Page 12 - EurOil Week 33

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The company said that it had received a the tensions being scaled down as yet.
lump sum engineering, procurement, con- Meanwhile, normal oil and gas operations
struction and commissioning (EPCC) con- – and decommissioning – continue in other
tract covering a 34,500 bpd fluid catalytic European waters. This week, offshore contrac-
cracking (FCC) unit, a 55,000 bpd vacuum tor Allseas announced that it had completed the
distillation unit and a 40,000 bpd diesel des- removal of processing and accommodation top-
ulphurisation unit. sides and flare jackets as part of the Tyra redevel-
In South Sudan, NOC Nile Petroleum opment project for Total in Danish waters. (See:
Corp. (Nilepet) announced that it is nearing Allseas reports on North Sea platform removals,
completion on work to rehabilitate the 5,000 page 16) The structures will be transported to
barrel per day Bentiu oil refinery in the coun- specialist yards in Denmark and the Netherlands
try. Director general of Nilepet’s Downstream for recycling. A new platform will be installed at
Directorate, James Loteka Yugusuk, said on Tyra, which produces around 90% of Denmark’s
August 14 that completion of the work would gas output, by 2022.
allow South Sudan to reduce fuel imports. Allseas is now preparing to remove the Nin-
ian Northern platform, which is located east of
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Shetland in the UK North Sea. This will be the
the downstream sector of Africa and the Middle East, final job of the year for Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit
then please click here for NewsBase’s DMEA Monitor. heavy-lift vessel, which also carried out the Tyra
removals.
Tensions escalate in East Med
Tensions have been escalating between Greece Azeri energy export volumes steady, value
and Turkey over drilling in contested waters in tumbles
the Eastern Mediterranean, with the French gov- While Azerbaijan kept export volumes of crude
ernment bolstering France’s military presence in and oil products steady in the first seven months
the region in recent days. (See: Eastern promise of this year, according to local media reports cit-
stokes tensions, page 4) ing State Customs Committee data, the value of
This comes after Turkey sent a seismic the shipments plunged.
research vessel, escorted by warships, into waters The Central Asian country sold 19.5mn
between the Greek island of Crete and Cyprus tonnes of petroleum in January-July, flat on the
to explore for potential offshore gas and oil 19.5mn tonnes exported in the same period of
reserves, spurred by similar discoveries in other 2019, AzerNews reported on August 17. The
parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece value of said exports, however slid from $9.5bn
claims that part of the area falls within its own in the first seven months of 2019 to $6.3bn in the
continental shelf and has demanded that the same period of 2020.
ships withdraw, but Turkey insists that it is enti- Natural gas exports fared somewhat bet-
tled to conduct research in those waters. ter, with shipments climbing from 6.7bn cubic
On August 17, Turkey’s state-owned TPAO metres in January-July 2019 to 7.7 bcm in the
extended the drilling schedule for its Yavuz same period of 2020. The value of the country’s
drillship offshore Cyprus to mid-September in gas exports climbed from $1.2bn to $1.4b.
a move that appears set to ramp up tensions in The country’s output of gasoline climbed
the region further. Turkey has previously drilled 0.3% year on year in the period to 715,900
wells in waters claimed by Cyprus. Yavuz is cur- tonnes, while diesel production grew by 4.4% on
rently one of two Turkish drillships in the East- the year to 1.3mn tonnes. Investment to Azer-
ern Mediterranean, and a third is reported to be baijan’s oil and gas sector grew by 22.9% year
coming to the region soon. on year to AZN3.4bn ($2bn) in the first seven
European Union (EU) foreign ministers have months.
held urgent talks on the matter, with Turkey indi- Azerbaijan produced 554,100 barrels per day
cating a willingness to enter a dialogue with the of crude in July and another 96,000 bod of con-
bloc over the issue. However, there is no sign of densate, according to the Energy Ministry. The

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 33 20•August•2020