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Iran-Aligned Militia Attacks Complicate Delicate Iraqi-US Relations
...w system to importers and banks as opposed to black market dollars. Mr Sudani’s decision in January to reinstate Ali al-‘Alak as CBI Governor proved useful, given his long working relationship with his US peers between 2014 and 2020. But the recovery remains erratic and suboptimal, with li...
Volume: 66Issue: 50Published at Fri, 15 Dec 2023 -
Libya’s Legal Battle To Recover Billions In Overseas Assets
...bya (MEES, 13 October). Since 2014, the country has had two administrations, each with its own legislative and executive bodies. One is the internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU), based in the western capital of Tripoli and led by Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibeh (MEES, 12 Ma...
Volume: 66Issue: 50Published at Fri, 15 Dec 2023 -
Kuwait’s Cabinet Looks Ahead To A Troublesome 2024
...ght consecutive budget deficits between 2014/15 and 2021/22 (see chart), but since September 2017 the government has been unable to raise debt to finance these deficits as parliament has repeatedly blocked the passage of a debt law to allow state borrowing. In September, Fitch affirmed Kuwait’s ‘AA-’ ra...
Volume: 66Issue: 50Published at Fri, 15 Dec 2023 -
Yemen’s Breakthrough Truce Threatened By Houthi Military Attacks
...mbined cycle power plant. Yemen’s oil and gas sector had been declining since long before the onset of civil war. Production peaked in 2002 at 457,000 b/d with exports remaining above 100,000 b/d until 2014 (MEES, 15 September 2017). However, since the start of the conflict and the Saudi-led in...
Volume: 66Issue: 48Published at Fri, 01 Dec 2023 -
Qatar Eyes Substantial $8bn Surplus For 2023
...r the World Cup, most notably opening a new airport in 2014 and a metro system in 2019, as well as greatly expanding its hospitality sector. Capex peaked at $28.2bn in 2016 but has been trending down as the tournament approached, and was $19.9bn in 2021. Minister of Finance Ali bin Ahmed al-Kuwari sa...
Volume: 65Issue: 51/52Published at Fri, 23 Dec 2022 -
Iraq’s Northern Oil Infrastructure Under Attack From Islamic State
...ll as their proximity to major assets. The small topping plant at Sainia lies just a few kilometers from the Baiji refining complex, which before its total destruction in 2014, was Iraq’s biggest producing 310,000 b/d. Rebuilding Baiji – which previously consisted of two 70,000 b/d crude distillation un...
Volume: 63Issue: 51Published at Fri, 18 Dec 2020 -
Lebanon Creeps Toward Economic & Political Abyss
...GDP (see chart 3). The 2014 crash in oil prices and subsequent effect on the GCC economies (where many Lebanese work) was a major factor. To compensate, Banque du Liban continued to raise interest rates (which have routinely exceeded 10-15% in recent years) on bank deposits to attract foreign do...
Volume: 62Issue: 51-52Published at Fri, 20 Dec 2019 -
Iraqi Kurdistan Poised For More Gains In 2020
...20’s potential gains are the product of sustained IOC investment in the region. Those IOCs have endured some lean times, with the share price of KRG-focused companies plummeting since early 2014 amid low oil prices, payment difficulties and delayed ramp-up plans. IOCs will feel the pressure to reward sh...
Volume: 62Issue: 50Published at Fri, 13 Dec 2019 -
Libya’s NOC Forced To Shut In Key El Sharara Field
...utdown output level of 73,000 b/d was the highest since 2014 (see chart). NOC head Mustafa Sanalla at last week’s Opec meeting, eager to avoid being subject to output limits as part of the then under-discussion output deal, complained “we have internal cuts inside the country. Unfortunately, we have so...
Volume: 61Issue: 50Published at Fri, 14 Dec 2018 -
Qatar Shines Spotlight On OPEC Divisions As It Ends 57-Year Membership
...is week and the numbers make good reading for Doha. Oil and gas revenues of $6.8bn were the highest since December 2014, and as these account for 86% of total export revenues, these were also the highest since December 2014 at $7.9bn. Revenues are on track to be the highest since 2014, exceeding $80...
