Author: Rigs & Barge World

Israel remains the jewel in Chevron’s East Med crown (see main story), but the US major has also taken the first steps this year towards potentially developing Cyprus’ 3.5tcf Aphrodite, located just 30km away from Leviathan. “We see more growth potential in the region in general,” Chevron VP Mark Nelson says. “Cyprus is part of that equation, our Aphrodite project where… we’ve made good progress with the government there, and we’ve got approved plans to push ourselves towards FID,” he said on his firm’s Q2 earnings call on 1 August. Chevron began a seabed survey in June to map out…

Hayan Abdul-Ghani, the Iraqi Deputy PM for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil stated that his country is considering resuming exporting oil through the Syrian Baniyas and Lebanese Tripoli pipelines, with the aim to diversify the export routes, Iraq News Agency reported. This came during the minister’s meeting with his Syrian counterpart, Mohammed Bashir, where they discussed the mutual cooperation between the two countries in the fields of oil, gas, and energy.   Abdul-Ghani highlighted that the oil export pipeline between Iraq and Syria had been operating for decades, noting the importance of revamping it to be usable again.  …

Karim Badawi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR), paid a surprise visit to the National Gas Network Control Centre (NATA) at the headquarters of the Egyptian Natural Gas Company (GASCO) on Wednesday to inspect the network’s operational readiness and contingency plans for handling potential surges in consumption during peak power demand months. Badawi listened to a detailed briefing from Yasser Salah El-Din, Chairman of GASCO, on the network’s operational preparedness. The minister stated that the ministry is fully ready to deal with any sudden demand changes. He further reviewed the steady gas supplies from the Floating Storage and Regasification…

Egypt is doing its best to entice companies to step up drilling for gas, but to little avail. In its latest bid to generate momentum the Ministry of Petroleum has signed “a new agreement with incentive terms” with European majors Eni (50%) and BP (50%) for their offshore Temsah concession. “The agreement includes drilling an exploration well in the Temsah concession area in the coming months, as part of efforts to advance natural gas exploration plans and boost the potential for new discoveries,” Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum stated on 31 July. (CONTINUED – 1025 WORDS) Read this article for free…

Karim Badawi, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, met with Mostafa El Gabaly, CEO of Polyserve for Fertilizers and Chemicals to discuss speeding up the launch of a new project developed by the group to extract, process, and utilize phosphate to be used  in producing phosphate fertilizers and phosphoric acid. During the meeting, Badawi stated that his ministry is committed to supporting both Egyptian and foreign private sector investors to help them quickly implement their projects. He also emphasized the Ministry’s dedication to supporting the Egyptian private sector’s investment in exploiting and processing phosphate, thereby enhancing its added value.…

Saudi Aramco’s investment in its gas reserves is paying off this year, with output on course for its biggest annual increase since at least 2016. Total gas output – sales gas and ethane – increased by more than 6% year-on-year over the first half of the year, and the second half performance should be stronger still. Associated gas output will rise further through Q3 as Opec+ crude production cuts are eased (MEES, 8 August), and two major gas projects are planned to start operations before the end of the year. Output averaged 11.85bn cfd last quarter, up sharply from 11.09…

The Q2 2025 operation results of Barrick Gold company showed a gold production surge by 5% and copper by 34% compared to Q1 2025. The strong performance was supported by a strong contribution from Lumwana, a large open-pit copper mine in Zambia, owned and operated by the company. The company mentioned that it produced 204 ounces of gold in Q1 2025 with guidance production of 820-910 ounces for 2025. Additionally, the results indicated an increase in the net earnings per share to $0.47 in Q2 2025. It also revealed higher operating cash flow during H1 2025 by 32%, reaching $2.5…

North Bahariya Petroleum Company (NORPETCO) has commenced crude oil production from the Ferdous-23 well, drilled 13 new other wells exceeding its annual target, and added 1.5 million barrels of proven reserves. The statement was made during the company’s General Assembly, headed by Salah Abdel Kerim, Chairman of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), to approve its work results for the fiscal year (FY) 2024/2025. Alongside its upstream performance, NORPETCO also expanded its renewable energy footprint, increasing its solar capacity to 124 kilowatt (KW) and launching a tender for an additional 800 KW station. On the infrastructure development front, the Egyptian…

Adnoc Gas, the Abu Dhabi firm responsible for managing most of the emirate’s gas processing and export facilities, has been having a stellar year. CFO Peter van Driel opened a 6 August media round table in a confident tone: “I think it’s obvious that with a $1.39bn net income for the quarter we’ve done pretty well.” This is the firm’s highest ever quarterly profit since it was established in 2022 (MEES, 2 December 2022), and was up 16% year on year (see chart). Domestic demand was the primary driver of these gains, with net income from domestic gas sales rising…

Mohamed Radwan, Ganoub El Wadi Petroleum Holding Company’s (Ganope) Vice Chairman for Agreements and Exploration and Egypt Upstream Gateway’s (EUG) Project Manager at the Ministry of Petroleum, revealed that the gateway, now comprising 47 member companies, has attracted investments worth over $1.2 billion for the purpose of drilling 127 wells in 51 areas since its launch in February 2021. The figures were mentioned in his review of the gateway’s achievements, in partnership with the international company Schlumberger, in a meeting with MoMPR Minister Karim Badawi. He also reviewed the team’s efforts in supporting investors’ decisions The progress of EUG was…