Oil & Gas

Oil declines in November on concerns of lower demand owing to COVID-19 variant

Oil prices declined steeply in November, marking its largest monthly decline since March 2020. The fall follows the multi-year high prices posted by the commodity in October. Concerns over lower demand on account of new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, and expectation of increase in supply due to release of Strategic Petroleum Reserves by the U.S pressured prices during the month. Performance of Oil Source: Refinitiv U.S plans to release about 50 million barrels of oil from its reserves. China, Japan, India,...

UAE’s 100% foreign ownership will boost investor confidence, cut cost of operations

The UAE’s announcement of 100 per cent foreign ownership across the board effective June 1, is touted as game changing and a master stroke. This was the biggest demand from various business councils for decades. The current system requires 51 per cent local sponsorship along with majority representation in the board with the Chair being Emirati. In a country where more than 80 per cent of the population are expats and where the economy is fairly better diversified than their...

Oman witnesses surge in its Non-oil Exports

This article was originally published in Oman Economic Review magazine. Oman´s economy is known for being highly dependent on export of Oil & Gas as it contributes to 69 percent of its total export. However, over the years, Oman’s export market is witnessing a substantial increase in non-oil exports contribution. Some of the key points addressed in this article are about the recent trends in non-oil Exports, historical data analysis, major contributing partners, and the reasons behind the surge in non-oil...

OPEC’s declining clout in a post-shale oil world

The first round of production cuts was agreed in November 2016 and was effective during January 2017 and was aimed at cutting down 750,000 barrels of oil per day from the global supply. Second round of the production cuts announced in May 2017 is aimed to take out 1.8 Mn barrels per day which is aimed at balancing the market. While most of the countries have agreed to the cut, some of critics of the plan point out that the...

MENA Markets end 2016 on a positive note

According to Marmore’s recently released Monthly Market Review, MENA bourses had a positive month in December, with all markets ending the year in green. Morocco’s Casablanca Index led the charge rising 9.1 per cent, followed by Egypt’s HRMS index (7.2 per cent). Kuwait weighted and price indices had a positive month, with both climbing 3.5 per cent, amid a spurt in speculative trading ahead of the year-end. The Egyptian Index also registered the highest gains in the year, closing nearly...