Category:

IMF says Egypt’s economy starting to recover

CAIRO (AP) — An International Monetary Fund official says that Egypt’s economy has begun to recover after four years of slow activity. The statement from Chris Jarvis late Tuesday followed an IMF delegation visit to Egypt for a long-delayed assessment of the economy. He says that Egyptian authorities "have set appropriate economic objectives." The IMF says it projects Egypt’s growth to reach 3.8 percent in the fiscal year 2014/15, in line with the government’s own stated goals. Egypt’s growth rate has been hovering at around 2 percent since the country’s 2011 revolt. Finance Minister Hany Kadry Dimian has said he hopes the resumption of consultations with the IMF will help restore confidence in the economy. The government aims to attract investment by hosting a three-day international economic conference in March.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Morocco emerging as strong oil frontier

Australian energy company Woodside Petroleum maintains commitment to exploring frontier oil and gas territory off the coast of Morocco. (UPI/Shutterstock/num_skyman) PERTH, Australia, Nov. 26 (UPI) — Australian energy company Woodside Petroleum said Wednesday it was stepping further into frontier territory with an exploration deal offshore Morocco. Woodside said it will explore a block known as the Rabat Ultra Deep Offshore area, where waters range in depth from 1 mile to more than 2.5 miles deep. The block is located adjacent to a similar deepwater license area, in which Woodside already holds a 25 percent stake. Under the terms of a 1-year commitment, Woodside said it would conduct a seismic survey of the region to get a better understanding of the reserve potential offshore Morocco. Morocco is one of the West African countries that have drawn interest from international energy companies eager to tap into unexploited reserves. Scottish energy company […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya’s Nafoura oilfield will resume production on Monday-officials

BENGHAZI, Libya Nov 23 (Reuters) – Libya’s Nafoura oilfield will resume production on Monday after protesters demanding jobs ended a protest, officials at the Libyan state operator said on Sunday. The field in volatile eastern Libya used to produce up to 65,000 barrels a day of oil until local protesters forced a shutdown over a month ago to demand to be hired by the state oil firm AGOCO, oil officials said. "The production at Nafoura oilfield will resume tomorrow," AGOCO spokesman Omran Zawie said. Several mostly smaller fields in the east have been closed in the past three months by locals making political or financial demands, part of turmoil in Libya three years after the ouster of former strongman Muammar Gaddafi. Separately, oil officials said the southwestern El Feel field has not yet resumed production after Libya shut it down more than a week ago when clashes forced the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Car Bombs Explode Near Egyptian and U.A.E. Embassies in Libya

BAGHDAD — Car bombs exploded outside the embassies of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in Tripoli, Libya , early on Thursday, apparently in a backlash against the two countries for their role in a regional proxy war playing out in Libya. No one was wounded in the blasts, according to officials. The embassies were closed months ago, and the bombs exploded early in the morning. A day earlier, bombs in the eastern Libyan cities of Tobruk and Baida killed at least five people and wounded at least 20. All four blasts appeared to be part of the same civil conflict and regional tug of war. Three years after the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi , Libya has collapsed into a violent struggle for power between two rival coalitions of militias and tribes. The side that controls Tripoli includes hard-line and more moderate Islamists, as well as non-Islamist regional […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

BP Egypt, partners to invest $240 million in Egyptian blocks

By OGJ editors BP Egypt and its partners have committed to investing $240 million in two exploration blocks awarded by Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co. (Egas) in its 2013 bid round ( OGJ Online, Sept. 25, 2014 ). Block 3, North El Mataria, which marks BP’s entry into the onshore Nile Delta, lies in the northeastern section of the Nile Delta cone, 57 km west of Port Said. BP will operate the block with 50% equity and Dana Gas of Abu Dhabi will hold the remainder ( OGJ Online, Sept. 30, 2014 ). BP holds 50% interest in the Denise-Karawan (Deka) natural gas development offshore the Nile Delta, which started production in August ( OGJ Online, Aug. 22, 2014 ). Block 8, Karawan Offshore, lies in the Mediterranean Sea on the northeastern part of Egypt’s economic waters. The block is 220 km northeast and 170 km the northwest of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya Plans to Resume Output at Biggest Oil Field Today

Libya , holder of Africa ’s largest crude reserves, is resuming output at its biggest oil field even as operations at some export terminals are disrupted. The Sharara and Elephant fields in southwestern Libya will restart production by today after gunmen returned equipment they had stolen from the sites, Mohamed Elharari, a spokesman for state-run National Oil Corp., said by telephone yesterday from Tripoli. Crude shipments from the eastern Hariga terminal remain halted, said Ihab Said, an inspector at the facility. Two other export ports, Es Sider and Mellitah, were shut last week because of bad weather, three traders with knowledge of the matter said Nov. 7. Loadings at Hariga were affected by worker strikes, according to two traders. Es Sider, Libya’s largest port, has capacity for 340,000 barrels a day of crude, while Mellitah can handle 160,000 barrels and Hariga can ship 110,000 barrels. Libya is seeking to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

BP commits to big Egyptian investments

BP commits to spending lavishly on exploration and production in Egypt. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian BP said it committed to invest $240 million on developing two new exploration blocks near the Nile Delta and in the northwestern Egyptian waters of the Mediterranean Sea through a partnership with Emirati energy company Dana Gas. "Exploring the two blocks will require substantial investments to unlock their potential, and will be done as part of our commitment to meeting Egypt’s energy needs," Hesham Mekawi, regional president for BP, said in a statement. BP said it will spend at least six years on exploration and production in the area. BP’s announcement follows a downgrade from rival BG group , which said last month it expects its Egyptian gas production to decline. BG Group said its activities in Egypt accounted for 10 percent of its production and around 3 percent of its earnings during the third quarter. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Militant Group in Egypt Vows Loyalty to ISIS

CAIRO — They have slaughtered hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police officers, recruited experienced fighters and staged increasingly sophisticated raids from the Western desert to the Sinai Peninsula. They have beheaded informants and killed an American in a carjacking, say Western officials familiar with intelligence reports. On Monday, Egypt ’s most dangerous militant group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, also pledged obedience to the organization that calls itself the Islamic State, becoming its first significant international affiliate in the bet that the link will provide new money, weapons and recruits to battle the government in Cairo. The affiliation could pull the militant group away from its current, almost exclusive focus on attacking Egyptian military and security forces toward the Islamic State’s indiscriminate mass killings of civilians. The pledge alone could undermine the government’s efforts to win the trust of Western tourists, a vital source of hard currency. The decision injects the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya Plans to Resume Output at Biggest Oil Field Today

Libya , holder of Africa ’s largest crude reserves, is resuming output at its biggest oil field even as operations at some export terminals are disrupted. The Sharara and Elephant fields in southwestern Libya will restart production by today after gunmen returned equipment they had stolen from the sites, Mohamed Elharari, a spokesman for state-run National Oil Corp., said by telephone yesterday from Tripoli. Crude shipments from the eastern Hariga terminal remain halted, said Ihab Said, an inspector at the facility. Two other export ports, Es Sider and Mellitah, were shut last week because of bad weather, three traders with knowledge of the matter said Nov. 7. Loadings at Hariga were affected by worker strikes, according to two traders. Es Sider, Libya’s largest port, has capacity for 340,000 barrels a day of crude, while Mellitah can handle 160,000 barrels and Hariga can ship 110,000 barrels. Libya is seeking to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple