Abu Dhabi: Sliding oil prices and the status of the current projects in the region dominated the discussions on the second day of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum and Exhibition on Tuesday.
Suhail Bin Mohammad Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy, said that oil market fundamentals had not changed, and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) had not contributed to oversupply.
“Fundamentals in the market didn’t change, Opec didn’t contribute to an oversupply ... We shouldn’t panic,” he told Reuters.
Dr Reiner Seele, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wintershall gave details about the company’s projects in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
The German based company is developing Shuwaihat sour gas and condensate field in Abu Dhabi. The field is located 25 kilometres west of the industrial town of Ruwais.
Together with the Austrian oil and gas company OMV and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), Wintershall, which is the operator, is preparing the first appraisal this year. “We are apprising Shuwaihat field where we spotted the well in May. We are still in the drilling process. It’s the first well. We are going to discuss with our partners how we would like to proceed. By 2015, we would know how it is doing.
Off the coast of Qatar, Wintershall is involved in the exploration of Block 4N in the Khuff formation, where natural gas was found in 2013.
“This was the first new gas discovery in Qatar for over 40 years,” he points out. The commercial and technical development of this new reservoir, Al Radeef, is still being examined.
He said Wintershall is strongly committed to the region. “We would like to become sustainable and substantial operator in the region. We are striving for 50,000 barrels per day in the Middle East region and we have now concentrated two countries Qatar and Abu Dhabi. We are ready with a strategy to expand in other parts of the region.”
On lower oil prices, he said there is nothing to get nervous. “We have to wait until next Opec meeting at the end of the month. We have to wait and see how Opec is going to handle the situation. Everyone is waiting who is going to cut the production first,” he said.
He said it would be interesting to watch on the supply and demand balance. “There would be some corrections. How reliable is the production levels in Libya? There is also question mark on how the unconventional tight oil in the United States is reacting to the prices. It’s an interesting scenario.
In a session on the UAE oil, delegates discussed about oil and gas production in the UAE. The country produces more than 2.8 million barrels of crude oil per day, putting it among the top oil producing countries in the world. Plans are underway to produce 3.5 million barrels per day by 2017.
Emirates LNG said that they are reviewing tenders for building the Fujairah land-based regasification facility to import LNG. “We expect the process to be finalised early in 2015,” said Chief Executive Officer, Ahmad Matar Al Mazrouei.
Capable of supplying an average of 1.2 billion standard cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas per day to the UAE, Emirates LNG’s regasification terminal will be the Middle East’s largest regasification facility.
