Egypt pays Italy's Eni $630 mln for Zohr gas field development
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Tuesday it has paid the government’s financial obligation to Italian energy company Eni for the development of the giant Zohr gas field discovered off the Mediterranean coast in 2015.
In statements to state news agency MENA, CBE Assistant Subgovernor Rami Aboul Naga said the bank paid $630 million in January to Eni.
In late January, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters that Egypt is committed to repaying the $3.5 billion it owes in arrears to foreign oil companies but that a foreign currency shortage has made the drawing down of those debts more difficult.
Zohr, discovered by Eni in August 2015, is the largest gas field in the Mediterranean, estimated to contain 850 billion cubic metres of gas.
Aboul Naga said the bank also paid a January installment to the Paris Club, and fulfilled other international commitments related to the country’s foreign debt.
The Paris Club is an informal group comprised of officials from 20 creditor countries that works, in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, to find coordinated and sustainable solutions to the payment difficulties experienced by debtor countries.
Egypt’s external debt stood at $60 billion by the end of the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2016/17, up from $55.7 billion in FY 2015/2016.
Aboul Naga added that the CBE was able to ensure that foreign currency would cover the $819 million needed by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and the General Authority For Supply Commodities, as well as the $430 million needed by government bodies and different ministries in January.
The announcement follows statements by the bank earlier Wednesday saying that Egypt’s foreign reserves hit their highest since 2011’s political turmoil, registering $26.3 billion at the end of January 2017, up from $24.2 billion in December 2016.
Egypt held $36 billion in reserves before the 2011 uprising, which overthrew president Hosni Mubarak, ushered in a period of political turmoil that scared away tourists and foreign investors--two key sources of foreign currency.
On 3 November 2016, the CBE decided to freely float the pound and raise key interest rates as part of a set of reforms aimed at solving a dollar scarcity and eradicating currency trading on the black market.
Shortly following the liberalisation of the pound, the IMF disbursed an initial $2.75 billion to Egypt as part of a $12 billion loan facility.
A second tranche of the IMF loan is set to be disbursed to Cairo in late April.
Bulgaria supports SOCAR’s entering its oil products market
Bulgaria supports entering of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR its oil products market.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Trend, Bulgaria’s newly-appointed Energy Minister Nikolay Pavlov recalled that a few years ago, SOCAR examined and discussed with the Bulgarian party the opportunities to enter the market of petroleum products in the country.
"We support the entry of new players in the petroleum product market, because this will increase competition and will have a beneficial impact on fuel prices and services provided," he said.
The minister pointed out that Bulgaria greatly values the partnership with Azerbaijan in the area of energy.
"A concrete expression of this partnership is the contract between Bulgargaz and SOCAR for the supply of 1 billion cubic meters natural gas per year as of 2020 from Shah Deniz 2. For us, this supply is of priority importance, since it will cover around one quarter of Bulgarian gas consumption to 2020," said Pavlov.
The minister expressed confidence that national gas companies on both sides will also work to carry out joint gas supplies to potential users in other countries of the Southeast European region through the Bulgarian gas transmission network and the currently built interconnectors.
"Another area of our energy cooperation could be SOCAR to enter in the gas distribution in the country and in the market for petroleum products too," said Pavlov.
Bulgaria is one of the buyers of Azerbaijani gas. The country will receive gas from Azerbaijan from 2020. Bulgarian government plans to buy 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of increasing the volume in the future.
Currently, the talks on delivering Azerbaijani gas via the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) continue. IGB is expected to be connected to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor.
Bulgarian government presented a package of projects to Azerbaijan in 2015 for energy cooperation. Azerbaijani side was proposed to take part in the construction of a gas station, to invest in construction of oil and gas storages and refineries.
ExxonMobil Awards License For Efficient Drilling Technology To Pason Systems
ExxonMobil has awarded to Pason Systems, Inc. the first global license of its patented Drilling Advisory System™, a key component of the company’s Fast Drill™ technology suite. The licensing agreement accelerates the technology’s commercialization by combining Pason’s expertise in drilling data and ExxonMobil’s experience in drilling surveillance and optimization.
Fast Drill combines high-end modeling of drilling physics with structured well planning and design to identify limiters and maximize performance. ExxonMobil’s drilling rate has improved more than 80 percent since introducing the Fast Drill process more than a decade ago. The Drilling Advisory System automates and enables implementation of the Fast Drill process in real time on the rig floor by integrating ExxonMobil proprietary modeling with data analytics. Use of the Drilling Advisory System has thus far improved ExxonMobil’s drilling performance at nine fields.
“Energy producers today are looking for any opportunities to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs,” said Tom Schuessler, president of ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company. “The drilling advisory system component to our efficient Fast Drill technology provides such an opportunity by enhancing monitoring and improving drilling performance, thus reducing costs.”
ExxonMobil’s Fast Drill process has resulted in an annual energy savings equivalent to removing 1,200 cars from the road. The additional reduction in fuel consumed translates to a proportionate decrease in emissions.
“The deployment of ExxonMobil’s Drilling Advisory System extends our portfolio of technologies that can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of drilling operations,” said Marcel Kessler, president and CEO of Pason. “We have enjoyed working with ExxonMobil through the development and field demonstration phases of this project. This license is the culmination of that hard work.”
Iran schedules upstream tender for Feb. 15
Iran has set its long-delayed tender for upstream oil and gas projects for Feb. 15. It’s the first such tender since international sanctions were lifted from the country in early 2016.
Twenty-nine companies have been qualified to participate.
“The plan was to hold the first tender at the end of January, but it is postponed and has been set to be on Feb. 15,” said Ali Kardor, managing director of National Iranian Oil Co., during a press conference.
He said the delay has been caused by incomplete information from some of the participating companies. “BP has not yet sent its information to us.” Kardor explained. “Although we said this is an official process and you need to enter your information, they haven’t done it.”
Other recent deals with international companies signed by Iran include a preliminary agreement with Total SA for a $4.8-billion project to develop an offshore gas field at South Pars, which Iran shares with Qatar; and agreements to develop two oil fields with Gazprom PJSC, and to examine development of other oil fields in the country alongside Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
Iran has increased its production to 3.9 million b/d from 2.6 million b/d in 2013.