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Saudi authorities have charged two individuals in connection with a bribery case involving the purchase by Saudi Aramco of three business jets worth $93m from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. The Brazilian company announced on 24 October that it had agreed to pay fines totalling $205m to US and Brazilian Authorities, ending an investigation into bribery and corruption involving aircraft sales to Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, India and the Dominican Republic.

Security forces “liberated” a strategic oil pipeline from the Islamic State (IS) group in the western Samara area of Salahaddin province on 20 June, the Federal Police Command announced in a statement reported by All Iraq News Agency. It came as the authorities challenged IS units in Baiji district.

Despite moves to mobilise new finance, concern is growing in Morocco about the financial health of the North African kingdom’s only refinery, operated by Société Marocaine d’Industrie de Raffinage (Samir) at Mohammedia, and its ability to remain the dominant player in the national products market. This follows the announcement of losses in 2014 and questions about the ability and appetite of the refinery’s owner, Saudi-Ethiopian magnate Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi, to meet heavy financial costs.

Abu Dhabi-based Arab Investment and Development Authority (AIDA) has signed a deal with Ukraine’s STC Energy to develop solar power plants in the east European country to generate 170MW of electricity. AIDA is reportedly to provide $2bn in backing for the project. The agreement was signed by AIDA chairman Adil Al-Otaiba during an event held by the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce in Dubai on 28 March. The deal reportedly also involves co-operation in agriculture and rural development.

Qatar ‘bet the farm’ on LNG but, more than a decade later, its determination has paid off

Palace politics – which have placed Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) at the centre of economic as well as defence policy – combined with the Yemen intervention and depleting finances may have had an impact on the coherence of Saudi hydrocarbons policy.

Baghdad has said it is delaying bidding for the next round of exploration rights by more than a month to May 30.

When Qatar set up its gas export infrastructure, it focused on international markets. A regional energy specialist tells GSN why the rest of the region is paying the price – and why that is unlikely to change.

Qatar is interested in buying minority stakes in state oil company Petrobras and in a major financial institution, Banco do Brasil

The thaw in Baghdad-Erbil relations since the beginning of this year has continued with encouraging statements from both federal oil minister Hussain Al-Shahristani and Kurdistan Regional Government natural resources minister Ashti Hawrami.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on 24 December by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to restart production in their shared Neutral Zone was widely welcomed as a breakthrough in a dispute which has been rumbling on since 2014. The deal was signed by Saudi energy minister Prince Abdelaziz Bin Salman, his Kuwaiti counterpart Khaled Ali Al-Fadhil and Kuwait’s foreign affairs minister Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah. It was proclaimed as “historic” by Kuwaiti prime minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

The UAE has been told it needs to make “fundamental and major” reforms in a wide range of areas by the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF). The Paris-based global anti-money laundering body issued its latest mutual evaluation report on 30 April, finding that the UAE had only moderate or low levels of effectiveness in ten out of 11 key areas examined. Among areas where the UAE is falling short are access to information about the beneficial ownership of locally-registered companies and the investigation and prosecution of money laundering offences.

The appointment of Saad Al-Kaabi as Qatar Petroleum (QP) managing director may prove a significant step in helping Qatar to confront serious challenges in its energy sector, which range from declining crude output, disappointments over deep gas (pre-Khuff) exploration, and delays in the Barzan offshore gas development to increasing competition in the global gas market. Al-Kaabi is expected to tackle inefficiencies across the sector, in part a legacy of the more freewheeling way of doing things that once suited the ambitious emirate.

The collapse of energy export revenues is piling further pressure on President Ali Abdullah Saleh as the tribal and post-socialist wings of the southern campaign unite around a figurehead, Ali Salem Al-Baydh, who talked exclusively to GSN about the evolving crisis.

The Mosul dam in northern Iraq is “more likely to experience failure than it is not,” according to a sobering new report, and the consequence will be a biblical inundation along the Tigris river valley – comparable to those described in 4,000 year-old epics such as the Legend of Gilgamesh. Should the dam collapse, the resulting flood will kill an estimated 500,000 Iraqis, rising to as many as 1.47m if evacuation plans fail, according to a report issued on 13 June by Peace Ambassadors for Iraq (PAFI), an NGO founded in 2015 to promote progress towards a more united Iraq.