Iraq, seeking fresh investment to help rebuild its energy industry, announced plans to auction additional licenses to explore for oil and gas, in what would be the fourth such offering since the ouster of Saddam Hussein.
Lebanon is looking at laying a gas pipeline along its Mediterranean coast. As many as 19 foreign companies, including Russia’s Stroitransgaz have qualified for a would-be tender, Lebanese Minister of Energy and Water Gibran Bassil said.
Israel Corp. has announced import natural gas from Egypt into an agreement for a period of 20 years by one dollar and quarter per heat unit while it is sold to the Syrian Arab Republic by five dollars according to the newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi.
Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation (Apicorp) which Syria has 3% ,will sell its 12 per cent stake in Egypt-based Alexandria Carbon Black Company (ACBC) to Aditya Birla Group , the majority shareholder in the company.
Iraq forecast a 17 percent rise in oil output next year and invited companies from South Korea and Kazakhstan to sign immediately a delayed contract for the Akkas gas field, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said.
Local authorities in the Iraqi Anbar governorate have finally given their approval for a consortium led by Korea Gas Corp. (036460.SE), known as Kogas, to develop Akkas gas field in western Iraq after delaying the initial signing for a few weeks, head of the governorate said.
Power-starved Iraq has invited foreign companies to build three power plants to boost the national grid by 1,250 megawatts, the Ministry of Electricity said on Saturday.
Iraq’s new oil minister, Abdul Kareem Luaibi, said that The Syria pipeline project was expected to start at the beginning of the new year after agreement is reached with Syria.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the largest investor in Qatar, and state-run Qatar Petroleum agreed to “jointly study” an estimated $6 billion petrochemicals project in the Persian Gulf nation.
Assem Jihad, a leading Oil Ministry spokesman, said that “the Oil Ministry has discussed with Anbar Province and its Council, the contracts that had been scored by the Korean KOGAS and the KazMunaiGas companies, to develop the gas fields in Anbar … major progress had been achieved in the dialogues about the achievement of those contracts.”
