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Oman offers significant oil storage facilities at sites including Sohar and Ras Markaz, with the latter having the advantage of being outside the Strait of Hormuz.

A Bahrain-based fund owned by regional sovereign wealth funds and government ministries has asked a Cayman Islands court to wind up the owner of Fujairah oil storage business Brooge Energy over unpaid debts.

Recent data give some grounds for optimism that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s bets on stimulating non-oil growth and liberalising society is yielding dividends, but an IMF report and other recent analysis show just how much further the country needs to go to end its dependency on oil and gas revenues.

Recent gloomy reports on a downturn in Saudi economic growth were underpinned by the announcement that Riyadh was extending its 1m b/d production cut until end-2023. However, the higher prices are not enough to make up for the fall in output. 

The Bahraini Ministry of Electricity and Water Affairs signed a contract to develop a 72MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project  – the largest such scheme yet in Bahrain and representing a significant step towards the government's goal of developing 250MW of renewable energy capacity by 2025.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) said it was pushing ahead with the region’s first geothermal power project, following the conclusion of testing at two wells in Abu Dhabi. 

Securing workable energy, economic and security relations with Turkey has even greater urgency for Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government as the KRG says it can no longer afford to pay its employees’ salaries due to the closure since late March of the vital crude oil export pipeline.

Saudi Aramco underlined the kingdom's deepening relationships with China when the national champion announced the acquisition of a 10% stake in Rongsheng Petrochemical Company.

While the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) suffers from its Turkish pipeline closure, the federal Government of Iraq (GoI) is also in an uncomfortable situation when it comes to energy trade – despite the good news that TotalEnergies and its partner QatarEnergy have finalised their headline $27bn deal to develop a roster of major hydrocarbons and renewables projects.

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-led project to remove the estimated 1.14m barrels of oil from the stricken floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel Safer got under way, with the first crude being transferred to the replacement tanker Yemen, which was recently retitled from its previous name of Nautica.

As the UAE extends its interests in mining and other sectors across Africa, state minister for foreign affairs Sheikh Shakhbut Bin Nahyan Al-Nahyan has been meeting leaders around the continent.

Commerce spoke louder than diplomacy when the state-owned QatarEnergy announced a ten-year deal to supply condensate to the Dubai government-owned Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc). It represents the first major commercial deal since the two Gulf Co-operation Council partners (or mainly, in recent years, rivals) agreed in June to reopen their respective embassies.

Emirates Water and Electricity Company (Ewec) said it had received four bids to develop the 1,500MW Al-Ajban solar PV plant as an independent power project (IPP). It is Ewec’s third major PV project in Abu Dhabi and will bring the state-owned Abu Dhabi Power Corporation subsidiary's total solar capacity to around 4GW.

Iran has been flexing its muscles in oil and gas disputes with its Arab neighbours, in what could be an attempt to ensure the recent trend towards rapprochement with regional and international powers happens on its terms. But factional disputes within the Iranian elite may also be playing a role, as rivals in Tehran try to ensure their vested interests aren’t damaged.

The UAE’s hosting of the COP28 climate summit in November comes just as Gulf companies and investors are playing an ever-bigger role in electricity supply industries across Africa. Among the most prominent players, Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power has been an early mover and Abu Dhabi-backed Infinity Power is now developing gigawatts of new capacity.