industryterm:oil exporter

Saudi Arabia suspends oil exports through Red Sea lane after Houthi attack | Reuters
▻https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-yemen-security/houthis-target-saudi-warship-off-yemen-coast-al-masirah-tv-idUKKBN1KF0WN

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was “temporarily halting” all oil shipments through the strategic Red Sea shipping lane of #Bab_al-Mandeb after an attack on two big oil tankers by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement sent by his ministry that the Houthis had attacked two Saudi Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) in the Red Sea on Wednesday morning, one of which sustained minimal damage.

“Saudi Arabia is temporarily halting all oil shipments through Bab al-Mandeb Strait immediately until the situation becomes clearer and the maritime transit through Bab al-Mandeb is safe,” the statement said.

#Bab_el_Mandeb

Trump’s War of Words With Iran Shines Spotlight on Vital Oil Route
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-23/trump-war-of-words-with-iran-shines-spotlight-on-vital-oil-route

Comment acheminer le pétrole du Moyen-Orient en se passant du #détroit_d'Ormuz

The war of words between U.S. President Donald Trump and his counterpart in Iran over oil exports and sanctions is shining a spotlight on the narrow, twisting conduit for about 30 percent of the world’s seaborne-traded crude.

The Middle East’s biggest oil exporters rely on the #Strait_of_Hormuz, the passage linking the Persian Gulf with global waterways, for the vast majority of their crude shipments — some 17.5 million barrels a day.

Should a regional conflict block that bottleneck, three of the largest Gulf Arab crude producers have pipeline networks that would potentially enable them to export as much as 4.1 million barrels via alternative outlets, according to Bloomberg calculations. Even so, this amount of oil, if sent by pipeline, would be less than a quarter of the total that typically sails on tankers through Hormuz.

Qatar Seeks to Retain Its LNG Crown Despite Saudi-Led Boycott - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-04/qatar-petroleum-to-boost-lng-output-by-30-percent-on-north-field

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iqQ.XBc3z3c8/v0/1200x770.jpg

Qatar’s message to the rest of the LNG world is, “‘We are going to take a huge chunk of the incremental market,”’ Jonathan Stern, chairman and senior research fellow at the Natural Gas Research Programme of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said by phone. Qatar is also throwing down the gauntlet to Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter. “Basically what it’s saying is, ‘We are going to promote LNG as a substitute for oil,”’ he said. “That’s a very confrontational thing to say.”

Qatar seeks to produce 100 million tons of LNG, or about 40 percent of last year’s global supply, up from its current level of 77 million tons, Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, chief executive officer of the state-run producer, told reporters on Tuesday in Doha.

Call for Saudis to be a solar power

▻http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=6e13c74c17ec527c4be72d64f&id=9e2f44f9db&e=08052803c8

Call for Saudis to be
a solar power

Saudi Arabia says it plans to be less dependent on oil revenues in future – but will it grasp the opportunity to become a world leader in solar energy?

By Kieran Cooke

LONDON, 13 April, 2016 − The announcement by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia sent tremors through global energy markets.

He said that the desert kingdom – the world’s biggest oil exporter – would, within 20 years, no longer be dependent on oil revenues and plans to use an estimated US$2 trillion in assets to diversify the country’s economy and invest in companies and projects around the globe.

#arabie_saoudite #énergie #énergie_solaire

Falling oil prices force Saudi Arabia to cut spending
▻http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=73022

Saudi Arabia will cut spending and issue more bonds as it faces a record budget shortfall due to falling oil prices, the finance minister said on Sunday.

The kingdom — the biggest Arab economy and the world’s largest oil exporter — is facing an unprecedented budget crunch after crude prices dropped by more than half in a year to below $50 a barrel.

It has so far relied on its huge fiscal reserves to bridge the gap but Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said more measures would be necessary.

“We are working... to cut unnecessary expenditure,” Assaf told Dubai-based CNBC Arabia in Washington, where he is accompanying King Salman on a visit.

He provided no details on the scale of the cuts but insisted key spending in education and health and on infrastructure would not be affected.

“There are projects that were adopted several years ago and have not started yet. These can be delayed,” Assaf said.

He said the government would issue more conventional treasury bonds and Islamic sukuk bonds to “finance the budget deficit” — which is projected by the International Monetary Fund at a record $130 billion (117 billion euros) for this year.

Where rich countries are grabbing up land around the world
►http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2015/05/19/where-rich-countries-are-grabbing-up-land-around-the-world

http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Screen-Shot-2015-05-18-at-5.24.39-PM.png

Super #merci @reka

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden found that most of the world’s countries had bought or sold land internationally as of 2012 – 126 of the 195 countries recognized by the UN, according to their report. But the trade is dominated by just a few players, namely China, the U.K. and the U.S.

