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Gulf Finance House’s latest initiative to establish a bank that caters specifically to the energy sector could create some attractive investment opportunities, adding another powerful instrument to Bahraini mover and shaker Esam Janahi’s ever growing portfolio.

The takeover of one of the UK’s oldest football clubs by a previously unheard of Abu Dhabi vehicle has caused huge stirs in the UAE and in Britain – and still it remains unclear who owns the privately-held company. GSN highlights two members of the Abu Dhabi ruling family with close links to the sale.

The senior Al-Thani leadership has been busy on the international front. Following a visit to Tehran by Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Qatar denied it had invited Iran to attend this year’s December Gulf Co-operation Council summit.

Falcon Petroleum Ltd, a company with Middle Eastern backing registered in Cyprus, has been awarded three blocks in Ethiopia’s Amhara Regional State. Ethiopian Minister of Mines and Energy Alemayehu Tegenu said the contract envisaged an exploration period of four years and a 25-year production period, and

Interest is growing in the Gulf about the potential impact of a new US administration on the region, and on the West’s long-running reliance on Middle East energy. In a first pre-election analysis, GSN examines the main camps, their advisors and general policy orientations. A second part of this analysis from Washington will follow in GSN 837, focusing on the implications of an Obama or McCain victory on what remain the key theatres of US foreign policy: Iraq, Iran and the GCC states.

In a deal said to be worth around $4bn, the government has agreed to award Royal Dutch Group a contract to capture and use flared gas in the southern region of Basra. This represents the first deal signed between the government’s South Oil Company, responsible for developing southern oil fields, and a western oil company since the US-led

Kuwait Energy Company has purchased Oil Search’s assets in Egypt and Yemen, and announced an agreement with the Somali government, underlining chief executive Sara Akbar’s determination to make the Kuwait-based indie a significant player in emerging hydrocarbons frontiers. A London listing is expected in 2009

The King is sticking to a reform path, having reinforced his control over family and government power structures, but the pace of change remains cautious and even with the Kingdom awash with liquidity major challenges remain for the Saudi leadership. GSN examines the direction of Abdullah’s rule some three years after the respected elder statesman took over the top job.

Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has published a report in which it responds to ten frequently asked questions about recent

Three sharia-compliant investment funds worth $10bn have been created to seek out opportunities

The Holiday Inn in Beirut, ravaged during the 1975-90 civil war when it was used by militias as a base for fighting, remains a ruin due to differences within Kuwait's ruling family, sources in the Lebanese capital told GSN.

The 615,000 b/d Al-Zour oil refinery, expected to be one of the world’s largest, is facing further delays after the cabinet agreed to refer the project to the State Audit Bureau of Kuwait (SABK) for investigation in response to protests against signing the final contracts by opposition members in the Popular Action Bloc. In May, state-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) awarded four construction contracts worth $8.3bn to one Japanese and four South Korean companies. An estimated $2bn fifth contract was awarded to US project manager Fluor. Oil, Electricity and Water Minister Mohammed Al-Olaim had already gained support from a parliamentary committee to award the contracts after investigating claims that some contracts were not awarded to the lowest bidder.

MIQRIN BIN ABDELAZIZ: Pakistan venture; PRINCE ABDULLAH: Equestrian hopes dashed; PRINCE SAUD: Turkmenistan trip; PRINCESS FAWZIA: Death; AL-SAUD: Al-Shayk wedding in Riyadh; SENIOR AL-SAUDS: Various vacations

The jihadist threat to foreign interests may be waning with the gradual whittling down of the cadre of (known) hardened Yemeni militants. This war of attrition – analysed at length in GSN over the past year, with an update on Al-Qaeda in Yemen/Jund Al-Yemen in Defence and security, below – may not yet signal the threat’s end. But it has convinced governments and corporations that Yemen remains a place where their citizens can travel and where money can be made if care is taken.

The death of the Al-Tamimi brigade’s Hamza Al-Qayti deprived the jihadist movement of a senior leader and suggested that the security forces may have turned the tide against ‘Al-Qaeda’s’ Jund Al-Yemen arm, following confidence-sapping attacks in H2 2007 and H1 2008. But it is premature to say that the threat has gone away.