News

Dubai / Emirates Business Muslim travellers will spend $157 billion by 2020, driven by millennial travellers and the top outbound market remains Saudi Arabia, which will grow 17 percent over the next three years alone, to reach $27.9 billion. The figures were released during Arabian Travel Market’s Global Halal Tourism Summit 2018, which was held at the Dubai World Trade …

Dubai / Emirates Business Blockchain adoption continues to grow across industries world-wide with total spending on blockchain solutions set to grow to $9.7 billion in 2021 according to International Data Corporation (IDC), leading provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, tele-communications, and consumer technology markets. Startups in the nascent blockchain industry are driving this growth …

Bloomberg For generations of investors, Exxon Mobil Corp. has been a cornerstone of fund managers’ portfolios alongside the biggest names in corporate America. Not so much any more. From leading the S&P 500 Index a decade ago, the company has dropped to the ninth-largest in a top 10 now dominated by technology giants. Its rivals Royal Dutch Shell Plc and …

Bloomberg Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Total SA are weighing jointly buying businesses such as Tas’helat Marketing Co to gain access to networks of retail fuel stations in the Gulf kingdom, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The state-owned company, known as Aramco, and the French oil giant are also looking at a range of options from consolidating …

Bloomberg Are Berlin’s close energy ties with Moscow paying off? Data from Russia’s Federal Customs Service shows they might be after Germany paid less for natural gas from the world’s largest exporter than most other buyers. Only the UK, which produces most of its own gas, had lower import costs among the biggest offtakers, according to the figures obtained by …

Bloomberg The Permian shale play is all about setting records. Now, the region may even become the world’s largest oil patch over the next decade. Output in the basin is forecast to reach 3.18 million barrels a day in May, according to the Energy Information Administration. That’s the highest since the agency began compiling records in 2007. By 2023, the …

Bloomberg Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil exporter, plans to trade as much as 6 million barrels a day, a jump in volume that would put it in the top tier of companies that buy and sell crude and refined products. The trading arm of the state-run giant known officially as Saudi Arabian Oil Co. currently handles between 3.3 million …

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sees oil’s rally the same way as Saudi Arabia: it won’t check the world’s soaring thirst for crude. Oil’s surge to the highest level in more than three years will in fact spur fuel demand as swelling reserves of Middle East petrodollars are reinvested overseas and stimulate the global economy, Goldman’s head of commodities research …

Bloomberg French oil giant Total SA said last month it had acquired Marathon Oil Corp.’s assets in Libya in a $450 million deal. Not so fast, says the country’s state energy company. Libya’s National Oil Corp. hasn’t yet approved the transaction and is “discussing arrangements” for the proposed sale with the country’s presidency council, Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said on Monday. …

Bloomberg Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA won 140 megawatts of wind power orders in India from industrial companies building their own parks. Energy-intensive businesses from textile and drug makers to auto companies ordered a total of 70 turbines, the Spanish-German company said. The manufacturers across southern India will link the parks to local grids and tap power as needed. Regional …