industryterm:gas sector

Lebanon’s oil & gas sector is stepping into the implementation phase
▻https://www.mesp.me/2018/04/09/lebanons-oil-gas-sector-stepping-into-implementation-phase

The Ministry of Energy and Water published the full text of the exploration and production contracts signed with the consortium made up of Total, Eni and Novatek. Lebanon is the first country in the Eastern Mediterranean to disclose signed agreements, and – regardless of the provisions in this agreement – this is a welcome move that deserves to be highlighted. Click here for Block 4’s EPA, and here for Block 9’s EPA.

There were indications that the LPA and Ministry of Energy intended to disclose the contracts, but it’s all in the timing: It’s one thing to make them available at the beginning of the process and another thing to disclose them further down the road.

#pétrole #gaz #Liban

Paris climate negotiations won’t stop the planet burning
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/paris-climate-negotiations-won-t-stop-planet-burning-1543258788

It is not widely known that US, British, French and Israeli oil companies have had a range of overlapping interests in exploiting Syria’s unconventional oil and gas resources, which are believed to be considerable.

A document for the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum reveals that just months before the uprising, British oil major Shell was about to “devise a master plan for the development of the gas sector in Syria, following an agreement signed with the Ministry of Petroleum. The agreement includes an assessment of the overall undiscovered gas potential in Syria, potential for upstream gas production, need for gas transmission and distribution networks…”

CGGVeritas, a firm backed by the French government, had conducted seismic surveys estimating Syria’s total offshore hydrocarbon potential to represent “billion-barrel/multi-TCF [trillion cubic feet]” levels. A study by the firm was published in 2011 by GeoArabia, a Bahrain-based petroleum industry journal sponsored by Chevron, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Total, and BP.

Total, another French major, also worked with Assad at this time.

More recently, another US firm with interests in Syria is Genie Oil and Gas, an Israeli subsidiary of which was granted a licence by the Israeli government in 2013 to explore the Syrian Golan Heights, which has been controlled by Israel since capturing the territory from Syria in 1967.

In early November, Prime Minister Netanyahu personally asked Barack Obama in a private meeting if Israel’s right to the Golan could be accepted by the US, to which the American president apparently said nothing.

Genie’s board consists of an interesting mix, including former former CIA director James Woolsey, Vice President Dick Cheney, global media baron Rupert Murdoch, Obama’s former economic advisor Larry Summers, and Obama’s nomimee for Secretary of Commerce Bill Richardson, among others.

“We want a new Syrian state including some of those who are fighting it helping on the ground,” said British defence secretary Michael Fallon.

No doubt, US, British, French and Israeli oil firms hope to be well positioned to take advantage of the “new Syrian state” in a post-conflict Syria.

#Syrie #hydrocarbures #énergie #business

Egypt: ENI’s Zohr, a boost for political stability
▻http://www.mesp.me/2015/09/06/egypt-enis-zohr-a-boost-for-political-stability-in-egypt

Regardless if it is correct or not, the discovery of Zohr is already perceived, in Egypt and beyond, as the result of the measures taken to reform the gas sector over the past year. As such, it is a boost for President Sisi. But the reasoning goes both ways: Political stability in Egypt relies on the performance of its energy sector, and putting the energy sector back on track relies on political stability. ENI’s discovery couldn’t have come at a better time for Sisi: On 30/08, Egypt announced it will hold parliamentary elections in October and November 2015. The intense media coverage will make sure Egyptians will head to polls with two “spectacular” achievements directly attributed to Sisi in mind: the inauguration of the new Suez canal, and the discovery of Zohr.

#Egypte #gaz

The Scandal of Nigerian Oil Block OPL 245 | Global Witness

▻http://www.globalwitness.org/library/scandal-nigerian-oil-block-opl-245

Via J.-C. Servant

How secrecy in the oil & gas sector and the use of anonymous shell companies led to hundreds of millions of dollars being diverted away from Nigeria’s citizens and into the hands of a convicted money-launderer.

The Story

In May 2012, Global Witness pieced together detailed court documents and other evidence that exposed how Nigerian subsidiaries of Royal Dutch Shell and Italian oil giant Eni agreed to pay US$1.092 billion for one of Nigeria’s most lucrative oil blocks, OPL245.

The payment was made by Shell and Eni to the Nigerian government who had a separate agreement to pay the same amount to Malabu Oil and Gas, a company widely believed at the time of the payments to be controlled by convicted money-launderer[i] and former oil minister Chief Dan Etete. In July 2013, a British High Court ruled[ii] that Etete was indeed the owner of Malabu Oil & Gas. As Etete had awarded the oil block to Malabu Oil and Gas whilst oil minister during the regime of the corrupt dictator General Abacha, he had effectively given himself one of the most lucrative oil blocks in Nigeria[iii].

#nigeria #pétrole #énergie #corruption #spéculation