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Libya's El Feel Oilfield Restarts, El Sharara Closed

Libya’s El Feel oilfield has restarted production, National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Wednesday, as it moves slowly to restore some output following protests that closed fields and ports. The government said on Monday it had reached an agreement with protesters to reopen the western El Sharara, El Feel and Wafa oilfields and the pipelines connecting them to the Zawiya port. Expectations and doubts about the return of the oilfields have driven global oil prices this week. The El Sharara oilfield, the largest at 340,000 barrels per day (bpd), was still closed on Wednesday, because protesters had not yet opened the pipeline valve to the port, field manager Hassan Sadiq said. "They (protesters) reopened the valves for the Wafa and El-Feel oil fields but not for Sharara," he said. "We are ready to resume work once the valves are reopened." NOC spokesman Mohammed El […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya’s El Feel Oilfield Restarts, El Sharara Closed

Libya’s El Feel oilfield has restarted production, National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Wednesday, as it moves slowly to restore some output following protests that closed fields and ports. The government said on Monday it had reached an agreement with protesters to reopen the western El Sharara, El Feel and Wafa oilfields and the pipelines connecting them to the Zawiya port. Expectations and doubts about the return of the oilfields have driven global oil prices this week. The El Sharara oilfield, the largest at 340,000 barrels per day (bpd), was still closed on Wednesday, because protesters had not yet opened the pipeline valve to the port, field manager Hassan Sadiq said. "They (protesters) reopened the valves for the Wafa and El-Feel oil fields but not for Sharara," he said. "We are ready to resume work once the valves are reopened." NOC spokesman Mohammed El […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Cairo: BP to invest big in Egypt

British energy company BP aims to invest about $1.5 billion in the Egyptian oil and gas sector, the Egyptian government said. State-run media in Egypt said Monday representatives from BP met Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and Oil Minister Sherif Ismal in Cairo to discuss work in the Egyptian energy sector. The government said the delegation welcomed Egyptian efforts to overcome "obstacles facing companies working on the Egyptian market." BP’s counterpart, BG Group, expressed concern about its future operations in Egypt, citing continued diversions of natural gas to the domestic market. No cargoes of liquefied natural gas left Egypt during the first quarter of 2014 and the company said it produced 66,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Egypt, down 35 percent from fourth quarter 2013. The Egyptian government said BP is investing $1.5 billion in the oil and gas sector during the second half […]

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Libyan oil operations closed since March, OMV says

Operations in Libya for Austrian energy company OMV were curtailed sharply by security issues, CEO Gerhard Roiss said Tuesday. OMV said its production for first quarter 2014 was 311,000 barrels oil equivalent higher year-on-year. Roiss said in a statement production from his company’s portfolio in Norway helped offset losses from North Africa. "Libyan operations … were again impacted by security issues and production has been shut in since mid-March," he said in a statement . "We took several steps to further strengthen our upstream portfolio." OMV said the situation in Libya remains "very difficult to predict." Optimism over a rebound in the Libyan oil sector increased last month when the Libyan National Oil Company announced it lifted an emergency declaration on oil operations at its Zueitina terminal in the east of the country. OMV, however, said production from its operations in Libya has been shut […]

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Ambassador From Jordan Freed by Captors in Libya

he Jordanian ambassador to Libya, who was taken hostage by gunmen in the Libyan capital last month, was freed and returned to Jordan on Tuesday after his government agreed to release a Libyan citizen serving a life sentence on terrorism charges, officials in both countries said. The ambassador, Fawaz al-Itan, arrived at a military airport in Jordan on Tuesday and said he had been treated well in captivity. Nasser Judeh, the Jordanian foreign minister, said Mr. Itan’s captors had ties to the Libyan citizen, Mohamed el-Dressi, who was convicted in 2007 of plotting to blow up Jordan’s main international airport. He did not specify what those ties were. Mr. Dressi flew to Libya on Monday. The apparent exchange of Mr. Dressi for Mr. Itan immediately raised concerns that it would embolden militant groups in Libya, which have turned to kidnapping to win concessions at home and […]

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Libya Oil Output May Double as Western Protests End

Libya’s daily oil output may double to 500,000 barrels today after protesters agreed to reopen pipelines carrying crude from fields in the country’s western region, according to officials. The valves at the Sharara field have reopened and oil will reach the Zawiya refinery within a few hours, Mansour Abdullah, an official at the refinery, said late yesterday. Earlier, National Oil Corp. spokesman Mohamed Elharari had said by phone from Tripoli that the Elephant, Hamada and Wafa fields, as well as Sharara, were due to resume production last night or this morning “and progressively increase output.” The protesters agreed to stop blocking oil shipments after the authorities started preparations to hold elections for a new parliament, Elharari said. Spokesmen for the protesters couldn’t immediately be reached by phone for comment. Repsol SA-operated Sharara and Eni SpA-operated Elephant are the largest fields in western Libya, with daily capacities of about 340,000 […]

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Egyptian Tourism’s Message to World: Come Anyway

We’ve missed you,” Egypt’s ministry of tourism says in its new advertising campaign , a plaintive plea for summer visitors from wealthy countries in the Persian Gulf. That is putting it mildly. For three years now, political turmoil has scared many travelers away from Egypt, leaving millions of people whose livelihoods depend on visitors desperate for any sign of an end to the most sustained tourism crisis anyone here can recall. At Cosmos , a 37-year-old tour company in Cairo that used to serve up to 30,000 customers a year, Khaled M. Ismail, the company’s director of operations, said he had not booked a single visitor since May 2013. The company’s once-hectic headquarters are deserted most of the time: Employees come in only once a week, to pay the bills. “We’re not expecting any business until 2015,” Mr. Ismail said, sitting alone in his office one recent […]

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Libyan ports Es Sider, Ras Lanuf still closed as deal splinters: US ambassador

The reopening of the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf oil ports in eastern Libya remains in limbo as the government appears to be backing away from a deal with rebels negotiated by ousted Prime Minister Ali Zidan, the US ambassador to Libya said Tuesday. "We have no way of knowing" if the ports would reopen, Ambassador Deborah Jones said in a conference call with US businesses considering investing in Libya. "I’m not terribly optimistic in large part because there was not a lot of buy-in in the General National Council, their parliament, for the terms of the deal." Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, which have a combined capacity of 560,000 b/d, have been closed since rebels seeking more autonomy took over the ports last August. Article continues below… Oilgram News brings you fast-breaking global petroleum and gas news on and including: Industry players, upstream […]

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Israeli gas may be bound for Egypt

Noble Energy said it was considering sending as much as 440 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Tamar field offshore Israel to a plant in Egypt. Noble and its field partners at Tamar signed a non-binding letter of intent with Union Fenosa Gas to deliver natural gas to a facility that can turn it into super-cooled liquefied natural gas. The letter of intent spells out a 15-year term for a total 2.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from Tamar. "This LOI with Union Fenosa Gas represents a major milestone for our Tamar asset and is indicative of the strong regional demand for natural gas," Keith Elliot, Noble’s vice president in charge of regional operations, said in a statement Tuesday. Spanish company UFG holds an 80 percent stake in the subsidiary controlling the Damietta LNG facility in Egypt. It has […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple