NewBase 616 special 01 June 2015

Copyright © 2015 NewBase www.hawkenergy.net Edited by Khaled Al Awadi – Energy Consultant All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, redistributed,
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NewBase 01 June 2015 - Issue No. 616 Khaled Al Awadi
NewBase For discussion or further details on the news below you may contact us on +971504822502, Dubai, UAE
Solar Impulse to make history by crossing the Pacific Ocean
Solar Impulse took off for its seventh flight from Nanjing to Hawaii on Saturday May 30th at 18:39
UTC. André Borschberg will attempt to cross the Pacific on solar energy only, a first in history! To
celebrate this historic moment, Solar Impulse initiated the #futureisclean campaign, to promote
clean technologies. Discover the exciting challenge on www.futureisclean.org/paperplane.
The Swiss pilot of a solar-powered plane has embarked on the longest leg of the first attempt to fly
around the world without a drop of fuel. André Borschberg took off from Nanjing, China, early on
Sunday morning in the Solar Impulse 2 for a flight
across the Pacific Ocean expected to last six days
and five nights. If he succeeds it will also be the
longest a solo pilot has ever flown an aircraft.
The plane’s journey started in March in Abu
Dhabi, and the solar plane has stopped in Oman,
India, Burma and China. The 5,079-mile flight from
Nanjing to Hawaii – almost all of it over the sea –
is the seventh of 12 flights and the most
dangerous, as well as six times longer than any
single leg so far.
“This is the moment of truth,” Mr Borschberg, 62, said before take-off.
He has been taking it in turns with
another Swiss pilot, Bertrand
Piccard, to fly the single-seater
plane in a journey that will
eventually take around five months
to complete. After Hawaii, the plan
is for Mr Piccard to fly the aircraft
on to Phoenix, Arizona. Mr
Borschberg is in no doubt how
tough the flight will be.
“It’s more in the end about myself;
it’s going to be an inner voyage,” he
told the BBC before departure. “It’s
going to be a discovery about how I
feel and how I sustain myself during
these five or six days in the air.”

Mr Piccard said: “The pilot needs to do everything on his own. And it’s a very large aeroplane, big
wingspans, sensitive to turbulence, flying quite slow... But we have an auto-pilot, we have toilets
on board, we have food for days, water reserves and everything, and we are well trained.”
The carbon-fibre aircraft is covered with solar panels which drive the four propeller engines.
During daylight hours, when it is designed to climb to 27,800ft, spare energy from the 17,000 solar
cells is used to charge lithium batteries. These power the plane at night as it glides down to
5,000ft. The two-ton aircraft’s 236ft wingspan is longer than a Boeing 747’s and it has a top
speed of 86 mph.
The pilots learned meditation techniques to maintain their concentration throughout the journey,
and take regular, 20-minute naps.
The plane’s departure from China was delayed for about a month as the pilots waited for the
necessary conditions: favourable winds to shorten its flying time and clear skies enabling it to
absorb maximum solar energy.

