UPSTREAM REVIEW

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/oet.12318
• Published date: 01 September 2015
• Date: 01 September 2015

UPSTREAM REVIEW

Africa

Kenya/Uganda: Kenya and Uganda have agreed on the

route of a planned crude oil e xport pipeline raising hop es

that East Africa could be transformed into a major oil

exporting region.

e decision was announced in a joint communique

following talks between the neighboring countries’ pres-

idents in the Ugandan capital Kampala.

e leaders regard development of oil infrastructure

as key to the commercialization of oil and said that

development of a crude oil export pipeline needed to

be “implemented ex peditiously, without further delay in

commercializing the petroleum resources.”

e 1,500 km (930 mi) chosen route will run from

Hoima in western Uganda through Lake Kyoga to the

Lokichar basin i n North Kenya and on to the port

of Lamu.

e countries had also discussed building the link

through southern Kenya. Proponents for the southern

routecitedsecurityconcernsinthenorth,wherebandits

and Islamist militants have carried out attacks.

When completed the export pipeline will replace

tankers as the main me ans for transporting oil products

between Kenya and Uganda but in addition to the risk

of attacks in northern Kenya the project faces potential

delays from obstacl es such as a lack of skilled labor, poor

electricity supply, and the logistics of getting necessary

equipment and services into landlocked Uganda.

Tullow Oil welcomed the decision, which they

describe as a “major milestone” saying the company

looks forward to working with the Governments and

partnersondevelopmentofthesignicantdiscovered

oil resources in Uganda and Kenya.

Tullow has found oil in both countries. Uganda’s

reserves are estim ated at 6.5 bn bbl an d Kenya’s at

600 mn bbl although both are in the early stages of

commercial development.

e two governments also agreed to develop a

reverse-ow pipeline capable of carrying imported

petroleum produ cts from Kenya’s port of Mombasa

throughEldorettoKampalaand,movingintheoppo-

site direction, taking fuel from a renery in Uganda to

the Kenyan coast.

Egypt: Eni has discovered what it describes as a “su-

pergiant gas discovery” in the Mediterranean Sea o-

shore Egypt in its deepwater Zohr prospect.

e Zohr 1X NFW discovery well was drilled to a total

depth of 13,553  (4,131 m) on Egypt’s Shorouk blo ck 9

and hit a hydrocarbon column of 2,067  (630 m).

e company says the well and geophysical data avail-

able indicate the eld could hold 30 tcf (5.5 bn boe) of

lean gas in place covering an area of about 100km2

(38.6 mi2), making it one of the world’s largest natural

gas nds.

IftheestimatesproveaccurateZohrcouldprovide

enoughgastosatisfyEgypt’snaturalgasdemandfor

decades, an Eni statement said “is historic discovery

will be able to transform the energy scenario of Egypt”,

said Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, calling the nd a “very

important day for Eni and its people”.

Egypt’s Sharouk block is close to Cyprus’ block 12,

which contains the Aphrodite discovery and Israel’s

Leviathan discovery.

Development of the Mediterranean has been stalled

by regulatory disputes for some time and although it

could be several yearsbefore full development of Zohr, it

could in the long-term aect the ow of gas from other

major discoveries in the area.

Israel’s National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water

Minister Yuval Steinitz told e Times of Israel that the

discovery was “apainful reminder that while Israel sleep-

walks and dallies with the nal approval for the gas road

map, anddelays further prospecting, the world is chang-

ing in front of us, including ramications for [Israeli]

export options”.

Steinitzsaidthenewsshouldbea“wake-upcall”for

Israel to nalize anagreement on its own reserves in the

Mediterrane an Sea .

CIS

Tur km en ist an : Substantial commercial quantities of nat-

ural gas have been discovered at the Bagly-1 blockin the

Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan’s Mary province, the

Tur k m e n ne wsp a p er Neutral Turkm enistan said.

Neutral Turkmenistan reported that a powerful gas

inow was obtainedaer the rst exploration well at the

area reached a depth of 4,690 m (15,387 ). e daily

hydrocarbonoutputattheneweldexceeds1.5mcm,

it said.

e newspaper said the new eld’s prospect can also

be judged from it being located tens of ki lometers from

the Galkynysh eld, whichis the world’s largestonshore

gaseld,withestimatedinitialin-placenaturalgas

reserves of 14.2-21.2 tcm.

Europe

Norway : Statoil and partners reported that the plan

for development and operation (PDO) for the

Johan Sverdrup eld in the North Sea has been

approved by Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and

Energy.

e ministry also approved associatedplans for instal-

lation and operation of transportation pip elines and

power supply from shore.

© 2015 John Wiley& Sons Ltd