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Gulfis have played a role in developing Sudan’s upstream oil industry, and the comings and goings of regional investors continues. Last March saw the entry of Kuwait’s Kharafi Group, which bought a 3% stake in the Chinese-led Petrodar Operating Company from Dubai-based Al-Thani Investments, which has recently been selling off some of its Africa interests.

Russia’s Gazprom has made a deal with Kuwait’s Noor Financial Investment Company to set up a joint venture targeting exploration and production work in Russia and the Middle East. The signing of a bilateral agreement on civil nuclear co-operation with George W Bush’s administration prior to the Republican president’s departure from office has raised some eyebrows in the United States, for fear that it will spark a ‘nuclear arms race’ in the region.

In September, Dubai’s ETA Star Holdings was named as part of a consortium awarded the 10,957km2 Block B in Mozambique. Other members are Pakistan-focused Orient Petroleum International (run by Pakistan’s wealthy Hashwani family) and the local Osho Energia Limitada.

Saudi Arabia’s Groupe Ahmed Saleh Bughchan is also present in Mauritania, holding the licences for Blocks Ta-14, Ta-26, Ta-36, Ta-37, Ta-61, Ta-62, Ta-63. Ahmed Saleh is from Jeddah’s Bughchan family; like many other important business families in the Kingdom (the Bin Laden, Binzagr and Bin Mahfouz), the Bughchan are originally from Yemen’s Hadhramaut region. The family has a range of interests including transport, construction, drinks, perfume and telecommunications, and owns shopping malls, hotels and a hospital.

Eritrea, a county with more than eight decades of exploration history but not much recent success, in late 2008 assigned two offshore blocks to a local/Chinese joint venture called Defba Oil Share Company, set up through a partnership of the Asmara government and Bahrain-registered Energy Alliance Company WLL.

Among the Gulf investors that have looked for upside in the Maghreb’s hydrocarbons industries, London-based Xtract Energy Plc, which has Australian and Central Asian energy interests, last year announced a joint venture with the Saudi-owned Alraed Limited Investment Holding Company.

The credit crunch is slowing down the pace of investments, but the announcement that a Dubai government flagship is to ‘invest $16bn’ in Nigeria serves as a reminder of the extent to which Gulf investors have sought out new business in Africa. GSN has tracked the move of Gulf business players into the continent over a long period, and can record some real investments as well as the usual welter of statements of intent that mark the entry of apparently ever more Arab investors into African business.

Among the issues thrown up by the Ministry of Oil (MOO)’s second licensing round, announced on 31 December, is the challenge it poses to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) through Baghdad’s decision to offer exploration permits in the Qamar, Nau Doman and Gilabet oilfields and Khashm Al-Ahmar gas field in upper Diyala province. The fields’ inclusion in the round comes before the Kurds can resolve the ownership of disputed territories in these fields. Indeed, according to analysis by GSN’s sister publication Iraq Focus, “Baghdad is playing the Kurds at their own game of laying down markers on key terrain in the border oilfields.”

The breakdown of the deal between The Dow Chemical Company and Petrochemical Industries Company – in which the Kuwaiti state-owned PIC would take a 50% stake in the United States’ largest chemicals group for around $9bn in return for the Americans developing the emirate’s downstream value-added via the KDow joint venture – is unsurprising.

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

A pair of deals between the federal government and Kurdistan Regional Government on oil exports and developing the Kirkuk oil field have raised hopes of further strategic compromises, but severe tensions remain between Baghdad and Irbil. Baghdad has agreed to the export of Kurdistan oil via its northern export pipeline within months,

While Kuwait’s latest government crisis keeps the headline writers busy (see Politics, below), major oil companies are worrying that their hopes of developing the emirate’s huge reserves seem as elusive as ever. Some IOCs will struggle to make a profit even

Bahrain-Saudi Arabia pipeline shows relations are good. Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) is planning a $2bn expansion of its Sitra refinery. Iran has signed a MoU with Turkey for the development of two phases of its South Pars gas field. International services company Petrofac has been awarded a KD147m ($543m) lump-sum contract by Kuwait Oil Company for a new gas pipeline.

Saudi supertanker (VLCC) Sirius Star, carrying an estimated $100m worth of oil was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Kenya and headed towards the northern Somali coast. Bahrain’s Ebrahim Abdulaal Group of Companies (EAGC) has signed an MoU with London-based H Oil.

It remains to be seen if anything concrete will emerge out of mid-November talks between Iran, Qatar and Russia about developing the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) as an organisation to co-ordinate gas projects and pricing world-wide, and to develop schemes between the three country ‘troika’.