The global land trade also appears to reflect the uneven power relationship between the rich and the poor. With a few notable exceptions, the more developed countries of North America and Europe, Asia’s emerging economies, and the oil exporters of the Middle East are the ones buying up land, while the countries selling land are poorer nations in Africa, South America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe.

▻http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/9/11/114006/pdf

#terres #accaparement #mondialisation #cartographie

Middle East Oil Outlook Unsettled Amid Security Vacuum | Chatham House

▻http://www.chathamhouse.org//node/16806

It will be a tough year for Middle East oil exporters. Depressed oil prices, emboldened jihadi groups and the uncertain outcome of political successions top the list for geopolitical upsets in the Middle East in 2015.

http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/field/field_image_listing/20150204KirkukOil.jpg

Several states are weakened by insurgencies and civil wars, while their neighbours try to manage the spill over. In Libya, Syria and Iraq the central states do not exercise sovereign control over the territory, including some of its oil facilities and export infrastructure.

Libya’s oil exports struggled in 2014 through seven months of civil war but proved surprisingly resilient. Now, as Islamist, pro-government and anti-government forces battle to control the eastern oil facilities, it is unlikely that Libya’s exports will continue to be spared.

#moyen_orient #énergie #pétrole

Saudi Prince Muqrin named second-in-line to succeed king
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/saudi-prince-muqrin-named-second-line-succeed-king

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, a former intelligence chief, has been appointed deputy crown prince, Saudi state television reported on Thursday, making it more likely he will one day become king. The appointment makes Muqrin, the youngest son of the kingdom’s founder King Abdulaziz al-Saud, next in line to succeed in the world’s top oil exporter after his half-brothers King Abdullah and Crown Prince Salman. read more

#monarchy #Saudi_Arabia #Top_News

Gunmen kill six soldiers in #Yemen
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/gunmen-kill-six-soldiers-yemen

Yemeni gunmen killed at least six soldiers in stepped up attacks on army installations in the southeastern Hadramout province, a local official and residents said on Sunday, after tribesmen warned a Norwegian gas exploration company to stop operations in the area. Growing lawlessness in the poor Arabian Peninsula state is an international concern because of Yemen’s strategic position next to oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shipping lanes. read more

#Top_News

Saudi morality police may relax rules on prayer times-paper
Haaretz, By Reuters | Jan. 1, 2014
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.566538

Saudi Arabia’s morality police may relax the kingdom’s strict rules on closing shops and businesses for prayer five times a day, the force’s head Sheikh Abdulatif Al al-Sheikh was quoted as saying by local press on Wednesday.

All shops in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and the world’s top oil exporter, are supposed to shut for half an hour during the daily Muslim prayers, which take place at dawn, midday, mid afternoon, sunset and evening.

However, Al al-Sheikh, a moderate appointed to the post a year ago, said he did not think they needed to close for such a long period, in comments on television carried in the English-language daily Arab News, which is owned by a leading prince.

Al al-Sheikh added that Muslim shop staff could pray at their places of work rather than having to spend time walking to the mosque and back.

The comments are the latest sign of Al al-Sheikh’s attempts to improve the image of the morality police, officially known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

King Abdullah appointed him a year ago after a clip went viral on YouTube showing a morality police patrol harassing a family in a shopping mall.

The organisation enforces the kingdom’s rigid interpretation of Islamic law, including strict gender segregation, modest dress and restrained public behaviour.

In 2002 it triggered international outrage when its officers prevented schoolgirls leaving a burning building because they were not wearing veils, leading to several deaths.

Its officers have also been accused inside Saudi Arabia of taking the law into their own hands.

“I will continue with the most moderate and tolerant view to lead this organisation,” he was quoted as saying by Arab News.

King Abdullah is praised by his supporters as having introduced cautious social and economic reforms designed to modernise ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia without causing social unrest.

Some of the monarch’s critics say these changes merely provide an illusion of reform while the political system in which the ruling family shares power with conservative Muslim clerics, remains unaltered.

Suicide bomber kills five Yemeni soldiers at army base
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/suicide-bomber-kills-five-yemeni-soldiers-army-base

A suicide bomber killed at least five Yemeni soldiers on Friday in a suspected Islamist militant attack on a military base in the south of the country, a Yemeni military official said. Militants linked to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are increasingly targeting Yemeni army facilities in the US-allied state, which shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, and flanks major shipping lanes. read (...)

#Top_News #Yemen

Immolation in Riyadh exposes plight of Arab stateless in Saudi Arabia | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/26/us-saudi-immolation-poverty-idUSBRE95P0RX20130626

When a watermelon seller set himself on fire in Riyadh last month, it may not have set off an Arab Spring, but it did call attention to a rarely discussed issue - the plight of stateless Arabs living in the world’s top oil exporter.