Appa lobbies output cut

ABIDJAN: African crude-exporting countries will lobby the world’s oil producers to reduce output in order to boost prices that have fallen to levels that threaten to spark social unrest, the African Petroleum Producers Association (Appa) said.

Oil ministers from Appa, which represents 18 African oil producers, agreed at a meeting to establish a platform that would allow the association to carry on a dialogue with other producers on output levels.

Egypt begins LNG imports

CAIRO: Egypt moved closer to easing its chronic power shortages as the arrival of a floating import terminal marked the start of imports of super-cooled liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The Hoegh Gallant floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) from Norway’s Hoegh LNG arrived off Ain Sukhna on the Gulf of Suez, an official at state gas board Egas told Reuters.

Kufpec raises $1.5bn loan

DUBAI: Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp, said it had received an additional $1.5 billion loan, raising a previous debt it took last November to $2.5 billion.

The new funding will be used to finance the company’s current and future projects and international expansion plans, Kufpec said in a statement on Kuwait’s state news agency Kuna.

SEC-GE JV to boost power

RIYADH: Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and GE recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up a joint venture that will extend operations and maintenance (O&M) support to SEC’s power plants in the kingdom.

GE will extend its advanced technologies and train SEC staff to undertake the O&M services. Expected to be operational later this year, the center will undertake the O&M services for a number of power plants of SEC across Saudi Arabia, which will be identified shortly, a statement said.

Egypt owes $3.3bn

CAIRO: Egypt owes foreign energy firms $3.285 billion having paid them $9.369 billion in arrears in the nine months to March 31, an oil ministry spokesman told Reuters.

The ministry told Reuters last month that it aimed to fully repay its debt to energy firms by mid-2016, a year later than previously indicated.

UAE to set up solar stations

ABU DHABI: UAE’s Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA) is set to create a series of solar power stations with a capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) at a cost of Dh500 million ($136 million), according to a report.

The new project will be established in the northern parts of the country under the supervision of FEWA, in partnership with the private sector, said the Emirates News Agency (WAM) report.