Page 13 - AsianOil Week 42

AsianOil SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil

Petronas considers its

position in Iraq’s Gharraf

PROJECTS & MALAYSIAN state oil firm Petronas is review-
COMPANIES ing its position in the Gharraf oilfield in Iraq’s
southern Dhi Qar Province as margins have
been squeezed by low oil prices. The company’s
CEO, Tengku Muhammad Taufik Aziz, made
the admission during the recent online Energy
Intelligence Forum.
He said: “Under the $40 per barrel scenario,
I’d be the first to admit that under all possible
lenses we’ve had to trigger a review of our intent state-owned North Oil Co. (NOC). The part-
to stay on in Gharraf … I can only say: watch ners agreed a revised development plan with the
this space.” Ministry of Oil (MoO) in April. The so-called
Tengku Muhammad Taufik added: “We are Final Development Plan, which was approved
in consultation with the host authorities to see by Baghdad, will increase capacity from the cur-
whether the economics [of Gharraf] can be rent level of around 90,000 bpd to 230,000 bpd.
improved, but of course, over and above that, we The plateau is unchanged from that mandated by
need to make sure it makes sense from a sustain- the original technical service contract (TSC) in
ability lens as well.” 2009 but the target date for its achievement was
The field in southern Iraq was shut in March pushed back to Q4 2020, from 2017.
because of coronavirus (COVID-19), and Tengku Muhammad Taufik said: “If we can
returned to production at a rate of 50,000 barrels make [Gharraf] better, cleaner, we’ll still pursue
per day (bpd) in late July. it.”
Meanwhile, reporting its non-compliance In 2018, US services firm BakerHughes GE
with OPEC+ cuts, Baghdad noted “natural won a contract from Iraq’s South Gas Co. (SGC)
decline” at Gharraf as a result of cancelled orders to implement a flare gas recovery project at the
and limited storage. Nassiriya and Gharraf oilfields and install a 2bn
Petronas (45%) operates Gharraf in con- cubic metre per year NGL plant – scheduled for
sortium with Japan’s Inpex (30%) and Iraq’s completion in 2021.™

EAST ASIA

China warns over possible

domestic gas supply interruptions

PIPELINES & CHINA could experience tight natural gas sup- to 230.9bn cubic metres.
TRANSPORT plies this winter, despite investment in recent The NDRC’s warning comes as Chinese
years on building out import capacity, under- energy analysts have begun issuing predictions
ground storage and domestic transportation of a spike in liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports
infrastructure. to meet rising demand from northern provinces.
The National Development and Reform “Due to strong demand for LNG, many major
Commission (NDRC) warned on October 20 receiving terminals in China jointly pushed up
that guaranteeing uninterrupted supplies to LNG prices after the National Day holiday,” the
some areas might be an issue should tempera- official Global Times quoted Chem365 analyst
tures plunge for a prolonged period during the Zhai Cuiping as saying on October 20.
peak demand months of December and January. Zhai said domestic and imported gas prices
NDRC spokeswoman Meng Wei told a press had soared, with the state-owned daily report-
conference, however, that the country’s gas sup- ing that domestic gas prices are in line with those
ply was “relatively sufficient” and that the supply on the international market. The paper said
and demand balance was “generally better than the week’s average ex-factory LNG prices had
in previous years”. She noted that demand had climbed by 10.37% from the previous week to
climbed 3.6% year on year in January-September CNY3,114 yuan ($468) per tonne.

Week 42 22•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13