UAE: Westinghouse sees Abu Dhabi as its base for regional
nuclear energy expansion. The National + NewBase
Westinghouse plans to use its Abu Dhabi office as a base to expand its nuclear business in the
region, according to a top executive. The American company is one of the largest subcontractors
for the UAE’s nuclear power project at Barakah in Al Gharbia, about 50 kilometres west of Ruwais.
That Westinghouse is
setting up a base in Abu
Dhabi underlines the fact
that demand for electricity
in the Arabian Gulf – and
the Middle East in general
– is among the fastest-
growing in the world.
There are dozens of
potential nuclear power
projects on the drawing
board, with advanced
planning for 16 new
reactors in Saudi Arabia
alone, where electricity
demand is growing at 8 per cent a year.
“We knew we wanted a strong position here in the Middle East, and we’ve been looking at the
establishment of this office for some time,” said Jeff Benjamin, Westinghouse’s head of new plants
and major projects.
“I see it as the Middle East base as other countries in the region consider their plans. It makes
perfect sense to use our operations here as a focal point for examining those projects and
determining which of those we want to be a part of.”
The Barakah project – the first of its kind in the region and one of the largest in the world – is
being closely watched by the industry and nuclear security authorities worldwide as setting a
benchmark for civilian nuclear projects in the Middle East.
“This is one of the iconic new-build construction projects in the world today,” said Mr Benjamin. It
is proving to be the “gold standard” of nuclear projects worldwide and is one of the few to stay on
schedule, according to him.
The Barakah project, which was commissioned at the end of 2008 by Emirates Nuclear Energy
Corp, is led by Korean Electric Power Corp. The first of four of its APR1400 reactors is due to start
operating at the end of 2017, with the annual addition of the rest through 2020, when the project is
expected to supply about 25 per cent of the UAE’s electricity needs.
Westinghouse is building the coolant pumps for the plant, as well as its digital control centre, “the
brains of the plant”. The company is also conducting a large-scale training programme for Emirati
engineers and other staff, including those who will be the most senior operators of the reactors.

At the opening of Westinghouse’s office in Abu Dhabi, Ethan Goldrich, deputy chief of mission at
the US Embassy, commended the company’s commitment to developing a safe civilian nuclear
industry in the UAE and the region.
Toshiba of Japan has since 2006 been the majority owner of the Pennsylvania-based
Westinghouse, which has a long industrial history in the United States. Kazakhstan’s nuclear
company holds a passive minority stake. However, Westinghouse
works in close cooperation with the US government to ensure that
national security goals are met.
“We’re in constant dialogue with the US government over all of the
potential projects globally, and obviously take their input as part of
our consideration and continually assess where they are in terms
of bilateral agreements,” said Mr Benjamin.
Westinghouse’s extensive training programme enables it to meet the goals that Enec set, he said.
It also ensures that the safety and security benchmarks set by the International Atomic Energy
Agency are met.

Syria’s dismantled economy, oilfields and gasfields
Robin Mills + NewBase
Around Palmyra in Syria, seized by ISIL on May 20, are not only the ancient treasures of a great
trading city, but valuable natural resources. ISIL took the Arak and Al Hail gasfields to add to the
oilfields they control in the east of the country. This marks another blow to the Assad regime and
another step in Syria’s economic disintegration.
Al Hail and Arak, east
of Palmyra, are
important for supplying
remaining regime-held
parts of Syria around
Homs and Damascus
with gas for electricity
generation. A pipeline
also runs from the Arak
field north-west to
Aleppo, where the
electricity supply has
been wrecked by
fighting, sabotage and
overloads. Trees have
been cut down for
firewood during the cold
winter, and residents
die of electric shocks
from jury-rigged cables.
Attempts by the US-led
coalition to reduce
ISIL’s financing by
destroying makeshift oil
refineries in eastern
Syria may have had
some success, but they
worsened shortages of
diesel and heating oil
across the country.
Persistent fighting has centered on Al Shaer gasfield, west of Palmyra. ISIL first captured it in July
last year and again in October, but were driven out both times by counter-attacks from Assad’s
forces, with many killed on both sides. With the capture of Palmyra, the gasfield may again be
ISIL’s next target. A number of other fields in this area, such as Al Mahr and Jihar, just north of the
Homs-Palmyra road and gas pipeline, were taken and retaken in November. Pipelines to western
Syria have frequently been blown up.
While the fields east of Palmyra yielded about 40 million cubic feet of gas per day, the ones to the
west are much more important – they may be producing between 250 million and 300 million cubic
feet per day, enough to generate 1,500 megawatts of power. Without gas, the power plants

