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Lebanon: Can New President Get The Country Moving?
...troleum legislation necessary to launch a bid round for Lebanon’s offshore acreage (MEES, 31 July 2015). After former President Michel Sulaiman completed his term in May 2014, the political vacuum reduced decision making on key issues to a bare minimum. Under the new administration, parliament ne...
Volume: 59Issue: 45Published at Fri, 11 Nov 2016 -
Egypt Devalues Currency In Bid To Calm Forex Market
...reign grants have fallen sharply to E£3.5bn in 2015-16, from E£25bn in 2014-15 and E£95bn in 2013-14. Spending on energy subsidies is not going according to plan as projected in the 2016-17 budget at E£35bn. In the first quarter alone of the current year the energy subsidy rose to E£14bn, which on an...
Volume: 59Issue: 44Published at Fri, 04 Nov 2016 -
Iraq’s Mosul Offensive Begins Amid Patchwork Coalition
...lice personnel would enter Mosul proper. The point was to emphasize that neither Shia militias nor the Kurdish Peshmerga would be entering Sunni Arab-populated urban areas. IS has held Mosul since June 2014, when Iraqi army divisions in the north, weakened by corruption and politicization under the fo...
Volume: 59Issue: 42Published at Fri, 21 Oct 2016 -
Kuwait Dissolves Parliament Amidst Subsidy Reform Uproar
...ril). The relative détente of the past three years has provided sufficient political stability for Kuwait to award important contracts to foreign firms to develop its oil and gas sector. The impact of this is beginning to be felt, with September’s 2.86mn b/d crude output the highest since September 2014...
Volume: 59Issue: 42Published at Fri, 21 Oct 2016 -
Kurdish Political Unity Fragments As Barzani Reaches Out To Baghdad
...om its agreement just two months previously to extend Mr Barzani’s term by two years, following its expiry, and it has subsequently taken a harder line with the KDP as a result. Provincial-level elections within Kurdistan, which coincided with federal parliamentary elections in 2014, had a more ev...
Volume: 59Issue: 39Published at Fri, 30 Sep 2016 -
Iraqi Finance Minister Sacked, Deepening Political, Financial Crisis
...$26.5bn. Export revenues have plunged along with oil prices despite record breaking volumes. They are on track to fall to around $3.49bn this year, and potentially as low as $3.26bn, less than half that of 2014. Following Mr Zebari’s dismissal the IMF’s Iraq mission chief Christian Josz to...
Volume: 59Issue: 38Published at Fri, 23 Sep 2016 -
Libya Faces Further Output Fall, Degraded Capacity With Chronic Under-Investment
...y producers since instability reduced output to zero at the Repsol-led Sharara/Murzuq fields and Marathon/Conoco/Hess-led Waha in late 2014, both with theoretical 300,000 b/d-plus capacity. Figures for January, the last comprehensive breakdown available, showed Agoco producing 239,000 b/d and SO...
Volume: 59Issue: 36Published at Fri, 09 Sep 2016 -
Zueitina: Export Restart
...eitina terminal, which has an export capacity of 250,000 b/d, was shut down in April 2014 and has operated for only brief periods since - most recently in October 2015 (MEES, 6 November 2015). It has been closed throughout 2016, and in January was the target of attacks by Islamic State. The reopening of...
Volume: 59Issue: 36Published at Fri, 09 Sep 2016 -
GCC Fiscal Reforms: Long Overdue And A Long Road Ahead
...th petrodollars only a couple of years ago, times have certainly changed for the Gulf countries. Between June 2014 and February 2016, the international oil price plunged by 70% and the IMF forecasts that GCC states’ oil export earnings will fall by $300bn in 2016. This is in line with MEES ca...
Volume: 59Issue: 33Published at Fri, 19 Aug 2016 -
Libya Unification Deal On Shaky Ground, Exports Increase Still To Materialize
...km from the terminal, said Mr Abu Thafirah. The Zueitina terminal, which has capacity of 250,000 b/d, was shut down in April 2014 and has operated for only brief periods since (most recently in October 2015 - MEES, 6 November 2015). It has been closed throughout 2016, and in January was the ta...
