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TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said the desalination plant is expected to produce 5 million barrels of water a day

TotalEnergies pins hopes on desalination for Iraq project

TotalEnergies’ $27 billion development deal with Iraq includes building a water desalination plant crucial to Baghdad’s efforts to raise oil production, but doubts persist over the financial and logistical viability of the long-delayed project. The multifaceted agreement signed on Monday foresees constructing a 1 gigawatt solar power plant, capturing waste gas from oil fields to […]

Iraq TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies’ $27bn bet on Iraq boosts ailing oil industry

TotalEnergies’ signing of a long-stalled $27 billion deal to develop several energy-related projects in Iraq is a significant vote of confidence in the country’s fraught oil and gas industry, according to analysts.  The agreement represents the biggest single foreign investment in Iraq in modern times and suggests the government of newly-installed prime minister Mohammed Shia […]

Oman oilfield

Oil cuts hurt Oman GDP, say experts

Oman’s GDP growth is set to slow this year as oil production cuts act as a “significant drag” on economic activity. Growth is forecast to slow from 4.3 percent in 2022 to 1.8 percent this year, according to analysts at BMI, formerly Fitch Solutions.  This is below the 10-year historical average of 3.1 percent before […]

A Sabic plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Petrochemicals growth stood at 2.3% in Q1

Saudi GDP growth slows as oil activity to ‘go into reverse’

Slowing oil activity is hampering real GDP growth for Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude, official figures show. Real GDP grew by 3.8 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2023, according to Riyadh’s General Authority for Statistics. This is down from 5.5 percent in the previous quarter and 10 percent […]

Saudi spending includes giga-projects such as The Line

New wave of Saudi spending is no cause for concern

A spike in spending during the first quarter of 2023 is likely to lead to a “modest” full-year fiscal deficit for the Saudi government but room remains to make further outlays, experts say. The government recorded a deficit of nearly SAR3 billion ($800 million) in the period, driven by a 29 percent surge in spending, […]

Less dramatic year ahead for Middle East post-Covid and oil boom era

After the sugar rush of 2022, Gulf states will have to get used to less dramatic rates of growth in 2023, as economies stabilise following the immediate post-Covid period that coincided with the spillover effects from the Ukraine crisis.  GCC growth averaged 6.5 percent in 2022, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates, and the […]

10 events that shaped the Gulf’s economies in 2022

This last year has been book-ended by two of the largest events the Gulf has ever seen: Expo 2020 Dubai and the Fifa football World Cup in Qatar, helping the region throw off the shackles of the coronavirus pandemic. Many events share a common theme, according to Andreas Krieg, associate professor at King’s College London. […]