around Homs and Damascus will have to either shut down or run on expensive fuel oil – another
financial burden on the Assad regime and its Iranian backers.
ISIL already controls the Tabqa, Baath and Tishreen dams on the Euphrates, with 1,535MW of
capacity. This compares to Syria’s entire pre-war generating capacity of about 8,500MW, though
of course demand has also fallen because of refugee flight and economic collapse.
Unless they cut a deal with the Assad regime in return for funds, the fields are useless to ISIL,
which cannot sell the gas without the requisite infrastructure.
Such arrangements have apparently been reached for oil, gas and electricity supplies from other
opposition-held areas – the British researcher David Butter suggested that Jabhat Al Nusra was
selling gas last year to regime areas in central Syria.
Despite such shadowy deals, and some ingenious makeshift repairs, Syria’s energy infrastructure
will continue to disintegrate from war damage, the severing of links and lack of maintenance. For
now, the loss of the gas fields around Palmyra will be a further blow to a regime already reeling
from a series of military defeats.
In oil- and gas-rich Iraq, with much less war damage, the electricity sector never properly
recovered after 2003. Power shortages have been a crippling burden on economic recovery and
quality of life, with some evidence that better electricity supplies may have reduced insurgent
violence. The task in Syria will be much harder.
The country’s oil and gas resources are not large enough to have been a cause of war, but they
do play a part in sustaining it. Syria’s geography also makes it a key thread in networks of oil, gas
and electricity that could weave the Levant together. Rebuilding a possible post-war Syria, or even
de facto autonomous and relatively peaceful areas within it, will require piecing together the torn
energy tapestry.

Iran: To spend all of post-sanctions gain at home to lift growth
Reuters+ NewBase
Iranians will demand their government spend a windfall from the lifting of economic sanctions on
improving the quality of life at home, limiting the degree to which a future nuclear deal could fund
Tehran’s allies on Middle East battlefields.
Since 2012, Iran has given support worth billions of dollars to regional allies, funding and arming
its allies in conflicts that have taken on a sectarian dimension. Its rivals say lifting sanctions will
provide it with the means to do even more.
Within months of financial sanctions being lifted, Iran will be able to collect debts from overseas
banks that may exceed $100bn, mostly from oil importers whose payments have been blocked,
diplomats and analysts said.
But with the budget strained by last year’s heavy fall in oil prices, and public expectations of
improved socio-economic conditions in the event of a deal, the authorities will face pressure to
invest new funds at home.
“The idea that Iran is going to have its pockets full of cash that it can use for discretionary
purposes, I think is exaggerated,” Charles Hollis, managing director for the Middle East at FTI
Consulting, said.
Infrastructure in the vital oil sector has fallen into disrepair during years of mismanagement and
isolation, and the oil ministry has lobbied for huge cash injections that will be necessary to bring
production back to pre-sanctions levels.
Deputy oil minister Mansour Moazzami said in February that the oil industry needed $30bn of
investment a year in order to maintain production and develop new projects, in comments carried
by the ministry’s news agency Shana.
Iranian officials have not speculated in public about how much money they might receive from a
nuclear deal, or how it would be distributed. Analysts said any cash windfall would probably be

deposited initially in the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), making it relatively difficult for the country’s
secretive security officials to spirit it away to foreign battlefields.
“As soon as there is a sense that the money is
there, every government department is going
to start looking for flows,” said David Butter, a
Middle East economic analyst and associate
fellow at Chatham House.
The establishment will also face pressure from
Iran’s large and vocal middle class, which
turned out in force to elect President Hassan
Rouhani in 2013, hoping his agenda of better
management at home and pragmatic
diplomacy abroad could improve their
economic fortunes.
“I have to support a family of four. I don’t have
time to think about politics or the nuclear
issue. What people like me need is an
improved economy,” said teacher Gholamreza Behrad in Tehran. “Hopefully it will happen when
the sanctions are lifted.”
Despite facing economic hardship under sanctions, Iran has ramped up support to allies such as
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Iraq’s Shia militias, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and, Tehran’s foes
say, Houthi rebels who have taken over much of Yemen.
Gulf countries have expressed alarm at Iran’s activities in the region, which they portray as
aggressive and destabilising. The argument is also made in the US, where the administration of
President Barack Obama faces opposition to its decision to offer to lift of sanctions in return for a
nuclear deal.
“If Iran gets major sanctions relief... that will mean more money flowing into Iranian coffers and a
windfall Iran can use to step up its influence in the region even more,” Matthew Kroenig, a fellow
at the Atlantic Council, said.
Administration officials downplay those fears. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in April that most
of the money Iran received from sanctions relief would not be used to support regional proxies and
activities.
“Iran will be under enormous pressure to use previously blocked resources to improve its
domestic economy,” Lew said. Iran’s most costly intervention is in Syria, whose government last
week requested a new credit line worth $1bn from Tehran after months of setbacks on the
battlefield.
Matthew Levitt, a fellow at the Washington Institute and former Treasury official, said Iran’s
support for regional allies did not depend on whether a nuclear deal is signed, since the
leadership would fund them anyway.
“Iran has plenty of money right now to be able to fund those foreign policy projects that it
considers to be of core interest, even if it doesn’t have all the funds in the budget,” he said.

