Total’s adventure in Iran

Total’s adventure in Iran:

"Total’s deal over the development of the next phase of Iran’s huge South Pars gas field was announced in Tehran on Monday to coincide with President Emmanuel Macron’s State of the Nation address at Versailles. The deal is a sign of both France’s renewed self-confidence and the ever-changing dynamics of politics in the Middle East. For the international oil and gas business, it marks the beginning of re-engagement in Iran after almost 40 years of exclusion. Having been mildly critical of one of France’s large companies last week, it is good to be able to praise another one. Total has shown the nerve to ignore the hostility to Iran displayed by the US administration. President Donald Trump has roundly criticised his predecessor Barack Obama’s deal to control Iranian nuclear developments but has offered nothing in its place. Continuing US sanctions and the threat of more attempts to isolate Iran have kept most western companies away. Total has decided not to fall in line. The French company’s investment is not that big — $5bn to be spent over the next few years as a more than 50 per cent stakeholder in the development project alongside CNPC from China and Petropas — a subsidiary of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company. But it should be seen as just the beginning as much bigger opportunities open up in the country. "



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Qatar Flexing LNG Muscle Puts U.S., Australia Plants at Risk - Bloomberg

Qatar Flexing LNG Muscle Puts U.S., Australia Plants at Risk - Bloomberg:

"As if billions of dollars of liquefied natural gas project cost overruns and the prospect of a glut well into the next decade weren’t enough, proposed export sites now face increased competition from the world’s biggest producer.

Qatar’s announcement Tuesday that it would double production from the giant North Field comes as more than two-thirds of new projects due in the next decade from Texas to Australia are yet to take investment decisions. The sheikdom, which started some of the largest plants at the end of the last decade, has one of the lowest break-even prices, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co."



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At OPEC’s Critical Moment, No Sign of Saudi ‘Whatever It Takes’ - Bloomberg

At OPEC’s Critical Moment, No Sign of Saudi ‘Whatever It Takes’ - Bloomberg:

"Now is the time to maximize the impact of OPEC’s oil production cuts, yet the market is still waiting for the group’s biggest member to show it’s doing “whatever it takes” to eliminate the global oversupply. OPEC’s best chance to make a big dent in the lingering glut in the U.S., and with it reverse oil’s three-year slump, lies in the remaining weeks of peak summertime demand. That’s already become harder because of the resurgence in output from OPEC members exempt from cuts, while there are no signs yet that Saudi Arabia, the group’s de-facto leader, is willing to cut as deeply as it did earlier in the year. “Saudi Arabia has gone quiet on the solution of ‘whatever it takes’ to force the market into rebalancing,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director at consultants Petromatrix GmbH in Zug, Switzerland."



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