MENA upstream month in brief: 2 September 2016

Notable gas discoveries were made by Sound Energy in onshore Morocco and Shell in Egypt's Western Desert. Eni secured payment guarantees from Egypt for future gas sales from Zohr and Egypt also signed a preliminary gas import deal with Cyprus. In Algeria, Sonatrach signed contracts for the construction of the GR7 pipeline, to transport stranded gas in the southwest of the country to market. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia achieved record oil production, condensate exports hit an all-time high in Iran and Iraq's North Oil Company restarted exports via Kurdistan. Iraq also appointed a new oil minister and KNOC pulled out of the Sangaw South block in Kurdistan. Elsewhere in the region, Abu Dhabi began importing LNG, Kuwait awarded the second phase of its Jurassic Non-Associated Gas Reserves project and shareholders agreed to Gulf Keystone's restructuring of its balance sheet.