Author: Rigs & Barge World

Karim Badawi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, visited Aqaba Port in Jordan for the commissioning trials of the Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) Energos Force, which is set to receive imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments, regasify them, and inject the gas into the Arab Gas Pipeline. He was accompanied by Saleh El-Kharabsheh, Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources. The unit’s arrival at Aqaba port on Friday was a practical implementation of the cooperation agreement signed between the two countries in 2024 to leverage Egypt’s infrastructure, including FSRUs, to supply gas to Jordan until the end of…

Halliburton, one of the world’s leading providers of technology products and services, has awarded a contract to supply completions and downhole monitoring services for the carbon capture and storage (CCS) system of Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) in northeast England’s East Coast Cluster (ECC),—one of the UK’s flagship CCS projects. NEP is a joint venture (JV) between bp, Equinor, and TotalEnergies, established in 2020 to serve as the CO₂ transportation and storage provider for the East Coast Cluster (ECC). The venture is responsible for transporting and securely storing carbon emissions from the Teesside and Humber industrial regions. Under the contract, Halliburton…

Global oil prices moved sharply higher this week after the IMF raised its global economic growth forecast and US President Donald Trump struck a firmer tone on Russia. Despite lingering doubts about the strength of the recovery and skepticism over how far Mr Trump will go in confronting Moscow, this was enough to push Brent crude above $72/B, from $68/B at the end of last week. Oil prices are now at their highest levels since Q1 – excluding the brief spike during the 12-day Israel-Iran war – and this comes at a convenient time for Opec+ producers. The Opec+ ‘Group…

The National Oil Corporation (NOC), along with the major international oil company ExxonMobil, signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) after a decade of halt. Under the MoU, ExxonMobil will conduct a detailed technical study of four Libyan offshore blocks located near the northwest coast and the Sirte Basin to identify the resources of hydrocarbons there. During the signing ceremony, Masoud Suleman, NOC’s Chairman, affirmed the corporation’s commitment to expanding partnerships with major American energy companies, particularly ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil has maintained a limited yet strategic presence in Libya, focusing primarily on exploration activities. The company first entered the Libyan energy…

Syria’s energy sector is experiencing newfound dynamism, with foreign players taking on an increasingly prominent role. More importantly, it’s not just talk. Some pledges are now translating into concrete action. Turkey moved quickly after the overthrow of the Assad regime to pledge 2bcm (190mn cfd) of natural gas supplies, through development of a pipeline from Turkey’s Kilis region to Aleppo (MEES, 27 June). This was followed in July with an MoU between the Syrian government and Azeri state firm Socar for the supply of natural gas via Turkey (MEES, 18 July). This week, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said that…

The Western Desert Operating Petroleum Company (WEPCO), an Egyptian state‐established energy firm, has raised its daily natural gas output to 8,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) following the integration of the 5st-10 development well at the Badr-1 field onshore the Western Desert. The new well was drilled at a depth of 5,000 meters from the lower Kharita formation, a geological formation commonly found in the Western Desert, and it reached an initial output of 25 million cubic feet per day (mcf/d) of natural gas, equivalent to 5,000 barrels of oil equivalent. It is currently operating at a controlled…

 The US crude stocks, a key statistic that determines the price of crude oil in the world, have been steadily rising since June, despite the nation being in the peak summer driving season, from April to September.Most analysts believe it is due to the increased oil production in the US: the forecasts for 2025-26 suggest that the US can produce 13.4 million barrels per day, especially in the Permian basin that is estimated to be accounting for almost 50% of US production; it goes without saying that an output of this magnitude leads to a surplus of supply that in…

Mitsubishi Power, the energy solutions brand of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has completed a hydrogen fuel conversion project at the refinery of the Alexandria National Refining and Petrochemical Company (ANRPC). The project marks the first industrial use of hydrogen as boiler fuel in Egypt and the wider MENA region. The project, whose contract was unveiled in 2022, contributes to the utilization of 14,000 tons per year (tpa) of hydrogen-rich gases available in the production units, reducing natural gas consumption by about 24,000 tons as well as the reduction of carbon emissions by about 65,000 tpa. “This project represents an unprecedented achievement…

The northern hemisphere summer is the period when demand for transport fuels picks up, especially in the US when the “driving season” kicks off on the Labor Day weekend. While this seasonal trend is historically when gasoline demand in particular peaks, it is diesel and gasoil that have pushed product prices higher this year. The diesel crude crack spread in Europe rose to nearly $30/B in Europe in July, up 66% year-on-year and its highest level since February 2024 (see chart 1). This has been matched by similar increases in the Asia Pacific region and in North America amid a…

Two sources from the Indian government stated that the country will continue to buy oil from Russia despite U.S President Donald Trump’s warnings to impose more penalties, Reuters reported. The sources confirmed that there is no change in the country’s plans for oil purchases, attributing this to the long-term contracts it has signed. They also noted that India receives the oil at lower prices than those determined by the European Union (EU). They also elaborated that this helps keep oil prices without increases. In July, Trump declared that more penalties, besides a 25% tariff, would be applied on India’s exports…