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Government revenues for the first ten months of 2021 were up 28% year-on-year to OR8.3bn ($21.6bn), while spending was broadly flat at OR9.3bn, according to Ministry of Finance data released in early December. The key factor was higher oil and gas prices with oil revenues up 35% compared to last year, to OR4.4bn, and gas revenues rising 51% to OR1.7bn.

Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) on 6 December announced the second major pipeline transaction under its “portfolio optimisation programme”, with a $15.5bn leaseback deal with a consortium led by BlackRock Real Assets and General Organisation for Social Insurance (Gosi)’s Hassana Investment Company which will take over its gas pipeline network.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Opec+ partners are sticking to their steady ramp up of crude output, despite signs of demand destruction returning to the market with the recently identified Omicron strain of Covid-19. With Brent crude trading at well below $70/bbl – compared to over $80/bbl as of their early November meeting – Opec+ agreed on 2 December to stick to its planned 400,000 b/d quota increase in January.

Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) on 6 December inaugurated the Yibal Khuff megaproject (YKP), which it described as “the most complex and second largest project in size in the company’s history”. Deputy prime minister for defence affairs Sayyid Shihab Bin Tarik Al-Said was at PDO’s Mina Al-Fahal headquarters it was a major step forward in hydrocarbons output.

Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) has awarded $10bn-worth of contracts for the Jafurah unconventional gas development, from which it plans to produce 2 bcf/d of gas, 418 mcf/d of ethane and 630,000 b/d of natural gas liquids (NGLs) and condensate by 2030.

Doha is in discussions to supply natural gas to Lebanon via Jordan and Syria. The matter was raised at a meeting in Doha between Lebanese energy and water minister Walid Fayad and his Qatari counterpart and QatarEnergy chief Saad Bin Sherida Al-Kaabi.

GSN Risk Grade: B↓2↓ Solar power: Kuwait is planning to develop more renewable energy capacity, particularly in solar power, oil minister Mohammed Abdullatif Al-Fares told the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec) on 15 November.

A consortium of French giant EDF, Qatar’s Nebras Power and Japan’s Sojitz Corporation has been awarded a 25-year public/private partnership contract with National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan to design, finance, build, operate and maintain a 1,200-1,600MW combined cycle gas turbine plant in the Syrdarya region.

GCC governments are pursuing different strategies to tackle climate change but, in most cases, their PR-laden statements leave them open to charges of ‘greenwashing’, given that major oil and gas producers insist on the right to continue pumping ever more hydrocarbons out of the ground.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the 26th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26), is rarely short of a pithy quip aimed at his support base. Indeed, whole policies have been woven around his notion that the UK electorate can “have its cake and eat it”, however misleading that may be. Johnson’s allies – and even his critics – in the Gulf’s oil and gas producing states would appreciate that sentiment as they emerge from the climate talks, due to end on 12 November.

GSN Risk Grade: C↑3↓ Recent developments Ratings downgrade: Second tier ratings agency Capital Intelligence (CI) cut long-term foreign and local currency ratings on 8 October to B+ from BB-, revising the outlook to stable from negative.

Challenged by years of drift even before Covid-19 had a heavy impact on its economy, Oman has sought to revitalise its hydrocarbons industries since Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said came to power. Institutions have been reconfigured and some big players continue to invest in gas, but overall the results are mixed.

The government expects state revenues to reach SR930bn ($248bn) this year, around 10% higher than originally outlined in the 2021 budget, according to the preliminary budget statement for 2022. Higher oil revenues are the main factor behind the change.

Foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has invited his Azerbaijani counterpart to Tehran and said he will visit Baku “at the appropriate time”, in an apparent attempt to reduce tensions which have flared up amid military exercises by both countries and Iranian allegations that Azerbaijan is receiving military assistance from Israel.

King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa abolished the National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) and replaced it with a Ministry of Oil, according to a royal decree dated 27 September. The ministry will take on all of Noga’s functions; all staff will be moved across. It is not clear if the changes will be accompanied by a reshuffle of senior personnel.