Volume: 61Issue: 49Published at Fri, 07 Dec 2018 -
World Bank Oil Funding Ban To Hit Egypt Hard
...x blocks, a further two in the Gulf of Suez and the South Disouq block in the onshore Nile Delta. Its most recent awards came in 2014, with the North and South El Baraka blocks on the western shore of the Nile following state oil firm EGPC’s Upper (southern) Egypt arm Ganope’s bid round. EF...
Volume: 60Issue: 50Published at Fri, 15 Dec 2017 -
Libya’s Waha Ramps Up Output To 260,000 b/d But Challenges Lie Ahead
...6,000 b/d of crude. At the time this was the highest level since late 2014, when it was sustained only briefly. Marathon (16.33%) is one of three US firms in the WOC venture alongside ConocoPhillips (16.33%) and Hess (8.16%). State-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) has the largest share in the company (59...
Volume: 60Issue: 48Published at Fri, 01 Dec 2017 -
The Iraqi State Faces A Perilous 2017
...e councils and modified the seat allocation formula to disadvantage small parties - as was done in the 2014 parliamentary law. Parliament’s Legal Committee has said that a special law is needed for Kirkuk to hold new elections; its current council was elected in January 2005. If the provincial el...
Volume: 59Issue: 51/52Published at Fri, 23 Dec 2016 -
KRG Output Highest This Year, But Revenues Sink Further
...vernment receipts. The key dampener remains Kurdistan’s huge debt to oil buyers for prepayments in 2014 and 2015. Ashti Hawrami, KRG Minister of Natural Resources, puts the debt accrued to buyers in 2014-15 at $2.3bn, of which MEES estimates around $350mn has been paid off this year, leaving almost $2bn ou...
Volume: 59Issue: 50Published at Fri, 16 Dec 2016 -
Qatar Wealth Fund QIA And Glencore In $11.3bn Rosneft Deal
...th Iran will not sit well with Qatar’s Arab allies. However, Qatar has since 1995 pursued an independent strategy often at odds with its neighbors. This most recently came to a head in March 2014 when Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain pulled their ambassadors from Qatar, citing Doha’s alleged in...
Volume: 59Issue: 49Published at Fri, 09 Dec 2016 -
Kuwaiti Opposition Gains Further Threaten Government Energy Policy
...afji field in the Saudi-Kuwait Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ) is being readied for restart. It has been offline since October 2014 as part of a dispute between the two over management of the PNZ, and the 200,000 b/d Wafra field since March 2015. With output split 50:50, this has denied Kuwait around 25...
Volume: 59Issue: 48Published at Fri, 02 Dec 2016 -
The Political Implications Of Iraq’s Mosul Offensive
...sentment toward the KDP for abandoning them during the Islamic State’s 2014 offensive remains strong, and that when it comes to ethnic identity, views are diverse, heightening the complexity of this tinderbox of a region. Some Yazidis emphasize their Kurdish identity, others think of themselves as Ya...
Volume: 59Issue: 48Published at Fri, 02 Dec 2016 -
Iraq’s Domestic, Regional Challenges Increase for 2016
...aq’s Sunni Arab region. Turkey’s most important proxy was the Nineveh-based faction led by Usama al-Nujaifi (parliamentary speaker 2010-2014 and vice-president 2014- August 2015) and his brother Uthil al-Nujaifi (Ninawa governor 2009-May 2015). Despite the former governor’s removal by parliament – in...
Volume: 58Issue: 52Published at Wed, 23 Dec 2015 -
The MENA Region’s Vulnerability: A Geo-Economic Outlook
...jority of countries worldwide continue to struggle with the consequences of 2008. Concurrently, the interaction of global oil supply and demand produced a continuous rise in the price of oil from less than $40/B in 2009 to a peak of $112/B in June 2014, before falling by the end of 2014 to $60/B. Co...
Volume: 58Issue: 52Published at Wed, 23 Dec 2015 -
Libya: No More Than A Glimmer Of Hope
...rward in the post-Qadhafi era. In all other respects, though, the situation in the country has either deteriorated, or at best failed to improve. In December 2014, force majeure was declared at two of the country’s main oil export terminals – Es Sider and Ras Lanuf. Both remain shut-in. In the first qu...
Volume: 58Issue: 52Published at Wed, 23 Dec 2015