< Previous20 POWER 50 oilandgasmiddleeast.com FEBRUARY 2020 Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala announced in July that its assets under management hit $229bn. It is highly active in oil & gas internation- ally, with interests in Indonesia, Thailand, and Egypt, among others. It won a concession block with Shell in Egypt’s Red Sea bidding round, with an area of approximately 3,000sqkm. KHALDOON AL MUBARAK CEO, MUBADALA INVESTMENT COMPANY Hashem Sayed Hashem, appointed CEO of KPC in December 2018, has big plans. Under his leadership, he aims to boost natural gas output to 3.5bn cubic feet per day by 2031, up from its current 1.9bn scf per day. With a cash injection of $500bn, its current oil capacity of 3.15mn bpd is expected to jump to 4.75mn bpd in 2040. HASHEM SAYED HASHEM CEO, KUWAIT PETROLEUM COMPANY Shell has taken the spotlight for its grow- ing commitment to curbing climate change. For example, it exited a lobby for its lack of support for the Paris Agreement. However, it also sold its onshore assets in Egypt’s Western Desert and sold its $631mn share of it SASREF refining joint ven- ture to Saudi Aramco. BEN VAN BEURDEN CEO, SHELL ExxonMobil acquired approximately 6,900sqkm offshore Egypt for explora- tion activities. This includes the North Marakia offshore block and the North East El Amriya offshore block. It will operate both block and holds 100% interest. The com- pany also partnered with Mosaic Materials for carbon capture technology. DARREN WOODS CEO, EXXONMOBIL21 POWER 50 oilandgasmiddleeast.com FEBRUARY 2020 Bahrain’s oil and gas sector is chang- ing, and it appears ready for a boom in activity. In May, it reached the close of its multi-billion dollar modernisation programme, which is expected to boost its refining capacity to 380,000bpd. The company also shuffled its board, with a new chairman and board apppointed in July. PETE BARTLETT CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BAPCO O ne of the major success stories in the region comes from Egypt’s gas pro- duction, which has rocketed in recent years. The recent Red Sea bidding round, as well as interest from international oil companies to invest billions of dollars into the nation’s blossoming oil & gas industry, with a focus on gas, spells good news for EGAS. OSAMA EL BAKLY CHAIRMAN, EGAS Mohammed Barkindo has earned a spot on this list because he has become the de facto face of the oil & gas sector. Although US production continues to rise, questioning the future role of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC has diligently monitored the market and pushed for balance amid instability. MOHAMMED BARKINDO SECRETARY-GENERAL, OPEC ADNOC awarded its first onshore explo- ration concession to American company Occidental Petroleum, which will invest $244mn into the exploration phase of Onshore Block 3. The company also signed a $59mn exploration and production sharing agreement with Oman’s Ministry of Oil & Gas for Block 72, covering 3,530sqkm. VICKI HOLLUB CEO, OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM22 POWER 50 oilandgasmiddleeast.com FEBRUARY 2020 The past year has not been easy for National Iranian Oil Company, with US sanctions strangling output from Iran. However, the company in August signed $5bn worth of research deals to start a new generation of exploration, with Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh emphasising the importance of exploration for the nation. MASOUD KARBASIAN MD, NIOC Sonatrach CEO Rachid Hachichi, when he took on the role in April 2019, said that foreign partnerships would con- tinue to be a key focus area for the com- pany. It agreed with ENI to accelerate North Berkine projects, awarded a contract to KBR for RKF redevelopment, and is slated to receive a $250mn loan from APICORP. RACHID HACHICHI CEO, SONATRACH While CNPC is primarily recognised in the region for its $1.6bn con- tract with ADNOC for the world’s largest continuous 3D onshore and offshore seismic survey, the Chinese company also met with Libya’s National Oil Corporation in July to explore potential partnership oppor- tunities across the value chain. WANG YILIN CHAIRMAN, CNPC ENOC’s CEO, recipient of the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2019 Middle East Energy Awards, has pushed to digitalise ENOC and improve sustain- ability. The company in October revealed a digitally enabled fuel delivery service, called ENOC Link, and recorded $19.4mn in energy efficiency savings in the past five years. SAIF HUMAID AL FALASI CEO, ENOC23 POWER 50 oilandgasmiddleeast.com FEBRUARY 2020 Wintershall DEA joined the Gha- sha ultra-sour gas concession in November 2018, acquiring a 10% stake. Since then, it agreed with Libya NOC to establish a joint operating company for the Sirte Basin concessions, and expanded its presence in Egypt with $500mn investments planned between 2018 and 2020. MARIO MEHREN CEO, WINTERSHALL DEA Dana Gas had a fairly successful 2019, with a 246% increase in nine month 2019 net profit, with $142mn profit compared to $41mn for the same period in 2018. The company was forced to plug off- shore Egypt Merak-1 well failing a commercial discovery, but noted that the block has three other independent prospects. PATRICK ALLMAN-WARD CEO, DANA