Page 6 - MEOG Week 33 2022

MEOG OPINION MEOG

Gazprom’s Iran deal could be

undermined by Russian shortages

IRAN GAZPROM’S $40bn deal with National Ira- CRA grade tubing, but it required steel billets
nian Oil Company (NIOC) to assist with pro- from Europe to process. “With Iran’s offshore gas
jects including the development of the Kish and fields needing relatively high volumes of these
North Pars gas fields could be undermined by super-specialised grades, it is difficult to see
Russia’s lack of required metallurgical supplies, how Gazprom can provide any well assistance to
according to a warning from consultancy Rystad develop these fields quickly,” Rystad added.
Energy said this week. China is a potential supplier of CRA grade
Russia and Iran are both burdened by sanc- tubing and Super 13Cr, but Chinese products in
tions on their energy industries. One conse- this area are known to have suffered from leak-
quence is that no European or Japanese suppliers ages and other issues in the past.
can provide oil country tubular goods (OCTG) Gazprom’s deal with NIOC also includes
or steel goods to either country. pressure enhancements at South Pars gas field
Assessing Russia’s deficit in metallurgical and the development of six oilfields.
products, Rystad predicted that Russian suppli- Meanwhile, the Iranian Ministry of Petro-
ers would require “considerable time and invest- leum (MoP) quoted Hamid Hosseini, chairman
ment” to be able to deliver high-alloy grades. of the country’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical
“The corrosive nature of Iranian oil and gas Products Exporters’ Union as saying: “In my
reserves requires high-grade piping for extrac- opinion, the Russians have the necessary finan-
tion, which neither Russia or Iran have the cial and technical capabilities, and on the other
capacity or capability to produce in the short hand, we desperately need this capability, so
term,” Rystad senior vice president of analysis I think there is a possibility that many of these
James Ley was quoted as saying. projects will be implemented and we should not
Russia’s TMK has in the past produced some be disappointed.”™

PIPELINES & TRANSPORT

Gas at the heart of Israel’s

co-operation with Egypt

ISRAEL ISRAEL will continue to work with Egypt to to Egypt, and it will be shipped to Europe via
boost natural gas exports to Europe, as Egypt Egypt.”
represents the country’s best option for pro- The increase in deliveries to Egypt will be
ducing LNG, Energy Minister Karine Elharrar effected via the construction of a new pipeline,
told Israel Hayom in an interview published on she added.
August 12. Elharrar indicated that Israel was prepared to
Elharrar explained that Israel’s caretaker increase the amount of gas it was supplying to
government, led by the Yesh Atid party, had European buyers but stressed that the govern-
been willing to join with Brussels and Cairo in ment was negotiating with the EU as a whole
mid-June in signing a tripartite memorandum rather than individual countries.
of understanding (MoU) on raising gas supplies She also indicated that the rise in exports
to Europe because of the access that Israel had would not come at the expense of local
already gained to Egypt’s LNG plants. consumers.
Co-operation with Egypt allows Israel to “All European countries are interested. They
overcome its lack of a midstream connection to are deeply worried about the winter, and they
European gas markets, she said. want to store gas,” she remarked. “But so we
“We have no gas pipeline [to Europe]. We can aren’t dealing with each country separately, we
only pipe gas to Egypt and Jordan,” she told Israel decided to deal with the European Union in a
Hayom. concentrated manner. At any rate, we don’t have
“To pipe gas to Europe, the gas needs to be enough gas to give to every country. We are
liquefied, and Egypt can do that. We don’t have giving them a little bit in the face of the existing
the machines. We’ll pipe a larger quantity of gas shortage.”™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 33 17•August•2022