Page 6 - DMEA Week 37

DMEA NEWSBASE’S ROUNDUP GLOBAL (NRG) DMEA

NRG: Ahead of the peak

A warning that oil demand will peak within a few years overshadows
some of the positive news coming from oil producers in recent days

GLOBAL WELCOME to the latest edition of NewsBase’s Mexican government has trimmed its production
Roundup Global (NRG), in which our team of forecast for state-owned Pemex for 2021, while
international editors provide you with a snap- in the Middle East, Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) can-
shot of some of the key issues affecting their celled an 11-well drilling project in the north of the
regional beats. Get the NRG Oil & Gas Editor’s country.
Picks to your inbox every week for free. Just sign Meanwhile, in the US, producers and refiners
up here. were bracing for the second hurricane in less than
Weak oil prices and considerable uncertainty four weeks to pass through the Gulf of Mexico and
caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic make landfall on the Gulf Coast. However, the pro-
have not prevented oil and gas producers from cau- duction outages ahead of the hurricane could help
tiously moving forward with various projects. prices as they weaken on a bleak demand outlook.
In recent days, China’s CNOOC Ltd brought
a new shallow-water oilfield online, while Russia’s Africa: NNPC and Tullow’s new plans
Rosneft has decided to push ahead with a hard-to- Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC)
recover oil project in the Volga-Urals Basin – its first may soon be taking a different approach to the
without any partner. refining business.
However, progress being reported on new oil Mele Kyari, NNPC’s group managing director,
projects is being overshadowed by a warning that said last week that his company was looking into
demand for crude could peak in the next few years. the possibility of giving up its majority stake in the
The projection was made by super-major BP in its country’s four largest oil-processing plants. He did
Energy Outlook 2020, which was published this not offer any details or name any potential partners,
week. The company believes that COVID-19 could but he indicated that the Nigerian government was
hasten the move away from fossil fuels. keen to adopt an operating model that would allow
The pandemic continues to have shorter-term for greater operational efficiency, as well as “more
consequences for the oil industry as well. The scrutiny of shareholders.”

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 17•September•2020