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Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, has awarded 34 contracts worth US$18bn to 16 Saudi and international companies for the engineering, procurement and construction of its Marjan and Berri crude oil projects.. Saudi Aramco aim to raise the crude oil and natural gas production capacity of these two offshore fields by 550,000 bbl/d and 2.5 bcf/d (70 mcm/d, i.e. nearly 26 bcm/year). Most of the increase will come from the Marjan field, where a new offshore gas oil separation plant, and 24 offshore oil, gas and water injection platforms will be installed: Arabian Medium Crude Oil production should increase by 300,000 bbl/d, gas production by 2.5 bcf/d and C2+NLG production by 360,000 bbl/d. The Berri offshore oil field, where a new water injection facility, two drilling islands, 11 oil and water offshore platforms and 9 onshore oil production and water supply drill sites will be developed, will account for the remaining 250,000 bbl/d.

Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company Petronas has sold its 50% stake in the 7.6 bcm/year (5.6 Mt/year) Dragon LNG import terminal in Milford Haven, Wales (United Kingdom) to the British infrastructure investor manager Ancala (the remaining 50% stake is owned by Shell).

The Canadian province of New Brunswick has decided to abandon plans to launch its own legal challenge against the Canadian federal carbon tax, considering that this procedure was redundant with the ones launched by the Ontario and Saskatchewan provinces and would be too expensive for tax payers.

The mega auction for 1,400 MW of solar power capacity launched by the Ministry of Environment and Energy Transition of Portugal has attracted about nine times the offered volume and 64 participants have bid for over 10,000 MW of new solar capacity below the capped price of 45€/MWh.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), more than 90% of the gas consumed in the United States in 2018 was produced domestically, thanks to the strong growth in US gas production since 2005.

The Indian power company Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) has announced plans to develop 2 gas-fired power units of 730 MW each in North Chennai, in Tamil Nadu (India). The units will be installed at the site of the former GMR’s 200 MW Basin Bridge oil-fired power plant in Pulianthope, Chennai, which was decommissioned in 2018.

The Czech government has approved a plan by Elektrárna Dukovany II, a subsidiary of national power group ČEZ (70% state-owned), to build a 1,200 MW nuclear power plant and has decided to provide guarantees to help the group secure cheaper financing. However, the government maintains its previous stance regarding the financing of the project, which should be assumed by ČEZ.

Equinor, Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) and Korea East-West Power (EWP) have agreed to join forces to develop the 200 MW Donghae-1 floating offshore wind project off the coast of Ulsan, in south-eastern South Korea.