GAS Lukoil has jumped quite high in its rank- ing because of its October 2019 agree- ment to acquire a 5% stake in ADNOC’s ultra-sour Ghasha concession, joining fellow list members ENI, OMV, and Winter- shall in the venture. The company’s subsidiary Lukoil Marine Lubricants also renewed a deal to supply KOTC’s tanker vessels. VAGIT ALEKPEROV CEO, LUKOIL Egypt is abuzz with activity, and it is not just natural gas making headlines. EGPC offered one of three planned interna- tional oil and gas exploration rounds in 2019, for the Western and Eastern Deserts and the Gulf of Suez. This was part of an ambitious plan to attract investors and grow domestic production. ABED EZZ EL-REGAL CEO, EGPC24 POWER 50 oilandgasmiddleeast.com FEBRUARY 2020 OMV in December 2018 acquired a 5% stake in ADNOC’s Ghasha ultra-sour gas concession, which is expected to produce more than 1.5bn cubic feet of gas per day. Mubadala Investment Company, ranked at seven on this list, is a shareholder. It signed an MoU to explore collaboration in the Indonesian petrochemical segment. RAINER SEELE CEO, OMV India’s Oil & Natural Gas Company (ONGC), which has a 10% stake in ADNOC’s Lower Zakum offshore field, was asked to list its overseas arm, Videsh, in which the gover- ment holds a 67% stake, but in January 2019 said it would reconsider the listing. It has in- terests in six projects among a handful of Arab countries. SHASHI SHANKAR CHAIRMAN, ONGC Inpex signed an exploration concession agreement with ADNOC in March 2019, granting it exploration rights to Onshore Block 4. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, JOD- CO Exploration Limited, will hold and manage the interest in the concession. It is expected to invest up to $176mn during the exploration phase. The block covers 6,116sqkm. TAKAYUKI UEDA CEO, INPEX TAQA has growth in mind; its subsidi- ary agreed to acquire Schlumberger’s Middle East drilling rigs business for $415mn, and the company announced that it produced more than 1mn barrels of oil from Atrush, in Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in July. TAQA plans to spend $1.2bn on invest- ments and acquisitions in the next three years. SAEED AL-HAJERI CHAIRMAN, TAQA25 POWER 50 oilandgasmiddleeast.com FEBRUARY 2020 Libya has had a tough year, with multiple attacks on oil infrastructure and continuing instability in the nation. Mustafa Sanalla has been vocal in condemning all attacks on oil infrastructure, but as of 20 Jan 2020, the nation’s oil production was brought to a standstill, with force majeure declared across major ports. MUSTAFA SANALLA CHAIRMAN, NOC LIBYA Igor Sechin has emphasised the importance of the Middle East for Russian giant Ros- neft. As part of the consor- tium developing Egypt’s giant Zohr field, Rosneft has seen some success in the region, announcing in September 2018 that its production capacity had increased by 25% to more than 2bcf per day. IGOR SECHIN CEO, ROSNEFT Oman Oil Company is eyeing growth; from its cooperation in launch- ing entrepreneurial platform OM.HUB, to creating training institutes, an MoU with BP to invest in human capital & the first HSE Contractors Fo- rum, OOC is looking to change the status quo, while growing its downstream portfolio. ISAM AL ZADJALI CEO, OMAN OIL COMPANY With protests, gen- eral unrest, and geopolitical strife surrounding Iraq, Basrah Oil Company has had a difficult year, and after the US airstike in Iraq, and resulting retalation from Iran, some ma- jor international oil companies have taken their workers out of the nation. IHSAN ABDUL JABBAR ISMAIL DIRECTOR-GENERAL, BASRAH OIL COMPANY Majid Jafar has a few key priorities in mind, and among them are the grow- ing importance of gas, and the need to implement sustain- ability measures. Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum’s $700mn Khor Mor expansion plan is expected to increase gas output by 250mscfd. MAJID JAFAR CEO, CRESCENT PETROLEUM Dolphin Energy, the joint venture between Mubadala, Occidental Petroleum and Total, meets approximately 30% of the UAE’s energy requirements, according to Mubadala. Still, the company has been affected by geopolitical events and ap- pears to have shrunk from the limelight in the past year. AHMED ALI AL SAYEGH MD, DOLPHIN ENERGY26 POWER 50 oilandgasmiddleeast.com FEBRUARY 2020 Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zan- ganeh aims to achieve “30% share of natural gas in the world energy mix by 2040.” Iran currently produces 750mn cubic metres per day, and aims to surpass 1bn cubic metres per day. NIGC also recently started construction on the Middle East’s largest gas storage tank, Torbati said. HASSAN TORBATI MD, NIGC Sharjah National Oil Company has had a tre- mendous year. Not only did it launch its first international bidding round, but it recently announced an onshore gas discovery in Mahani-1 well, just one year after partnering with fellow list member ENI. SNOC appears poised for growth in 2020. HATEM EL MOSA CEO, SHARJAH NATIONAL OIL COMPANY The Arab Petroleum In- vestments Corporation, a multilateral lender owned by the 10 mem- bers of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, saw the overall size of its bal- ance sheet grew 6.2 percent to $7.4bn in 2019. The company has secured a