Author: Rigs & Barge World

Adnoc’s $3.5bn Crude Flexibility Project (CFP) upgrades to the 417,000 b/d Ruwais West refinery enabled it to move away from primarily processing light sour Murban crude (40°API, 0.7% Sulfur) and to refine heavier barrels instead, yielding improved margins. The project was commissioned in late 2023 and the story of 2024 was one of increasing flows of Adnoc’s Upper Zakum (34° API, 1.75% Sulfur), and non-system crudes, being refined at Ruwais (MEES, 10 January 2025). However, instead of yielding greater margins the surge in exports of Adnoc’s flagship Murban crude tanked prices for the grade, exacerbating a dynamic driven by increased…

Dana Gas, the Middle East’s leading private natural gas company, has drilled four wells in Egypt throughout 2025  and completed a workover program across three additional wells, boosting the total production of its Egyptian activities to  27 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) of gas by the end of the year, alongside an uplift in reserves, noted a press release by the company. The company said that it plans to drill seven more wells in 2026 as part of the program, with the next one—Daffodil—set to spud in January. Further evaluations are ongoing to pinpoint additional rework opportunities for…

PetroGulf Misr has successfully implemented an advanced drilling model at the GNN-16 well in the Gulf of Suez, reducing operational costs by $700,000 and shortening the drilling timeline by 5.5 days, according to a Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoMPR) statement. The technical breakthrough was achieved through a joint task force between PetroGulf Misr and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC). The team re-engineered the traditional well design into a more flexible and efficient model by consolidating two drilling stages into a single phase and eliminating the need for casing installation. This streamlined approach is anticipated to increase PetroGulf’s…

The UAE is doubling down on its Artificial Intelligence ambitions, seeking to establish a competitive advantage in the energy-hungry industry. Hype behind the technology continues to build, and the need to establish resilient supply chains is increasingly a political priority for the US, opening up new geopolitical opportunities. This week saw Qatar and the UAE both sign up to the US-led ‘Pax Silica,’ which Washington describes as “an economic security coalition built for the AI age. This is the first time countries are organizing around compute, silicon, minerals, and energy as shared strategic assets.” (CONTINUED – 953 WORDS) Read this…

Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Hassan El-Khatib met with a delegation from Evolve Holding and its partner, Stonex, to discuss expanding their investments in Egypt’s precious metals sector, according to a Cabinet statement. El-Khatib emphasised the strategic importance of the sector, noting that Egypt’s gold exports have surged to reach $6 billion. Evolve Holding, in partnership with Stonex, outlined an ambitious expansion strategy targeting precious metals trading, logistics services, and gold-backed non-banking financial products. The delegation also highlighted plans for digital products to formalise and maximise the efficiency of the domestic gold trade. Company representatives noted that Egypt’s gold…

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has chaired the first meeting of the Supreme Committee for Gold, outlining a strategic shift to transform Egypt from a raw gold exporter into a global industrial hub, according to a Cabinet statement. The committee, established this month following a decree by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, aims to maximize the value added of Egypt’s gold sector across all stages, including extraction, purification, and manufacturing. During the meeting, Madbouly emphasised that the government is working to regulate the market and intensify exploration activities to boost national gold reserves. A central highlight of the meeting was the review…

France’s TotalEnergies lifted a 70,000-ton LNG cargo from Egypt’s 7.2mn t/y ELNG export terminal at Idku on 10 January, according to data intelligence firm Kpler, the first export cargo of the year. Total has a 5% stake at Idku’s Train 1 (MEES, 16 February 2018). The cargo is heading to Canada according to Egypt’s Petroleum Ministry and marks the seventh cargo lifted from Idku since September, when Cairo provided guidance that ten cargoes would be exported during the low-demand winter period. (CONTINUED – 294 WORDS) Read this article for free Gain access to over 60-years of energy analysis and news…

Egypt’s Kemet has signed two major cooperation agreements and one memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the field of renewable energy and energy storage with leading Chinese companies, according to statements by the Cabinet. The signings were witnessed by Mahmoud Esmat, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, as part of his visit to China. Kemet Chairman Ahmed El Abd signed the MoU with Zhang Xin, Chairman of TBEA, a global leader in power engineering and electrical equipment manufacturing, to cooperate on renewable energy systems, localize the electrical power grid connection systems, and establish the first factory to produce inverters in Egypt.…

The Western Desert Operating Petroleum Company (WEPCO) has successfully increased crude oil production at the Badr-1 field to over 7,500 barrels per day (bbl/d), representing more than a tenfold increase from the 800 bbl/d recorded when the company first assumed management of the site. The achievement was highlighted by Mohamed Elghamry, Senior Exploration Geophysicist at Badr Petroleum Company, a subsidiary of WEPCO, during a recent episode of Petrocast, the podcast sponsored by the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources(MoMPR). Elghamry noted that the production surge is part of the MoMPR’s strategy to intensify exploration and leverage modern technology to revitalise…

Pharaonic Petroleum Company (PhPC) confirmed plans to fast-track drilling activities to bring a new development well onstream in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2026 with a production rate of 40 million cubic feet (mmcf/d) of gas per day. This came during a meeting of Ehab Ragaee, First Undersecretary for Production at the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR) and Samir Raslan, Undersecretary of the MoPMR for Agreements and Exploration with Hossam Zaki, Chairman of PHPC, along with representatives of the company’s international partners, to review PHPC’s forward plans to accelerate production growth and expand recoverable gas and condensate reserves.…