Media & Advertising KHC would consider TikTok stake if Musk bought in Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s investment company Kingdom Holding (KHC) would be interested in investing in ByteDance’s TikTok if Elon Musk or others offered to buy it, CEO Talal Ibrahim al-Maiman told Al Arabiya TV on Wednesday. The search to find a buyer for the Chinese-owned popular short video app continues after it went dark and […] January 22, 2025
Finance Pakistan agrees to $1bn loan from Middle Eastern banks Pakistan has agreed terms for a $1 billion loan with two Middle Eastern banks at a 6-7 percent interest rate, its finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told Reuters on Tuesday, as the South Asian country searches for more financing. “With two institutions we have now gone forward in signing up the term sheet – one bilateral […] January 22, 2025
Oil & Gas Aramco chief expects extra oil demand of 1.3m bpd Saudi oil giant Aramco’s chief executive Amin Nasser said on Tuesday he sees the oil market as healthy and expects an additional 1.3 million barrels per day of demand this year. Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Nasser was responding to a question on the impact of US President Donald Trump’s energy […] January 21, 2025
Oil & Gas Libya needs $4bn to increase oil output says minister Libya needs between $3 billion and $4 billion to reach an oil production rate of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), the acting oil and gas minister Khalifa Abdulsadek has said. A new license bidding round is expected to be approved by the cabinet before the end of January, he told Reuters. Abdulsadek said the Libyan economy heavily relies on oil, accounting for more than 95 percent of […] January 20, 2025
Oil & Gas Oil prices remain near four-month highs above $80 Oil prices slipped at market open on Tuesday but remained near four-month highs as Chinese and Indian buyers sought new suppliers in the wake of the Biden administration’s toughest sanctions yet on Russian oil. Brent futures slipped 22 cents, or 0.27 percent, to $80.79 a barrel by 01:22 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 16 cents, or […] January 14, 2025
Oil & Gas Oil may hit $90 on Russia curbs and Iran output cut Brent crude oil prices could rise above $85 a barrel in the short-term if the latest round of US sanctions against Moscow leads to lower Russian oil output, Goldman Sachs said on Sunday. Prices could touch $90 a barrel if the decline in Russian output coincides with a reduction in Iranian production, the bank said. US president Joe Biden imposed the broadest package of sanctions so […] January 13, 2025
Economy Lebanon’s bonds rally after new president elected Lebanese government bonds extended their three-month-long rally on Thursday as the crisis-ravaged country’s parliament voted in a new head of state for the first time since 2022. Lebanese lawmakers elected army chief Joseph Aoun as president. It came after 12 failed attempts to pick a president and boosted hopes that the country might finally be able to start addressing […] January 10, 2025
Economy Egypt’s inflation reached two-year low in December Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation rate fell to 24.1 percent year on year in December, as expected, from 25.5 percent in November, its lowest in two years, data from statistics agency Capmas showed on Thursday. Inflation began surging in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which prompted foreign investors to withdraw billions of dollars from Egyptian treasury markets. It […] January 9, 2025
Oil & Gas Iran seeks to free 25m barrels of oil stuck in Chinese ports Iran is pushing to free 25 million barrels of the country’s oil that has been stuck for six years in Chinese ports because of sanctions imposed by Donald Trump during his first presidency, sources have said. Trump is expected by analysts to tighten sanctions again on Iranian oil exports tolimit Tehran’s income when he returns […] January 8, 2025
Energy Qatar and Turkey to send electricity-generating ships to Syria Syria will receive two electricity-generating ships from Turkey and Qatar to boost its energy infrastructure, which was badly damaged during the rule of President Bashar Al Assad, state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday. Khaled Abu Dai, director general of Syria’s General Establishment for Electricity Transmission and Distribution, told SANA the ships would provide 800 megawatts of electricity but did not specify over what period. “The extent of damage to the generation and transformation stations and electrical […] January 7, 2025
Development US to ease Syria aid restrictions but sanctions remain The United States is to announce imminently an easing of restrictions on humanitarian aid and other basic services such as electricity to Syria. The strict US sanctions regime placed on Syria will remain, according to people briefed on the matter. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration approved the easing of restrictions over […] January 6, 2025
