Gulf

Despite Baghdad’s push to drum up oil sector investment, foreign majors continue to balk at the opportunities on offer. Exxon’s decision to walk away from a major project has profound implications for Iraq’s ambitious upstream expansion plans.

Total is keen for a stake in the expansion of Qatar’s world-leading LNG facilities. With existing connections to Doha, and LNG expertize, it looks well placed to succeed. It’s also looking to bid in Abu Dhabi’s debut licencing round – if the geology is right.

A mammoth week of negotiations culminated in Opec’s sparring members effectively agreeing to release an extra 500,000 b/d onto global markets on 22 June. Individual country allocations have been replaced by a group-wide ceiling that will permit the stronger members to capitalize on falling output from the weaker countries.

Aramco has become its own best domestic customer for naphtha. Output is set to receive a further boost from the start-up of the 400,000 b/d Jazan refinery.

Iraq has restored an important domestic pipeline link between its northern fields and Baghdad. The 40,000 b/d pipeline will carry...

Saudi Aramco is beginning to reap the rewards of developing two giant petrochemicals joint ventures with a combined price tag...

Aramco on 13 June announced it had signed a deal with Californian start-up Siluria Technologies to incorporate the latter’s proprietary...

The IEAs’ first oil market outlook for 2019 highlights both the uncertainties surrounding next week’s Opec meeting in Vienna and...

Iran has received a geopolitical boost from two summits in two continents. At the G7 in Montreal, US efforts to secure the buy-in of key allies on Iran sanctions took a hit, whilst in China, Iran held crucial talks with Russia and major Asian economies.