Oil Price

Following a year of distress, Saudi Arabia economy back on growth path

Saudi Arabia economic growth as evidenced by its real GDP grew by 1.5% in Q2 2021 as compared with the same period last year, registering its first quarterly economic expansion since the start of COVID-19 pandemic early last year. Economic growth in Saudi Arabia was led by 10% increase in the non-oil sector (Q2, 2021 yoy basis), according to data from the General Authority for Statistics. While the government sector saw 0.7% growth, the oil sector recorded a decline of...

Oil Price Move yet to lift Saudi Aramco’s Share Price

Saudi Aramco the blue chip of Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest oil company took a drop in its stride last year post Covid-19 as oil demand slumped and OPEC+ which is led by Saudi Arabia agreed to sharp cut in oil exports by 9.7mmbpd effective May 2020 from an October 2018 baseline (with Saudi output cut from 12.3 mmbpd in March 2020 to 8.5 mmbpd) to shore up and stabilize the oil prices in the international market. In line...

الاستفسارات الشائعة’s: Break-even Oil price

1. What is Break even oil price? What does an increasing or decreasing BEOP mean? Fiscal breakeven oil price (BEP) can be defined simply as the “oil price that balances an oil‐exporting country’s budget. Ever since the fall of Brent crude prices in mid – 2014, the GCC countries have envisioned various plans to reduce their dependence on oil revenues. The COVID-19 pandemic sent oil prices tumbling owing to a global lockdown and travel restrictions in place since March 2020....

Oil Performance & Outlook – Positive Signals Abound

Oil markets were hit hard by Covid-19 pandemic and suffered losses of 21.5% in 2020. US Oil prices even went negative for a brief period in April. However, the markets initially staged a ‘relief rally’ from the lows in April/May as Oil producing countries together announced cuts in productions. Oil prices then began a period of ‘cyclical consolidation’ with prices around the USD 40/barrel mark until November. Then began the stage of ‘structural repricing’ aided by various factors. Vaccine announcements,...

Steep cut in project spending could depress Kuwait’s oil output

Oil majors around the world are scaling back their investment plans on the back of drastic fall in oil prices driven by lockdowns to curb COVID-19 and the current stagnation in prices. Kuwait had also announced plans to slash capital spending in its oil sector by around KD 700million from KD 3.7billion (USD 12.2billion) to KD 3billion (USD 9.9billion) during the 2020-2021 fiscal year due to a sharp rise in the country's budget deficits. State operator, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC)...

Kuwait Sector Indices: Comparison of declines due to COVID-19 and 2014-16 Oil Price Crash

The 2020 market crash has been fast and short, if the trough of March 2020 holds. Lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 brought about an uneven impact on sectors. While some sectors like airlines came to an absolute standstill, some sectors like technology stand to gain from the lockdown. These differences have reflected in the performance of equities too. A sector-wise comparison with the previous market crash of 2014-16 highlights the difference in COVID-19’s impact on sectors and what...

Impact of Oil Price Volatility on GCC economies, markets and businesses

Closely intertwined with economic growth, oil has been vulnerable to global growth outlook. The recent collapse in oil prices caused by demand destruction on account of COVID -19 was exacerbated by the OPEC+ disagreement, pushing prices down to historically low levels. In the current dynamic scenario, where the world is controlled by COVID-19, while news on OPEC+ agreement, stimulus etc. causes some increase in prices, news on extension of lockdowns and filling up of oil storage causes a steep fall...

حرب أسعار النفط – ارتفاع الخلافات بين المملكة العربية السعودية وروسيا.

At a time when economies worldwide have been put under stress and are contemplating the negative impact of COVID-19, the last thing they would have wanted was a price war between two of the world’s largest oil producers. Coming into the year 2020, the overarching theme was a dip in global oil demand that would need strict supply restrictions to balance the Oil markets. However, with Russia’s non-cooperative stance and Saudi Arabia’s subsequent retaliation, oil prices have tumbled down to...

Why are the breakeven oil prices coming down for GCC countries?

Fiscal breakeven oil prices (in USD/bbl) Source: IMF Fiscal break-even oil price is the minimum oil price needed to meet the spending commitments of oil-exporting country while balancing its budgets [BEP = {(Government Expenditure minus Non-oil revenue)/Oil quantity produced} + per barrel cost of production] (Fiscal Breakeven Oil Price). Prior to the collapse of oil prices, fiscal break-even oil prices were rising rapidly in GCC countries, reflecting the substantial increase in government spending by an annual average of 11 per...

استقرار الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا، عالم إيجابي

According to Marmore’s recently released Monthly Market Review, most MENA bourses rebounded from a positive start to 2017, to close the month of February in the red. Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar were the exceptions, with the respective indices closing the month at 3.5%, 2.2% and 1%. Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia were the laggards in February, falling by 4.8%, 2.5% and 1.8%, respectively. Kuwaiti Price and Weighted indices also fell by 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively. Profit taking dragged stock markets...