Page 11 - MEOG Week 14

MEOG
neWs In brIeF
MEOG
capacity to store 118 million litres of oil, gasoline and kerosene, it added.
It has been named after Major General Qasem Soleimani, the top commander
of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic revolutionary Guard Corps (IrGC), who was assassinated on the orders of US President Donald Trump in early January in a US drone strike at Baghdad airport.
bne
Rockets fired near Iraq’s southern oil district
Several rockets were fired and landed on Monday near a residential district in southern Iraq, where many foreign oil firms have their headquarters and where oil workers live, without causing damage or injuring people, sources with the police and oil firms told reuters.
The oil district near Iraq’s major city
of Basra was largely empty because many foreign oil companies had evacuated their personnel due to the coronavirus pandemic. An employee at halliburton in the area told reuters that the rockets landed far from the site. rocket fire is not uncommon in Iraq, where the U.S. embassy in Baghdad has been targeted a few times this year, by what the U.S. attributed to Iran-backed paramilitary factions. The rocket fire of three Katyusha rockets on Monday did not disrupt oil production or exports from Basra, Iraq’s key oil outlet in the south, officials with Iraqi state firm Basra Oil Co told reuters.
The rockets may not affect Iraq’s oil exports, but the crash in oil prices has significantly cut Iraq’s main government revenue source—oil income.
oIL PrICe
Gas
TurkStream’s Q1 Russian
gas transfers to Europe
amount to 1.32 bcm
Around 1.32bn cubic metres (bcm) of russian gas was transferred to Europe from Turkey via the TurkStream natural gas pipeline during the first quarter of 2020, Turkey’s state-run news service Anadolu Agency has reported.
TurkStream, opened by Turkish President recep Tayyip Erdogan and his russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on January 8, also transited 428mn cubic metres (mcm) of gas in March to Europe from Turkey via Bulgaria.
In January, when the first gas flow started, around 506 mcm of gas was transferred to Europe, while about 387 mcm of gas was sent via the pipeline in February.
Under international agreements signed with Turkey, the Turkish Treasury receives monthly transit fees for every cubic meter transferred.
Commercial supplies via the gas pipeline commenced on January. 1, 2020.
TurkStream consists of two 930-kilometre- long offshore lines stretching from russia to Turkey across the Black Sea, and two separate onshore lines that are 142 and 70 kilometres- long, respectively.
The project has a total annual capacity
of 31.5 bcm. The first line, with a capacity
of 15.75 bcm, is designated for supplies to Turkey’s domestic customers, and the second line, with the same capacity, carries russian gas further to Europe through Bulgaria, although there have been delays in rolling out the required Bulgarian pipeline infrastructure. bne
GIP, Brookfield in Talks
to Invest in Adnoc Gas
Pipelines
Global Infrastructure Partners and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. are among investors in talks to jointly bid for a stake in Abu
Dhabi national Oil Co. (Adnoc)’s natural
gas pipelines, which could be valued at about $15 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said. Italian infrastructure operator Snam SpA, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Singapore sovereign fund GIC Pte and a Korean firm are in discussions to join the same consortium, which has been pursuing as much as a 49% stake in the assets, the people said. The group is the only remaining bidder for the stake -- which could rank as one of this year’s largest infrastructure deals globally -- after other parties including Australian fund manager IFM Investors Pty dropped out, it was reported.
A final deal will depend on whether the consortium can secure financing, which
has become more difficult to obtain due to tightening credit markets and the decline
in oil, they said. The potential investors are currently conducting due diligence on the assets, it was said. Any deal will add to the $79 billion of infrastructure transactions announced globally in the first quarter, up about 14% from a year earlier, according to data provider Preqin. no final agreements have been reached, and the makeup of the bidding group could change, the people said. representatives for Adnoc, GIP, IFM, Ontario Teachers and Snam declined to comment. Brookfield and GIC didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Energy Assets The United Arab Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi is the capital, is among Persian Gulf oil producers using their energy assets
to draw fresh capital to the region. In Saudi Arabia, Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, is weighing the sale of a stake in its pipeline unit to raise money amid a slump in crude prices, according to people familiar with the matter. Adnoc has already raised funds
by leasing out its crude pipelines and selling shares in its service stations business. Several investors had submitted initial bids for the
gas pipeline asset, Bloomberg news reported last month. KKr & Co. and Blackrock Inc. last year agreed to invest $4 billion in Adnoc’s oil pipeline network, securing two decades of guaranteed returns. GIC also bought a stake in
in the business later. Adnoc has also sold a stake in its $11 billion drilling business to Baker hughes Co.
bLoomberG
Week 14 08•April•2020
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m
P11