Busy weekend for the MENA region

This weekend in the MENA region has been a busy one. Next Generation Oil and Gas MENA takes a look at a few of the latest news stories in the region. This weekend has seen Oman resumed crude exports after Cyclone Phet, Kuwait plans to sign a deal with Daelim, the Iraq oil minister is un-happy with OPEC compliance, Qatar Petroleum agrees to sell LNG to Bangladesh and Iran earmarks money for oil industry.

Oman resumes crude exports

After Oman halted production due to Cyclone Phet the non-OPEC producer as resumed crude exports from the Mina Fahal terminal late on Sunday.

Oman exports around 730,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and condensate from the port. It exports most of its crude production to Asia.

Gas production operations at Oman LNG were restarted on Saturday after being halted on Friday as a precautionary measure. Also the UAE's eastern port of Fujairah, one of the world's biggest operations for bunkering, reopened on Sunday, a source told Reuters.

Kuwait plans to sign Daelim deal

Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC) plans to sign a 260 million-dinar (US$893 million) contract with South Korea's Daelim Industrial Co to build a fourth gas production line at its Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, said a spokesman at the state-run refiner to Arabian Business.

KNPC plans to spend 410 million dinars on natural gas projects by the end of 2013. The projects include a fourth gas pipeline costing 260 million dinars with a capacity of 850 million cubic feet per day. A second project costing an estimated 150 million dinars would boost the production capacity of an existing acid gas treatment plant.

Iraq oil minister unhappy with OPEC compliance

Iraq's Oil Minister has said current crude prices were fair and not too high to hinder global economic recovery, but added that he was not very happy with OPEC members' compliance with production quotas.

Hussain al-Shahristani said he was comfortable with current price levels which were high enough to encourage investments, adding that there was no need for an emergency OPEC meeting before October.

"The current price is also not too high to hinder the recovery of the global economy. It's a fair price," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Asia Oil and Gas Conference (AOGC) in the Malaysian capital.

Qatar Petroleum to sell to Bangladesh

Qatar Petroleum has agreed to sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) worth between US$1-US$1.5 billion to Bangladesh to help the South Asian country meet its fast-growing energy demand.

The import would be equivalent to a daily natural gas supply of 500 million cubic feet (mmcf), said Mohammad Muqtadir Ali, chief of Bangladesh's newly-formed LNG cell, adding that the supplier will send a team to Dhaka soon to finalise price and other details.

Bangladesh's gas supply stands at 2,000 mmcf a day while demand is at 2,300 mmcf and could rise above 2,500 mmcf, Muqtadir said.

He said that LNG imports would also help the country boost power generation.

Iran allocates money for oil industry

Iran has allocated over US$16 billion from the National Energy Fund to 31 oil projects in the current year to end 20 March 2011.

The Oil Ministry plans to spend US$13.6 billion of the credit in oil projects and US$2.4 billion in refinery projects, Mehr News Agency reported.

Iran established an energy fund in February backed by the Central Bank and other Iranian banks to help finance investments in the sector.

"The National Energy Fund, with the help of the resources of four local banks and the Central Bank, has been established to help finance major parts of the oil industry's activities," Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi was quoted as saying, zawya.com reported.

 

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