Iranian paramilitary activities are run by the secretive Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)
and funded outside the budgetary framework, meaning there are no definitive reports on quite how
much money Iran has spent, or how much it has left.
Reuters reported in late 2013 that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei controls a holding
organisation with assets of around $95bn. The state news agency denounced those reports as
“disinformation”. Emile Hokayem, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies
(IISS) in London, estimated Iran gave between $15bn and $19bn worth of support to Syria alone
in the two years to the end of 2014.
That figure includes the cost of keeping IRGC commanders in the field, probable shipments of
arms and ammunition, and financing such as lines of credit and soft loans, he said.
The IRGC is used to operating under sanctions and knows how to pursue its goals without relying
heavily on Iran’s limited foreign exchange reserves.
Obama said in an interview with the Atlantic magazine last week that the IRGCs most effective
activities in the region actually do not cost very much. A significant portion of Iran’s support to
allies, including the salaries of IRGC agents, is paid for in rials. Other aid is provided in kind, such
as ammunition. Trade deals are negotiated without hard currency changing hands, a Western
diplomat said.

Essar Oil Plans to Boost CBM Output in India by Four Times
Press Trust of India + NewBase
Mumbai based private sector energy firm Essar Oil plans to boost coal bed methane (CBM)
production in India by four times, news agency Press Trust of India reported Sunday.
"While 120 wells have been already placed on gas production, additional 142 wells have been
drilled and presently are at various stages of the hydrofracking- completion-dewatering cycle for
gas production increase up to 1.2 million scmd(standard cubic meters per day) over the next few
months and 2.5-3 million scmd finally," Essar Oil CEO (E&P) Manish Maheshwari told Press Trust.
In April the company said it has become India's biggest CBM producer when output from its
Raniganj block crossed 0.5 million standard cubic metres per day (scmd). Located in West Bengal
state, Raniganj block, which is company's flagship asset, has already achieved production of 0.62
million scmd.
Maheshwari remained optimistic on completing the development programme ahead of the May
2016 deadline as per the contract with the government, Press Trust added.

Tanzania awards $9 bln rail projects to Chinese companies
REUTERS + NEWBASE
Tanzania has awarded contracts to build new railway lines worth about $9 billion to Chinese firms,
its transport minister said, expanding Beijing's presence in East Africa's second-biggest economy.
Transport Minister Samuel Sitta told parliament on Saturday a Chinese consortium had been
awarded a contract to build a 2,561 km (1,536 miles) standard gauge railway connecting Dar es
Salaam port to land-locked neighbours at a cost of $7.6 billion.
"A consortium of Chinese railway companies led by China Railway Materials (CRM) has been
picked to help us build the railway line," he said. The consortium will provide 10 percent of the
funding for the project while financial adviser Rothschild is finalising procedures for financing of
the project through banks, Sitta said.
The minister said construction of the railway line was expected to start in June.
He said Tanzania had signed a framework agreement with another Chinese company, China
Railway No.2 Engineering Group Co. Ltd., to build a railway line linking coal and iron ore mine
projects, also under development by a Chinese group, to the southern port of Mtwara near big
offshore natural gas discoveries.
The 1,000 km standard gauge railway line is expected to cost at least $1.4 billion, according to the
Tanzanian government estimates.
Tanzania said in March it planned to spend $14.2 billion to construct a new rail network in the next
five years financed with commercial loans, as the country aims to become a regional transport
hub.
Tanzania, like its neighbour Kenya, wants to profit from its long coastline and upgrade existing
railways and roads to serve growing economies in the land-locked heart of Africa.
Oil discoveries in Kenya and Uganda and gas finds in Tanzania have turned East Africa into an
exploration hotspot for oil firms but transport infrastructure in those countries has suffered from
decades of under-investment.
Tanzania last year signed an agreement with China Merchant Holding International (CMHI) to
build a new mega port and economic zone at Bagamoyo expected to cost at least $10 billion.
China is also financing a $1.2 billion, 532 km (330 mile) natural gas pipeline in Tanzania.