long-term issuer rating of Aa3 from Moody’s. AHMED ALI ATTIGA CEO, APICORP Gazprom Neft Middle East celebrated its 100 millionth tonne of oil at Iraq’s Badra field in August 2019. It is establishing a joint venture in Western Siberia with Mubadala and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which it says is part of a larger plan to make more deals, and expand its presence, in the Middle East. ALEXEY MILLER CEO, GAZPROM Dana Energy, a private Iranian firm, has found success in field develop- ment. It won a tender to increase production in Iran’s Nargesi oilfield as well as the construction of a downstream facility. It also led a consortium with the National Iranian Oil Company to redevelop Aban and West Paydar oilfields. MOHAMMAD IRAVANI CHAIRMAN & CEO, DANA ENERGY Ali Al Jarwan has decades of experience, much of it with ADNOC. As the CEO of ENOC’s production arm, he announced a $13bn expansion plan over the next decade, and $500mn for acquisitions in 2019. Dragon Oil agreed in June to purchase BP’s $600mn stake in the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company. ALI AL JARWAN CEO, DRAGON OIL27 POWER 50 oilandgasmiddleeast.com FEBRUARY 2020 Malaysia’s oil and gas company has made moves to expand its presence in the Middle East. In December 2018, Petronas acquired a 10% stake in Oman’s Block 61, part of Khazzan field, and earlier in the year it announced a joint venture with Saudi Aramco to build a downstream complex. WAN ZULKIFLEE CEO, PETRONAS Lebanon is on the Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean where a number of giant sub-sea gas fields have been discovered since 2009. Two exploration blocks were awarded in 2017, and it has issued a second licensing round. Bids for the second round were due on January 31, 2020. WALID NASR CHAIRMAN, LPA RAK Petroleum holds a 40.45% interest in DNO, which is focused on ex- ploration & production in Iraq & Oman. The Oslo-listed company, originally founded in the UAE, signed an exploration and production sharing agree- ment with Eni in April 2019 for Block A Offshore in RAK, which covers 2,412 km2. BIJAN MOSSAVAR RAHMANI CHAIRMAN, RAK PETROLEUM Dubai Petroleum is not a spotlight-stealer, but it quietly plugs away at researching and devel- oping technological innovations for its five fields, including low salinity water use for enhanced oil recovery. In 2018, Dubai Petroleum discovered its sixth field, Aqam, but little is known about its latest discovery. FREDERIC CHEMIN GM, DUBAI PETROLEUM DNO, partly owned by RAK Petroleum, has boosted output in Kurd- istan and taken opera- torship of Baeshiqa with a 32% interest in the license. In No- vember, it reported a discovery in the Baeshiqa-2 exploration well. The Norwegian oil and gas operator announced a 29% increase in production in 2019. BJORN DALE MANAGING DIRECTOR, DNO After acquiring a 4% stake in an onshore ADNOC concession, agreeing to a 40-year term and a total investment of $1.8bn, CEFC China Energy transferred its interest to a subsidiary of China ZhenHua Oil Company. The company has faced scrutiny lately as part of a wider bribery investigation. YE JIANMING CHAIRMAN, CEFC CHINA ENERGY28 POWER 50 oilandgasmiddleeast.com FEBRUARY 2020 Equinor, previously known as Statoil, has one of the largest exploration budg- ets in the industry. The Norwegian government-owned entity issued a record number of oil and gas licences last year. It has developed two of the largest gas fields in Algeria, with daily production of 65,000 boed. ELDAR SAETRE CEO, EQUINOR In July 2019, KNOC & GS En- ergy became the first Korean companies to produce oil in the UAE, and Su Yeong Yang inked a framework agreement with ADNOC’s CEO for part- nership opportunities. KNOC has a 30% stake in Al Dhafra Petroleum company & plans to increase oil storage in Korea by 24mn barrels until 2025. SU YEONG YANG CEO, KOREA NATIONAL OIL COMPANY Perenco bought 51% of Petrofac’s Mexican busi- ness in 2019, following the purchase of Petro- fac’s 45% stake in Tunisia’s offshore Chergui field in 2018. Perenco has expanded its portfolio in the North African country since 2017. In 2018, it produced 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Tunisia. FRANCOIS PERRODO CHAIRMAN,PERENCO The Madrid-headquar- tered company has oil exploration & produc- tion operations in mar- kets including Brazil, Alaska and Vietnam. It has also been investing in renewable energy since 2018. Repsol SA is cur- rently exploring options for its Malaysian upstream operations including a potential sale. JOSU JON IMAZ SAN MIGUEL CEO, REPSOL GS Energy is an inde- pendent Korean energy company. It was one of three Korean companies to sign a framework agreement with ADNOC. Ha Young-Bong already has a relationship with the Abu Dhabi energy company, as GS Energy owns a 10% stake in Al Dhafra Petroleum and a 3% stake in ADNOC Onshore. YONGSOO HUH CEO, GS ENERGY Itochu has operations across the Middle East, and in March 2018 bought Shell’s stake in the West Qurna 1 oilfield in Iraq for $406mn (and assumed $144mn in debt), ex- panding its regional presence. West Qurna 1 oilfield produces around 405,000 barrels of oil per day, making it a strong addi- tion to Itochu’s portfolio. 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