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James Drummond

Editor-in-Chief

An Arabic speaker, the British national’s wide experience in the region includes roles as a former hedge fund correspondent and news editor in the Gulf for the Financial Times, as well as FT correspondent in Cairo and Baghdad, where he covered the aftermath of the US-led invasion. Oxford-educated Drummond is a qualified chartered accountant and anti-money laundering specialist, and has also led geopolitical risk analysis for a number of global banking and corporate institutions

James Drummond
The opening of the sixth line of the Riyadh metro should be celebrated, but the country can do better with its economic growth

Balancing the Saudi books to improve growth

The sixth line of the Riyadh metro has now opened – a considerable achievement executed at unprecedented speed, according to architects and engineers interviewed by Valentina Pasquali. But the IMF is predicting growth in the Saudi economy ... Register now: It’s easy and free This content is available for registered members only. Register for your free account […]

The striking Riyadh Metro station in Kiing Abdullah Financial District - will it draw Saudis from their cars?

Riyadh Metro could get Saudis to quit their cars

OK. So it did not go entirely as advertised. The first phase of the Riyadh Metro was due to open on Wednesday; instead the system has been inaugurated and operation of three of the six lines – Blue, Yellow and Violet – officially starts on December ...

On the agenda: Ed Miliband, UK secretary of state for energy security and net zero, and World Bank president Ajay Banga at the summit on methane at COP29 in Baku

Nobody likes methane seepage. Especially Europe

Liquefied natural gas has always had a heroic reputation in the energy world. Heroic engineering, heroic logistics and heroic expense, yes – but a heroic outcome: clean (or not-so-dirty) energy and a seat with the good guys at the high tab...

Although China has its own oil industry it remains Saudi Arabia's top importer

China’s plans affect the future of oil

Aramco is betting on China to boost a well-supplied crude market and – here’s hoping in Riyadh – enable Saudi Arabia to unwind production cuts. Amin Nasser, the Saudi state oil giant’s CEO, said last week that he expects demand from China to...

Petrol prices in Iran are some of the lowest in the world, making it difficult to unlock the country's oil wealth domestically

Iran’s mission to make the most of oil wealth

Despite some predictable vapouring from hardliners, the Islamic regime in Tehran will mainly be heaving a sigh of relief that Israel did not attack Iran’s oil infrastructure. The IAF avoided the main oil terminal at Kharg Island in the north of ...

Labour leader Keir Starmer and his chancellor Rachel Reeves could gain from working with Gulf states

Labour would do well to heed the Gulf

There is still another week to go before UK chancellor Rachel Reeves’s first Budget. The long-awaited statement should set the direction and priorities for the new Labour government over the next four years. And, for Gulf investors and many others, ...

The entrance to HSBC's headquarters in Hong Kong. The bank's Middle East operations will be based in the building from next year

HSBC to fold Middle East operations into Hong Kong

HSBC Holdings announced on Tuesday that the group’s operations in the Middle East and Turkey will be folded into a unit headquartered in Hong Kong from the beginning of next year.  Stephen Moss, who has been based in Dubai as chief executive of the giant bank’s Middle East operations since April 2021, is leaving at […]

Trains: A Dubai metro station – a third line is due by 2029

Trains, planes and more trains (or metros)

Is it finally happening? It was conceived back in 2013 and was supposed to take four years to build but the Riyadh metro looks like it is about to open. To the hard-pressed inhabitants of the Saudi capital, that can only be a good thing. Altern...

Opec's cut in predicted demand growth to 2.1 million bpd still keeps it above the historical average and the International Energy Agency's expected level

Opec cuts forecast for oil demand growth

Lacklustre growth in the Chinese economy has caused Opec to trim its bullish forecast for growth in international oil demand this year.  The oil producers’ group said on Tuesday that it was cutting its expectation for growth in demand by the world economy by 6 percent, or 135,000 barrels per day (bpd), to 2.1 million […]

Murray Auchincloss, BP’s CEO, left, signed the agreement with Hayan Abdul Ghani, the Iraqi oil minister, right, alongside Muhammad Shia Sudani, the prime minister, centre, in Baghdad on August 1

BP CEO signs non-binding deal to return to Iraqi oilfield

BP, the London-listed oil major, has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the Iraqi government to return to the super-giant Kirkuk oilfield in the north of the country.  The agreement includes the Baba and Avanah domes and three adjacent fields – Bai Hassan, Jambur and Khabbaz – which are operated by the government of […]

Masoud Pezeshkian

Pezeshkian has a strong mandate – and a slew of problems

It was not supposed to be this way. Masoud Pezeshkian, the sole reformist candidate, has won the second round of Iranian presidential elections to replace Ebrahim Raisi, and the fears of conservatives in the Iranian regime have come to pass.   Conventionally, conservative candidates withdraw at the last minute ahead of a first round of voting, […]

PM Narendra Modi greets supporters at BJP headquarters in New Delhi. He took office in 2014

642 million votes counted … now India can get back to business

Narendra Modi has claimed victory in India’s election – and many in the Gulf will be delighted at the prospect of a third Modi term. The prime minister’s pro-business credentials and economically liberalising tendencies remain credible, if battered, after 10 years in office.  His Bharatiya Janata Party did not perform as well as expected, however, […]

hu jintao china gcc

Diplomacy and trade to fore as China woos GCC leaders

It’s quite a coup. Hu Jintao (still with us) must be feeling vindicated. The heads of four Arab states are in Beijing to attend the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, which Hu founded in 2004 to bring together China and the Arab League.  Xi Jinping, Hu’s successor as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), will […]

A Houthi military helicopter flies over the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea

BP and Equinor divert tankers from Red Sea

Two European oil and gas companies, BP of the UK and Equinor of Norway, have joined a group of shipping lines that are diverting their tankers away from the Red Sea, following missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants. BP said in a statement: “The safety and security of our people and those working […]

People dance on the deck of the Galaxy Leader, seized by Yemen's Houthis last month, off the coast of al-Salif

Jet fuel most exposed to Red Sea closure, analysts say

Trade analysts warned on Monday that jet fuel is the commodity most exposed to an interruption of trade in the Red Sea, as the world’s main shipping companies said that they would avoid the waterway because of missile and drone attacks.  Several container shipping lines, including CMA CGM of France, MSC of Switzerland and A.P. […]

Masked and socially distanced pupils at a Saudi school in 2021. The OECD's Pisa tests show the impact of the pandemic on education

Saudi schools ‘doing better at maths but still lagging behind’

Saudi Arabia’s schools have improved in the past few years, but are still below the international average and a long way behind the best performers, according to the OECD. Teenagers from 81 countries were tested for the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), which published its 2022 report on Tuesday. The tests measured the […]

Lucy Frazer is likely to conduct a public interest test on the Telegraph bid

UK regulator likely to review Telegraph bid

Lucy Frazer, UK secretary of state for culture media and sport, has written to an Abu Dhabi-backed consortium warning that that she is likely to subject its bid for a leading British newspaper group to a public interest test.  RedBird IMI, led by Jeff Zucker, a former president of CNN, has submitted a bid for […]

Saudi Arabia's new data will show which sectors are performing best when it comes to foreign direct investment laptop hands statistics

Saudi Arabia set for FDI top 20 after Misa revises measures

Saudi Arabia has reworked its methods of measuring foreign direct investment and will publish updated data in the middle of next month that will show the kingdom among the top 20 recipients globally, according to a senior official.  Historically, the central bank, still widely known as Sama, published the FDI data using statistical modelling techniques. […]