Search results

Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) is used to VIP visitors from the US president to other foreign leaders and ministers, down to the ordinary dignitaries and senior businessmen. Even so, security is always a concern in an airport perched on the edge of Baghdad's 'Wild West'. The first and last step of the process at BIAP is landing and take-off, which present fairly manageable risks. Even so, the ride looks scary from the perspective of risk-averse IOCs.

Financing has been confirmed for the Bahrain LNG project, with a syndicate of nine international and regional banks providing a 20-year, $741m loan. The project, which will have a capacity of 800 mcf/d and is due for completion in early 2019, is owned by the local Oil and Gas Holding Company (Nogaholding) and a consortium of Teekay LNG Partners, Gulf Investment Corporation and Samsung C&T.

The proposed merger of the regional assets of Norway’s DNO and Ras Al-Khaimah’s RAK Petroleum will create a focused upstream exploration company combining aggressive expansion with increased local expertise The strategic rationale behind the merger of DNO International and RAK Petroleum is to create an enlarged company that will be easier to list on the London Stock Exchange. It will also diversify DNO’s operations. “We will be growing our base in the Mena region, and diversifying within the Mena region,” spokesman Tom Bratlie told GSN.

Natural gas discoveries in Sharjah and Dubai were announced in late January and early February, offering a chance for the UAE to move closer to its aim of energy self-sufficiency. (The Emirates currently import gas from Qatar via the Dolphin pipeline, which is something of an embarrassment given the trade embargo the UAE has imposed on Qatar in all other areas.) The discoveries provide a welcome boost to the economies of the two relatively energy-poor emirates.

Qatar Airways announced a small net loss in the year to April 2012, on the back of high oil prices. The ambitious and fast-growing carrier is not listed on a stock market, and does not regularly disclose its results.

While the Dubai property market shows marked signs of cooling down (see below), investors in the UAE and other Gulf states show little sign of losing their enthusiasm for buying property in London, which along with New York and a very few other locations is an acknowledged global safe haven for parking assets out of potential harm’s way. (A variety of sources report that the UK’s heated ‘Brexit’ debate over possible departure from the European Union has elicited barely a murmur from Gulf investors, who see business continuing more or less as usual in London whatever happens.)

The government’s alternative energy arm is teaming up with foreign players to lead the way in sustainable development. With Abu Dhabi’s enormous petrodollar wealth and its enthusiasm for renewable energy, its strategy to partner with foreign companies who can offer technical expertise looks set to create powerful partnerships that will bring

Gas Authority of India (Gail) says it has restarted negotiations to renew a $22bn liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchase contract with National Iranian Gas Exports Company (Nigec), which was blocked by National Iranian Oil Company (Nioc) as long ago as mid-2005, while on 15 August, the Islamic Republic News Agency (Irna) quoted a senior energy official announcing that the government had “prepared the draft of a much-awaited agreement” to export natural gas from the South Pars field to Iraq.

Further to reports of financial troubles at two property companies owned by the Dubai government, Meydan and Meraas Holdings, Damac Properties chairman Hussein Sajwani has called for an 18-month temporary halt to house-building in Dubai, so that demand can catch up with supply. In an interview with Bloomberg, Sajwani blamed Emaar Properties for flooding the market; he said he believed that whereas 30,000 properties were due to come on the market this year, there was only demand for 15,000.

Qatar resorted to shipping liquified natural gas (LNG) to the UAE last month, after problems with the Dolphin pipeline connecting the two countries caused that delivery route to be closed off for several days in mid-April.

A new pipeline between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia was officially opened on 26 November. The AB-4 pipeline, which has capacity to carry over 350,000 b/d of crude oil, replaces a 73-year-old system. It runs 112km from Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq plant to the Bahrain Petroleum Company refinery, enabling Bapco to boost its output from 262,000 b/d now. Bahraini King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman inaugurated the pipeline at an event at Sheikh Isa Air Base on 26 November.

US major Chevron Corporation has closed its head office in Kuwait after failed negotiations for enhanced technical services agreements (TSAs) – indicating that the recent government reshuffle may have done little to change political opposition to foreign involvement in the hydrocarbons industry.

Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) has stopped its investment in the Kidan gas development project. In a 5 July interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Shell director of upstream international business Andrew Brown admitted the company’s decade-long search for gas in the Rub Al-Khali had been fruitless. “We haven’t had a very successful exploration campaign…We aren’t conducting any operations there at the moment,” Brown said.

Manoeuvrings for refinancing one of the GCC region’s most important energy transfer projects, the Dolphin Energy Ltd (DEL) gas pipeline between Qatar and the UAE, are expected to accelerate in the New Year, although bankers are remaining tight-lipped on details. The Dolphin refinancing will replace some

Around 10m tonnes of goods transit Iran each year, providing some £3bn in revenues – a figure Tehran would like to quadruple by 2025. Sanctions have only intensified government efforts to make the country an indispensable part of the regional network.