Netherlands: Dutch court rejects request to cut gas output at
Eemskanaal. Source: Reuters + NewBase
A Dutch court on Friday rejected an application to have gas production halted
at Eemskanaal due to concerns that continued extraction is causing earth tremors, saying
complainants had not proved that stopping output would improve their safety.
The provisional decision by the court,
the Council of State, is the second to be
made in two months regarding
complaints over continued production
fromGroningen, Europe's largest gas
field, which has been blamed for an
increasing incidence in recent years of
small earthquakes which have damaged
homes and buildings across the region.
The Eemskanaal region of the gas field
is named after a nearby canal, which is
already being strengthened for better
earthquake resistance. The court's
ruling noted that production was already
reduced by 23 percent from 2013 levels
in 2014, and that did not lead to fewer
earthquakes.
The Eemskanaal section of the field
produced around 2 billion cubic metres
(bcm) of gas in 2014, or a little more
than 5 percent of the total 39.4 billion
cubic metres theoretically allotted for
the entire Groningen gas field this year. The actual amount Groningen produces will almost
certainly be much lower, as Economics Minister Henk Kamp is due to review production on July
1 under strong political and legal pressure to lower the cap.
In February Kamp ordered production from Groningen to be cut back to an annualised rate of 33
bcm for the first half of 2015 after the country's Safety Board said gas companies, regulators and
the government had all failed to take the threat of earthquakes seriously enough. That move sent
gas prices surging in Northern Europe.
Point Carbon analyst Oliver Sanderson said regional prices did not move after Friday's court
decision. Even if Eemskanaal had been ordered shut, production could be made up from other
areas to keep Groningen's entire production at between 30 and 35 bcm in 2015, he said.
A majority of Dutch parliament members have said they oppose any production above current
rates, implying annual production of no more than 33 bcm.
Regardless of Kamp's decision, challenges to his plans at the Council of State -- a court that
hears citizen complaints about government decisions -- are set to continue. The court will review
a provisional stoppage ordered at nearby Loppersum, as well as its denial of the complaint at
Eemskanaal, after the case gets a full hearing, scheduled for Sept. 10-11.

Oil Price Drop Special Coverage
Oil prices fall as OPEC output seen staying high
Reuters +NewBase
Crude oil prices dropped on Monday on expectations that OPEC output would remain high after
rising in May, stoking worries of oversupply despite declining U.S. rig operations. Crude oil prices
jumped almost 5 percent on Friday, their biggest rally in over a month, as a bigger than expected
fall in U.S. oil rigs in operation set off a renewed rush of bullish bets.
But prices eased on Monday due to near-record production in most oil-producing regions,
especially the Middle East. Front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1 had declined 35 cents to
$65.21 per barrel at 1.23 a.m. ET on Monday. U.S. crude futures CLc1 were down 45 cents at
$59.85 a barrel.
Oil output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) likely hit a two-and-a-
half year high of 31.22 million barrels per day (bpd) in May and production is not expected to be
cut during a meeting of the group this Friday.
U.S. bank Morgan Stanley said that prices could fall in the second half of the year, although it said
it was unlikely they would drop back to their six-year lows from January.
"We have growing concerns about crude fundamentals and prices in 2H15 and 2016 after the
quick recovery (since January) ... The market appears complacent about rising OPEC production
and upcoming Iran discussions, both of which could more than offset U.S. declines," Morgan
Stanley said on Monday.
"The drop in the U.S. oil rig count resumed last week with 13 rigs idled ... Despite this decline, we
believe that should WTI prices remain near $60/bbl, U.S. producers will ramp up activity given
improved returns with costs down by at least 20 percent and producers increasingly comfortable
at the current costs/revenue/funding mix," Goldman Sachs said.
The bank said that it expected U.S. oil production growth of 155,000 bpd in the fourth quarter of
this year compared to the same period in 2014.

