James Cockayne

1 month ago | mees.com | Nada A. Ahmed |James Cockayne

There are fewer than 50 days to go before Algeria’s first oil and gas bid round in a decade closes on 17 June, with bids to be opened and provisional awards made the same day (MEES, 18 October 2024). Launched by state hydrocarbon regulator Alnaft in October after several years in the making, the long-awaited bid round offers six large onshore blocks totaling 152,000 km2 – substantially larger than England – encompassing both gas and oil-prone areas of Algeria (see map).

2 months ago | mees.com | James Cockayne

18 Apr 2025 Issue: 68 / 16 By: James Cockayne China imported 12.15mn b/d of crude oil in March, the highest monthly figure since August 2023, and a sharp rebound from an average of just 10.4mn b/d for January and February (MEES, 21 March). Refinery runs of 14.89mn b/d were the highest in a year and the fourth highest on record, with Q1 average runs of 14.82mn b/d second only to the all-time high of 14.95mn b/d hit in Q3 last year.

2 months ago | mees.com | James Cockayne |Nada A. Ahmed

Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi last week pledged that his company will invest “more than €8bn [$9.1bn]” in each of its three key North Africa areas of operations over the next four years. A pledge that means that the region, which provided 35% of the Italian firm’s global output for 2024 (598,000 boe/d of 1.71mn boe/d), is likely to strengthen its position further.

2 months ago | mees.com | James Cockayne

Mauritania has joined the ranks of the world’s LNG exporters with operator BP on 17 April announcing the completion of loading of the first export cargo from the 2.45mn t/y Tortue project on the Mauritania/Senegal maritime border. As of MEES press time the destination for the 174,000m3 (78,000 ton) cargo remained unclear with BP’s British Sponsor LNG carrier remaining in the vicinity of the project’s 2.7mn t/y capacity Gimi FLNG.

2 months ago | mees.com | James Cockayne

Shell in its 2024 annual report released last week reveals that it has quit what had been Mauritania’s last two active exploration blocks, C-2 and C-10. This follows last year’s drilling flop at the PannaCotta-1 wildcat on block C-10 – where QatarEnergy partnered the London-based major (MEES, 17 November). Back when Shell entered in 2018, offshore Mauritania was an exploration hotspot: ExxonMobil and Total had entered the previous year (MEES, 27 July).