Energy Qatar to sign ‘cheaper’ LNG deal with India shortly State-run Qatar Energy is expected to sign a long-term deal within weeks to provide liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Indian buyers on cheaper and more flexible terms than existing contracts, according to a news report. The Indian companies and QatarEnergy have agreed on terms and a contract could be signed by the end of this […] January 21, 2024
Finance Qatar to launch its first bond issuance in four years Qatar will sell its first green bond soon and the first external debt issuance in four years, the country’s finance minister has said. “We’re ready to do it very soon,” Ali Al-Kuwari told Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “We are not hungry for money but it will be mainly to send […] January 18, 2024
Finance QIA will support London’s Canary Wharf says CEO Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) will continue to support London’s Canary Wharf Group (CWG) project as a long-term shareholder, CEO Mansoor Al Mahmoud has confirmed. The sector contains “a little bit of risk” because of the “leverage and cost of funding,” he told Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos. However, the fund has […] January 17, 2024
Oil & Gas Low LNG demand cushions Europe from Red Sea issues Low demand and healthy natural gas inventory levels have offset concerns over the Red Sea crisis, leaving markets cool-headed, energy experts said. Europe’s benchmark natural gas price, Dutch TTF, traded at €29.99 ($32.65) per megawatt-hour on Tuesday as industrial demand weakens and stockpiles grow, despite the cold spell. “Demand has so far disappointed, as households […] January 16, 2024
Banking and Finance Qatar National Bank’s profit rises 8% to $4.14bn in 2023 Qatar National Bank (QNB), the largest Gulf bank by assets, said 2023 net profit rose eight percent to QR15.5 billion ($4.14 billion), driven by loan growth and higher operating income. Operating income jumped 11 percent year on year to QR39.1 billion, the bank said in a statement. Total assets stood at QR1.23 trillion by the […] January 12, 2024
Tourism Qatar’s visitor arrivals reach a five-year high in 2023 Qatar received more than four million visitors in 2023, surpassing the annual visitor numbers of the previous five years. The positive momentum follows the success of the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 and the government’s efforts to bolster tourism, state-run Qatar Tourism said in a statement. Qatar last year introduced the Hayya platform to streamline […] January 2, 2024
Energy QatarEnergy signs 5-year crude supply deal with Shell State-owned QatarEnergy has signed a five-year crude supply agreement with Shell in Singapore. The company will supply up to 18 million barrels of Qatar Land and Qatar Marine crude oils each year to Shell International Eastern Trading Company starting in January. “We are delighted to sign our first-ever five-year crude sales agreement. This agreement further […] December 29, 2023
Opinion Aviation Middle East aviation prepares for take-off in 2024 2023 has just been a starter. The really impressive stuff is yet to come December 26, 2023
Sustainability Doha-based carbon credit group signs West Africa deal The Qatar-backed international carbon credit programme Global Carbon Council (GCC) has signed a deal to develop decarbonisation projects in West Africa. The Doha-based GCC signed the agreement at the UN climate conference Cop28 in Dubai last week with the West African Alliance for Carbon Markets and Climate Finance (WAA), a group of 16 West African […] December 18, 2023
Finance UAE and Qatar keep rates steady in line with US Fed The central banks of the UAE and Qatar have followed the US Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged. The Central Bank of the UAE maintained its base rate on overnight deposit facility at 5.4 percent, the UAE state-run Wam news agency reported. The central bank also decided to maintain the interest rate on […] December 14, 2023
Business of Sport Qatari owners of PSG sell minority stake in French club The Qatari owners of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) will sell a minority stake in the French football club to US investment group Arctos Partners. No details were disclosed in the official statement. However, the Financial Times reported that the talks started a year ago and Arctos will buy up to 12.5 percent, citing two informed sources. […] December 8, 2023
Finance Turkey and Qatar aim to double trade to $5bn Turkey and Qatar have set a $5 billion bilateral trade target, more than double the level reported last year, a Turkish minister has confirmed. The figure is expected to be reached once the trade and economic partnership agreement between the two countries comes into force, Turkish trade minister Ömer Bolat said on the social messaging […] December 6, 2023
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 […] December 5, 2023
Infrastructure Gulf telcos sign deal to create $2bn tower company Telecom operators Ooredoo and Zain Group on Tuesday said agreements have been signed to create the largest tower company in the Middle East and North Africa. The cash and share deal, which also involves Dubai-based Tasc Towers Holding, will establish a company comprising 30,000 telecom towers in Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria and Tunisia, with […] December 5, 2023
SPECIAL REPORT Construction Qatar and Saudi Arabia poles apart on construction growth Qatar and Saudi Arabia may share an 87km border, but the performances of their construction markets are poles apart. While activity in Saudi Arabia reaches record levels, buoyed by work on giga-projects such as Neom and Diriyah, work in Qatar has dried up after the completion of contracts signed before the 2022 Fifa World Cup. […] December 5, 2023
SPECIAL REPORT Infrastructure After stops and starts, GCC rail is back on 2030 timetable In the same week that Dubai announced a 30km extension of its metro network, Kuwait revealed that its $20 billion four-line metro project is to be cancelled. If anything sums up the difficulties associated with connecting the GCC countries by rail, then it is this. Kuwait’s metro hit the buffers as a result of “significant […] December 5, 2023
Finance Qatar to sell $644m worth of shares in Barclays Qatar Holding is looking to sell around £510 million ($643.72 million) of shares in Barclays, one of the banks acting on the deal said on Monday, cutting back on its crisis-era investment in the British bank. The deal is set to price at 141 pence per share, or a discount of about 1.4 percent to […] December 5, 2023
Real Estate London’s suburban real estate moves Middle East investors While central London property retains its allure for ultra-high-net-worth individuals from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, cash buyers are flocking to the outskirts of the UK capital to snap up investment properties. A survey of GCC high-net-worth individuals by London-based shariah-compliant lender Al Rayan Bank found that a third of respondents said they had […] November 28, 2023
Energy QatarEnergy wins $570m ruling against Spanish firm QatarEnergy is the un-named company that will receive $570 million from the Spanish power utility Endesa after an arbitration ruling over a liquefied natural gas contract dispute, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters. The Spanish firm said on Monday it would have to pay the sum to an unidentified liquefied natural gas (LNG) […] November 23, 2023
Analysis Business of Sport Tourism up, growth down: a year on from the Qatar World Cup A year ago, the Al Bayt stadium, 35 kilometres outside Doha, hosted the opening game of the first World Cup ever held in the Middle East. More than 67,000 supporters thronged the giant complex to watch Qatar’s first game against Ecuador. The stadium will come into its own again in January when it hosts the […] November 20, 2023
