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Operators such as Genel Energy (Genel) and Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP), two of the main oil production and export companies in Iraqi Kurdistan, will have viewed the Baghdad-Erbil deal as good for business; shares in both companies were briefly lifted by the deal’s announcement and, as the deal was being made, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) followed through on its November promise to make an initial payment of $75m to producers for exports.

As oil minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has described it, the 14 November agreement between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG – see main story) includes three provisions: one, Baghdad will make a budget payment of $500m; two, the KRG will export 150,000 b/d of crude through the federal system; and three, KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani will then lead a delegation to Baghdad for further talks. This icebreaker involves a modest policy compromise for the KRG since it means exporting through the federal State Organisation for the Marketing of Oil, something it has pledged never to do again.

Oman has signed an OR250m ($649m) tourism deal with Qatari Diar, which will see the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA)’s real estate company develop Ras Al-Hadd in Al-Sharqiyah South. The development stretches over 1.848m square metres. Under the terms of the deal, Qatari Diar will own 70% of the development, and the Oman Tourism Development Company the other 30%, according to Oman’s state news agency. The development will include tourist resorts, housing units and recreational facilities. The first stage, to include an 100-room five star hotel, 50 hotel villas, 150 residential villas and retail areas is due to be completed in 2018. The second stage includes another hotel, a wildlife centre and another 196 residential villas.

Emirates Airline has finalised a $56bn deal with Boeing for 150 777Xs. The announcement was made at the Dubai Airshow in November 2013, and confirmed by Boeing on 9 July. “The order – a combination of 115 777-9Xs and 35 777-8Xs – also includes purchase rights for an additional 50 airplanes that, if exercised, could increase value to approximately $75 billion at list prices,” Boeing said.

Iran and Qatar have signed a memorandum of understanding stating that they plan to increase bilateral trade, according to Iranian media. Iranian presidential adviser and secretary of the free zones co-ordination council Ali Akbar Torkan, who was in Doha on 1-2 July, said the aim was to increase Iranian exports of food, agricultural products, seafood, minerals and construction materials to Qatar.

Qatar Holding (QH) sold around a third of its shareholding in the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) on 10 July, though it still remains one of the exchange’s largest shareholders. “This transaction forms part of the routine portfolio management activities undertaken by QH from time to time.

Boardroom reshuffles at Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) suggest that what is good for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is not necessarily what is also most favoured by international investors on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The company’s co-founder Todd Kozel, whose large pay packets have been the subject of vociferous shareholder opposition in the past, will step down as chief executive at the annual general meeting (AGM) on 17 July, but will remain an executive director at the insistence of the KRG.

The big three airlines of the Gulf – Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways – have become global brands thanks to massive investments in modern aircraft fleets and ever-widening route networks. The particulars of their business models may vary, but all three ultimately rely on having hubs in the Gulf through which they funnel huge numbers of passengers onto connecting flights. But the airlines are now at risk of becoming victims of their own success. Their growth, coupled with the proliferation of other new airlines over the past decade, means the Gulf’s skies are in danger of becoming so overcrowded that delays become routine.

Manchester City’s second Barclays Premier League title in three years has made Abu Dhabi United Group owner Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, scion of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, revered in the east side of the UK’s second city, if not beyond. But based in the stadium named for Etihad Airways and generously sponsored by several other UAE companies, Man City has also been under the spotlight for allegedly abusing Uefa’s new Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules – which is an issue, too, for Qatar’s European footballing interest, French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).

Iran is exploring the option of setting up an inward investment office in Dubai to help funnel money into the Islamic Republic, if a deal can be done to resolve the stand-off over the country’s nuclear programme. The initiative involves businessmen close to President Hassan Rouhani, although it will not necessarily be an official government office. Dubai is already home to an outpost of the state-run Iranian Trade Promotion Organisation, but this new office would rely on more agile private sector actors rather than the lumbering state bureaucracy.

A court in Los Angeles has ruled in favour of King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz’s son, deputy foreign minister Abdelaziz Bin Abdullah, who is seeking to build a residential estate in the hills above Benedict Canyon. Legal battles linked to the development have been going on for some time; in a blog posting on 3 March, Prince Abdelaziz’s lawyer Benjamin Reznik, of Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, said a three-judge panel in the Court of Appeal had unanimously affirmed a lower court judgment in favour of the prince’s Tower Lane Properties, and against the City of Los Angeles and Bruce and Martha Karsh, who own a neighbouring property and have been leading efforts to stop the prince from building.

Another of the string of cases related to bribery at Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) wrapped up on 9 January, when Alcoa World Alumina LLC agreed to plead guilty and pay $223m in criminal fines and forfeiture for having violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), as well as $161m to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).The case, brought by the Department of Justice (DoJ), follows investigations begun in 2008 into allegations that, to secure contracts, Alcoa paid millions of dollars of bribes through an international middleman in London to officials at Alba.

Dubai’s Emirates airline set a new record on the first day of the Dubai Airshow with the announcement it was placing orders worth an estimated $99bn. Emirates will purchase 250 Boeing 777Xs (comprising 35 Boeing 777-8Xs and 115 Boeing 777-9Xs), plus 50 purchase rights, an order valued at $76bn – making it the single largest aircraft order by value in the history of US commercial aviation. In a separate deal worth $23bn, Emirates, which is chaired by Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum (uncle of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum), ordered 50 Airbus A380 aircraft.

Jeddah-based Saudi Business Machines (SBM) in mid-October filed a case against Illinois-incorporated V3 Data Matrix alleging breach of contract, conversion and unjust enrichment based on V3 Data’s “deceitful scheme of submitting false invoices for payment of goods which it never delivered to SBM”. SBM claims that V3 Data worked with a former SBM employee (the father of V3 Data’s president) to steal some $1.3m from the company. The case was launched on 15 October in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. SBM, represented by Dentons law firm, is a leading IT service company in Saudi Arabia, where it is the representative for IBM.

The largest energy investor in Iraqi Kurdistan, Sharjah-based Dana Gas, has begun arbitration proceedings against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) at the London Court of International Arbitration. Dana and its partners in Iraq say they want to “clarify certain contractual rights”, and recoup more than $1bn in unpaid receivables. The KRG says there are no outstanding receivables and that, in fact, Dana and its affiliates owe Erbil money. Dana’s KRG interests are held via a 40% share of Pearl Petroleum, which is co-owned by Dana’s main shareholder, Crescent Petroleum (40%), OMV Upstream International (10%) and MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas (10%).