Author: Rigs & Barge World

Egypt has secured a stable and reliable system to meet its natural gas needs for the next five years through the floating, storage, and regasification units (FSRU), Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly stated during the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “The use of these units is a temporary measure until Egypt restores its full domestic production capacity, which is expected to happen in parallel with the increasing exploration and drilling activities,” said Madbouly. He explained that exploration and drilling operations are being actively resumed by foreign partners, following the government’s success in settling their monthly dues and accumulated payments, with the value…

Qatar’s quarrel with the EU over the bloc’s planned sustainability regulations has intensified after it emerged that QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi had issued a stark warning to the European Union. According to a letter to the Belgian government cited by Reuters, Qatar is threatening to cut its LNG exports to the bloc if it enforces its corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDDD) due to take effect between 2027 and 2029. The directive will penalize large companies that do not meet certain environmental and labor standards including a goal to reach net-zero by 2050, which QatarEnergy has no plans to achieve…

The Iraqi Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul Ghani, stated that the country is resuming exporting oil through the Turkish Ceyhan pipeline on August 6 or 7. This came during the opening of several development and rehabilitation projects at oil stations in Kirkuk region. He elaborated that the initial volume of exports amounted to 80,000 barrels per day (bbl/d), after the agreement with the Kurdistan region. Abdul Ghani noted that Iraq was able to increase its production by 256,000 bbl/d at the wet oil station, pointing out that its total capacity in northern Kirkuk reached 90,000 bbl/d. Recently, Turkey announced that…

The development of Italian major Eni’s 3.1tcf (gas in place) Cronos gas field offshore Cyprus is progressing, with high level meetings taking place in Nicosia on 25 July. While an official development plan has yet to be filed by operator Eni, a host government agreement signed in February this year indicated that gas will be sent south to Egypt (MEES, 21 February). “It will be a subsea tie-back to the Egyptian facilities,” Eni’s COO Global Natural Resources Guido Brusco confirmed in April. MEES understands around 500mn cfd of output will be sent 70km southeast to Eni’s Zohr facilities in Egyptian…

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Karim Badawi, announced a new round of transfers and assignments for operation leaders in the petroleum sector. Mohamed Farouk Ghoneim Hussein was appointed as General Manager of Petroleum Engineering and Operations at Petrobakr Petroleum Company. Mohamed Khamis Ahmed El-Shabassy was seconded as a General Manager of Operations and a member of the Board of Directors under the supervision of the two Managing Directors at Petrobakr Petroleum Company. Mohamed Karim Mahmoud Ali was appointed General Manager of Operations and a member of the Board of Directors at South Dabaa Petroleum Company (Dapetco). Harby Fathallah Tantawy…

The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) held a workshop to review the actual results of the trial run for a project at the Alexandria National Refining and Petrochemicals Company (ANRPC). This project involved changing the main boiler’s fuel system. During the trial, the boiler was operated using hydrogen surplus instead of natural gas. Approximately 12,000 tons of hydrogen-rich gases were utilized as a substitute for 20,000 tons of natural gas. This pioneering initiative in the petroleum sector yielded significant economic savings and environmental benefits During the workshop and field trip, the successful model was presented as a way to adopt…

Middle Eastern barrels have continued to dominate the oft-overlooked East Africa market in 2025, with a whopping 77% of the region’s 685,000 b/d imports coming from the Mideast Gulf, according to data from intelligence firm Kpler. The ‘big four’ products exporters – Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, and Kuwait – account for in excess of 95% of this flow. Saudi Arabia’s role in the trade has been squeezed in recent years, ceding market share to Kuwait and Oman, as it instead delivers more volumes to Europe (MEES, 1 August). Kuwaiti exports to East Africa increased from 56,000 b/d in 2021…

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…