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1 week ago | 
mees.com | Jamie Ingram
The remarkable decline of Kuwait’s power generation sector hit a new and unwanted milestone last month; peak load exceeded available generation capacity. Recently released statistics from the Ministry of Electricity (MEWRE) show that peak load reached a June record of 16.98GW (up 5.5% year-on-year), exceeding available capacity of 16.275GW. Worse still, when demand hit 16.98GW on 22 May, available capacity was lower still at just 15.46GW due to ongoing maintenance work.
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1 week ago | 
mees.com | Jamie Ingram
US President Donald Trump has appeared to back away from plunging the US into the Israel-Iran war.
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1 week ago | 
mees.com | Jamie Ingram
Oil markets have endured a turbulent week since Iran and Israel’s decades-long shadow conflict escalated into open warfare on 13 June. The psychodrama around whether or not President Donald Trump was preparing to bring the US into the conflict added to the volatility through much of the week, but his decision on 19 June to hold off for two weeks lowered the risk of a regional spillover (MEES, 20 June). Oil prices retreated on Mr Trump’s statement.
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1 week ago | 
mees.com | Jamie Ingram
Global oil markets are undergoing a fundamental transformation says the IEA, as it points to demand growth slowing to a trickle from 2028 onwards before entering a slight decline in 2030. The group’s closely watched medium term outlook, Oil 2025, was released this week and on a macro level it has largely stuck to the projections in last year’s report (MEES, 14 June 2024), with demand plateauing at the end of the decade.
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1 week ago | 
mees.com | Jamie Ingram
Saudi Arabia’s renewable power generation more than doubled to a record 11TWh last year as it brought online 3.7GW of new solar capacity. This left Saudi Arabia just 2.4TWh behind the region’s renewables leader, the UAE, last year and continued capacity growth means that it is set to jump ahead of its neighbor this year.
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1 week ago | 
mees.com | Jamie Ingram
The breakout of the Israel-Iran conflict has increased concerns over the security of supply of oil and gas from the Middle East, especially should the US ultimately enter the war. Israel has so far refrained from targeting Iranian oil production and export facilities, and Iran has not sought to pressure Israel’s Western allies through disrupting energy flows from the region.
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1 week ago | 
mees.com | Jamie Ingram
Israel extended its military offensive against Iran to the Islamic Republic’s gas sector on 14 June, striking onshore gas facilities near the industrial hub of Assaluyeh. Israeli drones damaged processing facilities for South Pars Phase 14 on the coast and the nearby Fajr Jam gas plant, around 20km inland. This marked Israel’s first such strike against Iranian oil and gas assets, although for now it has refrained from following it up with additional such strikes.
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2 weeks ago | 
mees.com | Jamie Ingram
The BP rumor mill keeps spinning, with Bloomberg reporting this week that Abu Dhabi state energy giant Adnoc is interested in snapping up segments of the beleaguered UK firm. Reports of potential wholesale acquisitions for the firm have been frequent, but the list of viable suitors is thin and few compelling arguments have been made; suggestions that the firm could be carved up shouldn’t be ignored.
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2 weeks ago | 
mees.com | Jamie Ingram
Saudi Arabia’s refining sector activity has been accelerating sharply since March according to the kingdom’s latest Industrial Production Index (IPI) figures. This comes amid a marked increase in refining margins, and should enable Saudi Arabia to cash in on the strong prices. The latest IPI figures from the Saudi statistics agency show that the IPI for the “Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products” increased from 97.4 in January to 116.6 in March and 123.5 in April.
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2 weeks ago | 
mees.com | Jamie Ingram
The Middle East is endowed with abundant gas resources, with estimates routinely putting the figure at around 40% of the global total. Yet regional production underperforms this reserve base, and while a number of high-profile LNG export projects are underway, there is also a growing trend of LNG imports amid scant investment in regional pipeline interconnections. Kuwait and Dubai are long-term LNG importers, and were joined by Bahrain earlier this year (MEES, 30 May).