Volume: 59Issue: 32Published at Fri, 12 Aug 2016 -
Iraq Crude Revenues Head For 10-Year Low
...vember 2015 and April this year – the average of 3.25mn b/d for the first seven months of 2016 is up 300,000 b/d on the same period a year earlier, and almost 800,000 b/d on January-July 2014. But monthly revenues have averaged $3.16bn so far this year, the lowest since 2006, and if replicated over th...
Volume: 59Issue: 31Published at Fri, 05 Aug 2016 -
Dubai In Unwelcome Headwinds
...ported this week that property prices in Dubai have fallen by around 25% since their most recent peak in 2014, but remain above their 2011 trough. However, the IMF reports that the quality of the real estate loan portfolio is significantly better than prior to the 2009 crash. Overall, Dubai, in...
Volume: 59Issue: 30Published at Fri, 29 Jul 2016 -
Iraqi Political Deadlock Exacerbated Following Ministerial Resignations
...vel by Kurds both for cutting off the region’s budget payments in January 2014 and his repeated claims that Kurdistan sponsors Sunni Arab terrorist groups. The fact that the Kurdish parties closest to Baghdad are willing to reach out to him reflects poorly on their view of Mr ‘Abadi’s prospects. Ku...
Volume: 59Issue: 29Published at Fri, 22 Jul 2016 -
Syria: Trauma To Last For Years Even If A ‘Deal’ Is Struck
...frastructure. Crude oil production in government-controlled areas has dropped to about 9,000 b/d in 2014 from 386,000 b/d in 2010. Total crude oil production is higher when factoring in output from fields under rebel control, which is then sold on the black market, including to the two 120,000 b/d capacity st...
Volume: 59Issue: 28Published at Fri, 15 Jul 2016 -
Egypt Finally Pays Off $7bn Debt To Qatar, Backer Of Previous Islamist Government
...rch). Egypt recorded a budget deficit of E£311bn in the first 11 months of fiscal 2015-16, up from E£262bn in the corresponding period of 2014-15, according to the June Financial Monthly recently published by the Ministry of Finance. The 11-month deficit in 2015-16 exceeds by 24% the projected deficit of...
Volume: 59Issue: 27Published at Fri, 08 Jul 2016 -
Jordan-Anbar Border Crossing An Economic Lifeline
...porters, as Jordanian exports going through Basra now cost 10-15% more due to the extra time. According to official statistics recently reported by Jordan’s Al-Ghad newspaper, the six-month closure in 2015 meant exports to Iraq fell to $695mn from $1.2bn in 2014. Earnings will have collapsed again this ye...
Volume: 59Issue: 26Published at Fri, 01 Jul 2016 -
Libya: Progress Against IS Brings Internal Divisions Back To The Fore
...nuf terminal, both of which have been out of commission since December 2014. The re-opening of the two facilities, along with the 250,000-b/d export terminal along the coast at Zueitina, was to be the second phase in a production increase strategy beginning with the resumption of production from th...
Volume: 59Issue: 25Published at Fri, 24 Jun 2016 -
Algeria Crisis Intensifies As Export Earnings Collapse
...placed. But, whoever is making the decisions, the scale of the challenge is daunting. The country’s export revenues were just $9.82bn in the first five months of 2016. This equates to $23.65bn on an annualized basis, down by 37% on 2015 and a whopping 62% on 2014 (see table). Not only are export ea...
Volume: 59Issue: 25Published at Fri, 24 Jun 2016 -
Iraq’s Kirkuk: Key Northern Oil Province Has Little Chance Of Achieving Autonomy
...ghdad’s dispute with the KRG over the region’s independent exporting of oil in breach of a December 2014 agreement. MEES calculates that the loss of around 170,000 b/d of exports in March equated to lost monthly revenues of around $145mn. And with Brent having risen more than $11/B since then, these mo...
Volume: 59Issue: 24Published at Fri, 17 Jun 2016 -
Anti-Hizbollah Banking Sanctions Tear At Lebanon’s Political Fabric
...chel Sulaiman whose term expired in May 2014. The political stalemate has brought decision making to a standstill, with key economic issues not to mention the legal framework for offshore hydrocarbon exploration left unresolved. At the same time political and economic relations between Lebanon and th...
Volume: 59Issue: 22Published at Fri, 03 Jun 2016