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

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 17•September•2020