Taper tantrum victims make way for new trio of fragile countries
By Ye Xie and Lyubov Pronina/Bloomberg Business + NewBase
Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey were the quintet of countries that suffered
through a market rout two years ago after the Federal Reserve initially signalled it would reduce
monetary stimulus - the so-called taper tantrum.
As the first US interest-rate increase in almost a decade approaches, the health of emerging-
market economies has become more of a mixed picture. The Fragile Five won’t necessarily rise
and fall together. India reduced its trade deficit and slowed inflation under new political
leadership. Economic initiatives in Indonesia have had varied success, while progress in the
remaining three countries has been limited.
Colombia, Russia and Peru have seen their growth slow since the taper tantrum. Morgan Stanley
ranked them last month as the next group that’s most vulnerable to rising rates.Here’s a look at
how things have changed in emerging markets since the turmoil of May 2013.
Current accounts: India has cut its deficit to 1.4% of gross domestic product from 5% in 2013,
the biggest reduction among the major emerging markets. While the deficits in the broadest
measure of trade in goods and services in Turkey and South Africa also declined, they still stand
at more than 5% of GDP. The shortfalls in Brazil and Colombia widened as commodity prices fell,
and Indonesia still has the largest deficit in the region.
``India has made the most progress,’’ said Ed Parker, head of the Europe, Middle East and Africa
sovereign group at Fitch Ratings. ``In other countries, it has been more mixed.’’
Borrowing costs: Higher interest rates help lure foreign capital. On this front, Colombia, Russia
and Turkey are less attractive with inflation- adjusted benchmark rates below zero. Peru’s real
cost of borrowing dropped to 0.2% from 1.8% in May 2013. That compares with South Africa and
India, where rates have turned to positive, while the benchmark for Brazil stands out at 5.1%, the
highest.

Growth: With exports languishing, emerging-market growth is failing to gain momentum as Brazil
and Russia slip into recession and China is growing at the slowest pace since 1990. Developing-
nation economies are set to expand 4.3% this year, the least since 2009, according to the
International Monetary Fund.
‘’Emerging markets are not healing well,’’ said Bhanu Baweja, UBS London-based head of
emerging-market cross-asset strategy. “There’s no improvement in earnings, exports and foreign
direct investment. It’s not clear they’re moving towards promoting more productivity growth.’’
Debt exposure: Turkey’s foreign-currency debt is almost four times its dollar reserves, the highest
among major economies, according to Morgan Stanley. Malaysia comes second, followed by South
Africa.In the local-currency bond market, foreign investors hold 59% of Mexico’s outstanding
debt, the most among developing economies, according to Bank of America, Peru, Malaysia,
Poland and Indonesia are also exposed with investors holding at least 39% of their credit.
A combination of weak current accounts, high foreign ownership in local debt markets and a
large debt burden can “destabilise a country very quick,’’ said Sergey Dergachev, a money
manager at Union Investment Privatfonds GmbH.

