Regional News

  ABU DHABI / WAM Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has revised its long-term outlook on Jordan’s economy while at the same time allocating a BB-/B rating on the kingdom’s long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings. “We have revised downward our economic growth projections and now expect wide current account deficit,” the rating services agency said in ...

  DUBAI / Reuters State-run Saudi Electricity Co (SEC), the Gulf’s largest utility firm, reported a narrowing first-quarter net loss as higher tariffs boosted its operating income. The company, which the government aims to split into several components this year to improve efficiency, made a loss of 1.37 billion riyals ($365.32 million) in the three months to March 31, according ...

  KHOBAR / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s National Industrialization Co’s chief executive expects to see the benefits of a restructuring soon and has a more positive outlook for the chemicals market. Like many Saudi petrochemical firms, Tasnee’s earnings have suffered as its product prices are closely tied to oil prices, which have slumped since mid-2014. To combat poor market conditions, Tasnee ...

  TRIPOLI / Reuters Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said the country’s eastern government attempted to export 650,000 barrels of oil this week, but that workers at the Marsa el-Hariga terminal had refused to load the shipment. “This had the potential to be a very ugly incident and I am pleased that it has been resolved peacefully without injury to ...

  MUMBAI / Reuters Reliance Industries Ltd , India’s biggest oil refiner, said it is looking to buy more crude from Iran as the company seeks to rebuild ties to benefit from shorter shipping distances. The company had made small purchases from Iran in the current quarter and was currently engaged in talks for bigger supplies, indicating that it could ...

  Dr Abdulrahim Abdulwhahid Emirates Business The 7th Session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ministerial Conference on Food Security and Agricultural Development and the Inaugural General Assembly of the Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS) will be concurrently held in Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan, between April 26–28. The Conference will be hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture of ...

  DUBAI / WAM The value of announced M&A transactions with any Middle Eastern involvement reached US$4.7 billion during the first quarter of 2016, a decline of 67% compared to the first quarter of 2015, Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, said in its the quarterly investment banking analysis for the Middle East ...

  Bloomberg Even if oil producers didn’t seal the output freeze deal they hoped would stabilize the market, they saw revenues soar in the run up to the failed meeting last weekend in Doha. The 29 percent advance in prices since word first leaked that Saudi Arabia and Russia were considering capping output boosted the value of global oil production ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is considering a dual listing as a way to reach investors beyond the local stock market for the sale of shares in state-owned oil giant Aramco, which could be the world’s largest initial public offering, the kingdom’s deputy crown prince said. “We are thinking about several options,” Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who heads Saudi Arabian Oil ...

  REUTERS On a stretch of barren coast 550 km south of the capital Muscat, workers at a ship repair yard swarm over cargo vessels from around the world, labour that will help to determine Oman’s fate in an era of cheap oil. The yard, owned by the government’s Oman Drydock Co and operated by South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & ...