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Company explores finance options for Shaikan, but acknowledges risks of exploring in frontier area

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

Yemen plans to boost oil output by up to 10% to more than 300,000 b/d this year and is in talks with firms including China’s Sinopec to upgrade its Aden refinery

The latest round has encouraged optimists and confounded those who predicted another flop. If IOCs are able to meet their commitments, Iraq will emerge as the number two OPEC exporter

With probably only a few weeks left before the start of a general election campaign, authority is draining away from the Iraqi administration, which still has a great deal of business to do, including the election law, recently vetoed by vice-president Tariq Al-Hashemi

Omani ministers have been talking up the relationship with Iran, whose importance was underlined by the visit to Tehran this summer of Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Saeed. As well as acting as a mediator between the embattled Islamic Republic and its critics, notably the United States and United Kingdom, Oman has a number of national interests in developing ties with Iran, including in the energy sector.

After hard bargaining, the Iraqi government can now tell voters that oil output could be more than doubled within seven years. Below, GSN highlights the spate of recent major deals

The security outlook is worrying and the political future remains cloudy with less than ten weeks to organise a general election, but some things appear to be going right for Iraq at last. Three major oil field service contracts hold out the prospect of financial stability, while MoO and leading IOCs have found common ground after years of failure, raising optimism about the second round of licensing

The prospect of major oil discoveries appears to have ended questions raised when Gulf Keystone announced that Etamic had become its partner, although there remains little information about the deal

Dublin Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange-listed Dragon Oil has agreed to a full takeover by its majority shareholder

Former ambassador Peter Galbraith, who retired from the US State Department in 2003, and who recently made headlines after resigning as deputy head of the United Nations in Afghanistan, has admitted that he was negotiating a potentially lucrative oil deal in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2004 at the same time as he was advising the regional government on constitutional issues.

Al-Khobar-based company Soroof International alleges offshore drilling giant induced it to divulge valuable proprietary and confidential information and trade secrets

Exploration successes by a number of small independent companies in Iraqi Kurdistan have inspired investor interest. But scrutiny of the regional government’s unorthodox financial arrangements with its partners shows that political risks remain high, even if the geological risks are lower than first supposed

Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum has issued decrees setting up two new authorities – one to manage crude oil sales and the other to manage energy supplies.

The Majlis (Parliament) has approved the appointment of Massoud Mirkazemi as oil minister. Mirkazemi, the former commerce minister who enjoys close links with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been criticised for his lack of knowledge and experience of the oil industry. His running of the department, which is engulfed in crisis, will be crucial during the new parliamentary term, particularly if further sanctions are imposed on the oil industry over the country’s nuclear programme.