Manufacturing GlobalFoundries and IBM settle rival lawsuits GlobalFoundries, the chipmaker majority owned by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, and IBM said on Thursday they had settled their duelling lawsuits. GlobalFoundries was accused of breaching a contract with IBM, and the computer company was alleged to have misused the chipmaker’s trade secrets. The companies said in a joint statement that the terms […] January 3, 2025
Transport Turkish bidder offers lower fee for Islamabad airport operations A Turkish consortium aims to take over the operations of Pakistan’s Islamabad airport after offering a concession fee below the minimum threshold, Sadiq ur Rehman, the chairman of the bid evaluation committee, has said. The cash-strapped South Asian country is looking to generate revenue by speeding up its privatisation push, including outsourcing the running of three major […] January 3, 2025
Oil & Gas India’s oil major turns to Middle East amid Russian shortfall State-run Indian refiner Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is buying Middle Eastern crude to make up for a slowing supply of cheaper Russian oil, its head of finance Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta said. Indian state refiners typically buy Russian oil in the spot market rather than under long-term contract, but have struggled to purchase 8 to 10 million […] December 30, 2024
Oil & Gas US gives Turkey sanctions waiver for gas payments to Russia The US has given Turkey an exemption from sanctions on Gazprombank for its gas payments to Russia, the Turkish energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Friday. New sanctions on Russia’s Gazprombank were imposed by the US in November, creating an obstacle for buyers of Russian gas, who had been using the bank to make payments. […] December 20, 2024
Oil & Gas Opec+ wary of rise in US oil output under Trump Opec+ members are contemplating a renewed rise in US oil output when Donald Trump returns to the White House, delegates from the group said. More US oil would further erode Opec+ market share and hamper the producer group’s efforts to support prices. Opec+ pumps about half of the world’s oil and earlier this month delayed […] December 18, 2024
Finance ADQ in bid to buy Spanish waste company, reports say ADQ, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, has joined buyout groups Blackstone and EQT for the second round of bids to buy Spanish waste management company Urbaser, Spain’s Expansion newspaper said on Tuesday. Urbaser’s owner, private equity firm Platinum, hired Citi and Santander as advisors for the sale earlier this year in a deal that could value the company at […] December 11, 2024
Finance Trump’s crypto team in Abu Dhabi for bitcoin conference Several key staff in President-elect Donald Trump’s new cryptocurrency venture are in Abu Dhabi today for the largest bitcoin gathering in the Gulf region, Bitcoin Mena 2024. Speakers include Trump’s son Eric and billionaire Steve Witkoff, the new White House envoy for the Middle East and co-founder of World Liberty Financial (WLF), a crypto platform […] December 9, 2024
Oil & Gas Opec+ delays oil output hike until April Opec+ on Thursday pushed back the start of oil output rises by three months until April and extended the full unwinding of cuts by a year until the end of 2026 due to weak demand and booming production outside the group. Cuts had been scheduled to begin unwinding from October 2024 but a slowdown in […] December 5, 2024
Banking & Finance UK regulator fines Barclays $51m over Qatar deals Britain’s financial regulator has fined Barclays Bank £40 million ($50.9 million) in total for its failure to disclose certain arrangements with Qatari entities in 2008. The fine by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) dates back to the height of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, when Barclays scrambled to raise funds from overseas investors including Qatar in […] November 25, 2024
Oil & Gas Oil prices fall as worries over US hurricane decline Oil prices fell slightly on Friday as the risk that a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico will significantly affect US oil and gas output declined, while the market weighs how President-elect Donald Trump’s policies might affect supplies. Brent crude oil futures fell 47 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $75.16 per barrel by 04:46 GMT. […] November 8, 2024
Oil & Gas Oil slips as investors digest US election fallout Oil slipped on Thursday, extending a sell-off triggered by the US presidential election, as a strong dollar and lower crude imports in China outweighed supply risks from a Trump presidency and output cuts caused by Hurricane Rafael. Donald Trump’s election win initially triggered a sell-off that pushed oil down more than $2 as the dollar […] November 7, 2024