U.S. Oil Drilling Retreat Drags on for 25th Straight Week
Oil explorers idled rigs in U.S. fields for the 25th straight week, drawing out an unprecedented
retreat in drilling that has curbed the country’s shale oil boom and helped crude prices rally.
Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. declined by 13 to 646, the lowest since August 2010, field services
company Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. Most of the losses were outside of major
basins, with drilling subsiding in states including California and Louisiana.
U.S. energy producers sidelined more than half of the rigs drilling for oil after crude prices
collapsed in the second half of last year. The retreat brought production growth from the nation’s
biggest shale formations to a halt, suspending a boom that turned the country into the world’s
biggest fuel exporter.
“The major basins aren’t bleeding as much as they were, so we’re near the bottom,” James
Williams, president of energy consultant WTRG Economics, said by phone from London,
Arkansas, on Friday. “We should see a moderate upward move in rigs sometime next month.”
U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil for July delivery jumped $2.62 Friday to end the
week at $60.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 43 percent from the 52-week
low of $42.03 reached March 18.
U.S. Production
The U.S. pumped 9.57 million barrels a day in the seven days ended May 22, the most in weekly
Energy Information Administration data going back to 1983. Output jumped 3.3 percent, the
biggest single-week increase since October 2013.
Texas’s Eagle Ford formation, one of the most productive U.S. shale plays, gained an oil rig this
week. The Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, the country’s biggest oil field, and the
Williston Basin, home of North Dakota’s prolific Bakken shale, each lost one.

“Most service companies we speak with feel that ‘the bottom is in’ for U.S. drilling,” Raymond
James Ltd. energy analysts including Andrew Bradford said in an e-mailed research note
Thursday. “Our estimates had forecast a bottoming in mid-June followed by a painstakingly slow
recovery until mid- to late fall, at which point the recovery pace picks up modestly.”
California’s producers idled three oil rigs, dragging the state’s total count to 10, the lowest since at
least 1991 when Baker Hughes began releasing state-by-state data. Louisiana also lost three.
OPEC Target
U.S. oil drilling is subsiding as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts
for about 40 percent of the world’s oil, resists calls to curb its own output. OPEC will maintain its
production target when ministers meet in Vienna on June 5, according to Libya, which joined
Kuwait this week in predicting no change in policy.
“While the recent data suggests a bullish environment due to strong gasoline demand and
decreasing crude oil inventories, potentially increasing domestic production and the OPEC
meeting on Friday June 5th will certainly weigh on the wider energy complex,” strategists from
Toronto-Dominion Bank including Michael Loewen wrote in a research note Thursday. “At
current prices and growing tight oil production, there is little incentive for the group to cut quota.”

NewBase For discussion or further details on the news below you may contact us on +971504822502, Dubai, UAE
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NewBase energy news is produced daily (Sunday to Thursday) and
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For additional free subscription emails please contact Hawk Energy
Khaled Malallah Al Awadi,
Energy Consultant
MS & BS Mechanical Engineering (HON), USA
Emarat member since 1990
ASME member since 1995
Hawk Energy member 2010
Mobile: +97150-4822502
khdmohd@hawkenergy.net
khdmohd@hotmail.com
Khaled Al Awadi is a UAE National with a total of 25 years of experience in
the Oil & Gas sector. Currently working as Technical Affairs Specialist for
Emirates General Petroleum Corp. “Emarat“ with external voluntary Energy
consultation for the GCC area via Hawk Energy Service as a UAE
operations base , Most of the experience were spent as the Gas Operations
Manager in Emarat , responsible for Emarat Gas Pipeline Network Facility &
gas compressor stations . Through the years, he has developed great
experiences in the designing & constructing of gas pipelines, gas metering & regulating stations
and in the engineering of supply routes. Many years were spent drafting, & compiling gas
transportation, operation & maintenance agreements along with many MOUs for the local
authorities. He has become a reference for many of the Oil & Gas Conferences held in the UAE
and Energy program broadcasted internationally, via GCC leading satellite Channels.
NewBase : For discussion or further details on the news above you may contact us on +971504822502 , Dubai , UAE
NewBase 01 June 2015 K. Al Awadi

NewBase 616 special 01 June 2015

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