Page 8 - GLNG Week 41

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producing section of Stabroek in 2024. US Gulf of Mexico this week following the latest
weather-related disruptions, this time caused by
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Hurricane Delta.
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click The storm also disrupted onshore operations
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor . at refineries and other facilities when it made
landfall in Louisiana on October 9 as a Category
Mideast: Divestments, debates and deals 2 hurricane. This disruption came after a num-
Saudi Aramco has admitted that it is considering ber of downstream facilities were shut down in
divesting non-core assets as it seeks to “optimise” late August by Hurricane Laura, which in some
its portfolio. The Saudi giant is also planning to cases caused damage that delayed restart efforts.
double down on upstream expansion efforts, Reuters quoted sources familiar with the sit-
but it has said that certain assets – that is, assets uation as saying that Total’s 225,500 barrel per
understood to be in the midstream or down- day refinery lost power as a result of Delta, while
stream sectors – could be sold off in a move Valero Energy’s 335,000 bpd facility lost a cool-
necessitated by the burden of a promise to pay ing tower and Motiva Enterprises shut a small
out a $75bn dividend. unit at its 607,000 bpd refinery.
Despite having the industry’s most robust Offshore, meanwhile, Hurricane Delta was Hurricane Delta
financials, Aramco has delayed major projects. the latest in a series of storms including Hurri-
The company has been acutely affected by the oil canes Laura and Sally that forced the evacuation was the latest in
price crash and a prolonged period of subdued of manned platforms in the Gulf. According
demand. to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental a series of storms
Meanwhile in Israel, towards which Riyadh Enforcement (BSEE), staff from more than 280
has shown signs of softening its approach, Chev- production platforms and drilling rigs were that forced
ron has ruffled feathers following its purchase of evacuated ahead of Delta’s arrival in the region, the evacuation
Noble Energy, the operator of the offshore Levi- causing most Gulf oil output and 62% of gas pro-
athan natural gas field. The US major has alleg- duction to go offline. of manned
edly cut supplies to Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) As of October 14, staff from around 57 pro-
and is demanding that gas sales prices be revised duction platforms, or 8.9% of the manned plat- platforms in the
upwards. forms in the Gulf, remained evacuated, while
In the UAE, ADNOC has handed out 30.7% of oil and 18.0% of gas output remained Gulf of Mexico.
another infrastructure deal to a Chinese state- shut in.
backed engineering firm. This time, ADNOC The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is already
Gas Processing (AGP) awarded a front-end the second most active in recent history, and only
engineering and design (FEED) contract to three more named storms are needed to match
China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPPE) the record set in 2005. For Gulf oil producers,
for work on the country’s gas grid, including this comes during a year of unprecedented vola-
new gas stations and the extension of the net- tility caused by a short-lived Saudi Arabia-Rus-
work. In September, the same firm was awarded sia price war and significantly exacerbated by the
a deal to replace two major pipelines running coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. And while
from onshore oilfields to the Jebel Dhanna there have been hopes that disruptions to out-
terminal. put in the Gulf would help to prop up oil prices,
this does not appear to be playing out, with West
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Texas Intermediate (WTI) still hovering around
the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click $40 per barrel.
here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor .
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping the
Quarterly losses mount in North America North American oil and gas sector then please click here
Production has been coming back online in the for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 16•October•2020