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Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa Al-Sudani travelled to Washington, Houston and Michigan in April, holding talks with US President Joe Biden, major energy and defence companies and members of the Iraqi diaspora.
Some $35bn worth of potential deals were announced during the Omani leader’s two-day state visit to neighbouring UAE, with the project to develop a rail link between Sohar port and Abu Dhabi now officially up and running – and among measures that could help improve previously sometimes strained relations.
Four export deals have been signed by Oman LNG since mid-April, covering more than 4m t/yr of liquefied natural gas supplies and taking the total deal flow so far this year to 4.6m t/yr.
Output at the three-field Belbazem block is due to ramp up to 45,000 b/d, helping Abu Dhabi National Oil Company on its wat to reaching its target of 5m b/d production capacity by 2027.
Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ is buying a 49% stake in Alpha Dhabi Construction Holding, following a major real estate deal involving ADQ and IHC, another part of national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed’s business empire.
A fund owned by Abu Dhabi conglomerate Chimera Investments’ Lunate has acquired a 40% stake in Adnoc Oil Pipelines from private equity giants BlackRock and KKR, in a move to take overwhelming control of a strategic local asset.
Opec+ market discipline has fed into a rise in Brent crude prices to around $90/bbl, which is welcomed in Gulf capitals as an essential element in easing pressure on governments’ huge investment spending. Those higher oil prices are also driven by fears the Gaza war could spread into a much wider regional conflict that Gulf powers have been working to avoid
Commerce and industry minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Al-Thani has been appointed to chair Qatar’s free zones regulator, replacing Ahmed Al-Sayed who had led QFZA for more than seven years.
A deal between Abu Dhabi giant Adnoc and UK major BP to co-invest in Egyptian gas assets highlights how wealthy Gulf national oil companies are seeking lower-carbon expansion opportunities across Africa, with actors from Qatar and Kuwait also among those on the hunt.
Sheikh Mansour Ibrahim Ahmed Hamad Al-Mualla has been appointed as executive director of the emirate’s Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation
QatarEnergy has launched the North Field West project to produce 16m t/yr of liquefied natural gas and take total output to 142m t/yr before the end of the decade, almost double the existing production of 77m t/yr, which has already given Qatar a dominant role in the global LNG market
Saudi Aramco has increased the amount of proven gas reserves in the kingdom’s largest non-associated gas field by 15tcf, taking the total estimated resources at Jafurah to 229tcf
Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani’s government is looking for a new international partner to take on Shell’s 49% stake in the 1.8m t/yr Nebras petrochemicals project in Basra province, after the European major pulled out of the much-delayed scheme
In a $66.5m deal with Houston-headquartered Vaalco Energy, Saudi-Ethiopian businessman Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi is selling Svenska Petroleum Exploration, his Sweden-based oil company that has been up for sale since bankruptcy proceedings were launched against Al-Amoudi’s Petroswede in early 2023
Regional elections are expected, with further delays: A polling day for the long-delayed sixth set of elections to the Kurdistan Parliament has yet to be announced. In August 2023, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) President Nechirvan Barzani issued a decree scheduling the elections for 25 February.
