Egypt to offer new production model to foreign oil and gas firms - INDIA TIMES / REUTERS

REUTERS | October 26, 2018, 15:57 IST

CAIRO: Egypt is working on a new production sharing model with foreign energy companies to encourage oil and gas exploration in deep waters, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said on Thursday.

"We are thinking of having... a simpler way of having the calculations with our partners," Molla said during a US business meeting in Cairo.

"So far the feedback that we received from different partners is very positive and they are enthusiastic to participate in the bid round on this basis," he said.

Under the new model, companies will be offered a share of production in exchange for bearing the costs of exploration and production.

"It will be all together and one figure that includes cost recovery and the profit share of the partner, so we don't go towards what we call cost recovery audits, which sometimes take effort, (create) arguments between different departments and,...for new frontier areas, it wouldn't be encouraging."

Molla said that bigger oil companies wanted the new model especially for risky deepwater frontier areas in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean near the Libyan border that are coming up in the next two bid rounds.

Israel's Ratio Oil expected to sign Philippines exploration deal - INDIA TIMES / REUTERS

REUTERS | September 04, 2018, 18:17 IST

TEL AVIV: Israel's Ratio Oil Exploration is expected to sign a long-awaited deal on Tuesday to search for oil and gas in the Philippines, a spokesman for Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said.

Ratio was not available for immediate comment.

The company in 2015 was one of a number of foreign firms to be awarded an exploration deal. Ratio won the so-called East Palawan block, a 416,000-hectare oil and gas prospect off of Palawan, a southeastern province near the South China Sea.

But the award was delayed due to legal issues involving a previous exploration contract covering that block.

Duterte is visiting Israel this week. During his visit, Israel and the Philippines signed an agreement promoting foreign investments between the two countries.

Snam-led consortium in 535 mln euro deal for stake in Greece's gas grid operator DESFA- INDIA TIMES / REUTERS

July 20, 2018, 16:39 IST

ATHENS: A consortium led by Italy's Snam will take a majority stake in Greek gas grid operator DESFA under a 535 million euro ($623 million) deal signed on Friday, the country's HRADF privatisation agency said.

A consortium of Snam, Spain's Enagas Internacional and Belgium's Fluxys will buy a 66 percent stake from the government and top Greek oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum .

Greece's DEPA clinches $175-million deal with Shell on domestic gas supplier - INDIA TIMES / REUTERS

July 13, 2018, 15:43 IST

Athens: Greece's state-controlled DEPA gas company will buy out Shell's 49 per cent stake in a domestic gas supplier, Attiki Gas Supply Company, and a gas distributor in Athens and become the sole stakeholder in the two companies, it said on Friday.

The deal between DEPA and Shell, which was signed on Friday, is worth 150 million euros ($174.45 million) and is part of a scheme under Greece's latest international bailout which says that Athens needs to eliminate potential conflicts of interest between DEPA and domestic gas suppliers.

DEPA is 65 per cent owned by the state.

Attack shuts major Libyan oil ports, slashing production - INDIA TIMES / REUTERS

REUTERS | June 15, 2018, 07:45 IST

The major Libyan oil ports of Ras Lanuf and Es Sider were closed and evacuated on Thursday after armed brigades opposed to the powerful eastern commander Khalifa Haftar stormed them, causing a production loss of 240,000 barrels per day (bpd).

At least one storage tank at Ras Lanuf terminal was set alight following the early morning attack, an engineer told Reuters. Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared force majeure on loadings from both terminals.

The clashes between forces loyal to Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) and rival armed groups continued throughout the day south of Ras Lanuf, where the LNA was targeting its opponents with air strikes, local sources said.

Military sources said the LNA had withdrawn from both ports.