Irish independent Petroceltic gives a flavor of cost pressures hitting midsize independents in the MENA region in the wake of oil prices which have more than halved over the past six months.

The firm, in a 15 January ‘operational update’ says that given “the current low oil price environment” it will focus 2015 capital expenditure (capex) on “its core production and development assets” in Algeria and Egypt – and by implication will focus less on frontier exploration acreage, such as that in the KRG (see above). (CONTINUED - 561 WORDS)