Dubai imports $ 29 bn in Gold
By Investing Contrarian
Published: March 9, 2010
From a blog Arabian Money
The shift in interest from gold as a raw material for jewelry manufacture to pure investment use mainly accounted for a 15 per cent fall in gold imports to Dubai last year.
Yet the City of Gold still traded a whopping 576 tonnes of the yellow metal, albeit down from 674 tonnes [...]
Iraqi Elections Likely To Fuel Ethnic Tensions, Further Delay Access To Kirkuk’s Reserves
By oilguy
Published: March 5, 2010
The elections in Iraq on March 7, 2010, are likely to serve as an important indicator of the prospects for a resolution of the long-running dispute over the administration of the ethnically mixed and resource-rich province of Kirkuk in the north of the country.
Yemen’s Push Into the Gas Sector Fails to Stimulate Great Excitement and Raises Disturbing Questions
By oilguy
Published: March 4, 2010
With Yemen’s oil revenues plunging, the government’s push into the gas market seemed like an economic saving grace for a state wracked by poverty and terrorism, but analysts warn more thought should be given to carving out the country’s post-petroleum era.
Tide Turns As Kurds Push For Oil Law Amid South’s Sudden Bright Future
By oilguy
Published: February 24, 2010
For a long time, the northern Kurdistan region was seen as the most attractive oil market in the country but the latest bid rounds in December and subsequent contract signings in the south have made it suddenly “less clear that Baghdad actually needs an oil law with Kurdistan, because they’re actually doing pretty well on their own,”
Dubai exports rebound
By Investing Contrarian
Published: January 14, 2010
Dubai exports witnessed a rebound in December with a 23 per cent gain to $5 billion as global trade bounced back from the worst slump in more than 80 years. The numbers do not look very attractive as the bounce is on very low base hit in December 2008.
New data published by the Dubai [...]
GCC write down 40% Bad debt
By Investing Contrarian
Published: January 14, 2010
Banks across the Gulf Cooperation Council nations will make total provisions of $9.4 billion against their 2009 accounts, a 40 per cent increase on the year before, according to a new study by the Kuwait Financial Centre.
This is a five-fold surge in total write-offs of just $1.8 billion in 2007. For 2008 the GCC banks [...]
World Largest Sovereign Fund reveals its secret
By Investing Contrarian
Published: January 12, 2010
The managing director of Abu Dhabi’s secretive sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed has given a rare insight into the functioning of this fund in an interview with the German business newspaper Handelsblatt.
ADIA, and its sister fund the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, is reckoned to manage around $450 billion [...]
China Oil imports increase 13%
By Investing Contrarian
Published: January 12, 2010
During 2009, China’s crude oil imports increased by 13.9 percent to 200 million tons, but the price on average fell by 39.4 percent to $438 per ton, said the Customs.
Bilateral trade between China and Saudi-Arabia could “far exceed” the goal of $60 billion by 2015 and further strengthen trade ties with the Middle Eastern region, [...]
Re-Thinking the Art of Military Planning
By oilguy
Published: December 30, 2009
It is often assumed that what preoccupies military planners is their attempts to define the shape of future warfare so that they can adequately prepare equipment and doctrine ideal to meet the threat. Evidence, however, shows that what most occupies their attention is how to adapt existing force structures and systems to react to emerging conditions.
Iraq Oil Output to Rival Saudi Arabia, if…
By oilguy
Published: December 29, 2009
After decades of dictatorship, war and international sanctions, Iraq’s massive oil reserves are set to be tapped proper. If the seven oil projects awarded to foreign oil companies this weekend, and the three from an auction earlier this year, develop as planned, within eight years, Iraq will see its oil production capacity leap to more than 12 million barrels per day (bpd).
