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State-run oil and gas company Saudi Aramco has postponed its planned stock market flotation (initial public offering or IPO) until 2021. The sale of a 5% stake in the company was initially announced in January 2016 and expected in late 2018. Saudi Aramco also considers issuing bonds as early as 2019 to help finance its planned acquisition of a 70% controlling stake in the domestic petrochemical company SABIC, which is currently held by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF). For this purpose, it will have to disclose its accounts to investors for the first time since its nationalization and will also make public details about oil reserves and operational activities. In this respect, the Saudi Arabian government has just released an audit of the country’s reserves, which currently total 263 Gbl, 2.2 Gbl more than previously reported. This confirms that domestic oil reserves are above 260 Gbl, a figure that has long faced skepticism. This is the first step towards transparency and the preparation of Saudi Aramco for its future IPO.

French state-owned power utility EDF has published information concerning its nuclear power generation in France and in the United Kindgom in 2018.

Shell Gas, a subsidiary of global energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, has completed the acquisition of a 26% minority stake in the Hazira LNG regasification terminal in India (Surat district, Gujarat) from the French oil and gas company Total. The financial consideration of the deal was not disclosed. Since Shell already held a 74% interest in the terminal,…

The Italian government has outlined plans to block the issuing of about 36 permits to look for oil and gas resources as part of its strategy to cut the domestic carbon footprint. The development of additional upstream oil and gas activities is not deemed of strategic importance, since domestic oil and gas production accounts for only 7% of its demand.

The European Commission has cleared under the European Union (EU) State Aid rules a €230m Portuguese scheme to support biomass energy installations located close to forest areas regarded as «critical» due to the risk of fires. The support measures are estimated to be in line with the environmental objectives of the EU and with the 2014-2020 Agricultural Guidelines,…

According to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), crude oil exports via the CPC pipeline rose by 11% in 2018, reaching 61.1 Mt. Exports from Kazakhstan accounted for most of this figure (89%) – with three Kazakhstan oil fields making up the majority of the exports (28.7 Mt came from Tengiz, 13.2 Mt from Kashagan and 10.3 Mt from Karachaganak), while the remainder came from Russia.

According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), approximately 23.7 GW of new capacity additions and 8.3 GW of capacity retirements are expected for the domestic power generation sector in 2019.

According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), oil and gas production on the Norwegian Continental Shelf declined by 4% in 2018. Crude oil production was 6.5% below its 2017 level, due to a higher complexity of new fields and lower than expected deliveries, while gas production declined by 2.1% as some fields produced less than expected. At the end of 2018,…

The Saudi Arabian Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) has awarded a contract to a consortium led by the Emirati utility Masdar and the French energy group EDF to develop the 400 MW Dumat Al Jandal onshore wind project. The consortium submitted the lowest levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) bid of SAR8c/kWh (US$2.1c/kWh),…