platforms, or 22.86% of on the 971,000
Priorities and progress in the Middle East the 643 manned platforms in the Gulf. Three rigs
State-owned Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) this week – or 30% of the 10 non-dynamically positioned bpd Paraguana
cancelled an 11-well drilling project in the north rigs had also been evacuated, while two had
of the country as it faces challenging headwinds moved off location and out of the storm’s path. Refining Centre in
from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, By September 16, personnel had resumed
depressed demand and weak oil prices. However, returned to some of the platforms that had been Falcón state.
it’s not all bad news in the Western Gulf, as a ten- evacuated earlier in the week. However, the
der was launched for the construction of facili- BSEE estimated that around 27.48% of Gulf oil
ties related to Kuwait’s Jurassic gas development. production and roughly 29.70% of the region’s
Both of the projects relate to vast northern gas output was still shut in as of that morning.
deposits that have been planned for develop- This equates to 508,366 barrels per day (bpd) of
ment for years. However, the thinking behind oil and 805mn cubic feet (22.8 mcm) per day of
the move is that the cost-intensiveness of devel- gas that has been taken offline.
oping heavy oil makes that project less viable The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the
than the expansion of gas capabilities that can US’ sole offshore export terminal, suspended the
generate electricity, allowing for greater volumes loading of tankers on September 13, with the
of crude to be exported. onshore Port of New Orleans shutting the fol-
Progress continued elsewhere in the region lowing day.
with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) The outages helped prop up crude prices,
awarding two significant engineering, procure- which had been declining again recently amid
ment and construction (EPC) contracts for work strengthening supply and weak demand. Indeed,
at its Jebel Dhanna Terminal, and Iran carrying the US and Canada are among the countries
out important maintenance at the offshore South whose recovering oil production has been con-
Pars gas field. tributing to recent price weakness.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 17•September•2020