Page 17 - AfrOil Week 12 2021

AfrOil NEWSBASE ROUNDUP GLOBAL (NRG) AfrOil

NewsBase Roundup Global (NRG)

NRG Welcome to NewsBase’s Roundup Global this week. This would essentially see the govern-
(NRG), in which the reader is invited to join ment help fund the gasification programme in
our team of international editors, who provide a return for equity in the state gas supplier.
snapshot of some of the key issues affecting their
regional beats. We hope you will like NRG’s new GLNG: Russia’s long-term strategy
concise format, but by clicking on the headline Russia approved a long-term LNG strategy this
link for each section the full text will be available week, targeting up to a three-fold increase in
as before. production to 140mn tonnes per year (tpy) by
2035. Several Russian LNG projects are in vari-
AsianOil: Velesto wins Petronas contracts ous stages development, mainly led by Novatek
Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas has awarded and Gazprom. Russia’s LNG strategy is based
drilling contracts for up to six shallow-water on the assumption that market conditions will
wells to local service provider Velesto Energy. improve enough to support new LNG projects
Velesto said in a stock exchange filing on March over the next 5-15 years.
19 that wholly owned subsidiary Velesto Drilling
had won two contracts worth more than $20mn LatAmOil: Disappointment in Suriname
for the NAGA 2 and NAGA 5 jack-up rigs. Tullow Oil (UK/Ireland) and its partners in
Block 47 offshore Suriname have finished drill-
DMEA: Jazan launch, Nigerian scrutiny ing the Goliathberg Voltzberg North-1 (GVN-1)
Two refineries that have previously faced com- exploration well without making a commercial
plications made the news this week for very discovery. Tullow said the well had encountered
different reasons. In Saudi Arabia, state oil a good-quality reservoir but registered only
firm Aramco announced that operations had minor shows of crude oil. Accordingly, GVN-1
begun at its Jazan refinery on the Red Sea coast will now be plugged and abandoned.
near the border with Yemen, a location that has
been targeted by the Houthi militia. Meanwhile MEOG: Aramco’s results
in Nigeria, following the approval of $1.5bn of Finance took centre stage in the Middle East
state funds to be provided for the rehabilitation this week as Saudi Aramco announced its 2020
of the Port Harcourt refinery, politicians have results and Iraq’s parliament postponed a vote on
cast aspersions on the move. the country’s budget by a week. Aramco’s results
made for fascinating reading, with the company
EurOil: Ineos picks up Danish assets posting massive profits despite a $39bn reduc-
The UK’s Ineos announced on March 18 it had tion in net income on the back of the coronavirus
reached a deal to buy the Danish arm of US oil (COVID-19) pandemic.
firm Hess for $150mn. The move comes months
after Ineos closed its $5bn takeover of BP’s petro- NorthAmOil: Spotlight on decarbonisation
chemicals division. Ineos also controls upstream Two leading Canadian oil sands producers –
assets off Denmark, Norway and the UK. Suncor Energy and Imperial Oil – are in the
news for reasons related to decarbonisation. In
FSU OGM: Russia eyes Gazprom share sale Suncor’s case, the company is investing in Svante,
Russia continues to weigh up options for fund- a carbon capture technology company, as it seeks
ing a $25bn, 10-year gasification programme, ways to offset greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
with the government reportedly suggesting the from its oil and gas operations. Imperial, for its
issue of new shares in Gazprom as a solution. part, has urged investors to vote against a share-
The shares would be bought by the government, holder proposal to set a target of net zero emis-
according to a state report seen by Vedomosti sions on a company-wide basis by 2050. ™

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Week 12 24•March•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P17