As oil languishes around the US$40 mark it stands to reason that the big news is going to concern falls in profits and cuts. Saudi Aramco hit the news last week an industry insider, who didn’t wish to be named , said that Aramco could close 20% of its rigs. The company stayed characteristically silent on the issue.Â
The mystery insider’s prediction was backed up by Rina Samsudin, senior Middle East analyst at ODS-Petrodata. In an exclusive interview she gave to Oil and Gas Middle East, Rina said that rig activity in the Gulf region is expected to contract by as much as 15% in the second quarter of 2009.
Saudi Aramco remained in the news after they announced that they had awarded Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction and the UK’s Petrofac the contracts for the development of the onshore Karan gas field. The exact value of each contract was not disclosed.
Dubai played host to the Marine Money Gulf Ship Finance Forum last week and delegates flew in from around the region and beyond to discuss all things finance. Unfortunately the speakers painted a sorry picture for the midstream oil and gas shipping sector. Times were tough at the moment and that VLCC tanker owners could expect the rest of 2009 to be equally testing.
Try telling that to tanker operator Gulf Energy Marine. The Dubai-based company announced last week that they had taken delivery of the first of six new vessels from Hyundai’s Mipo Dockyard.
Not as much doom and gloom over in Qatar, however. Despite an horrific fourth quarter profits plunge of US$700 million Qatar Industries still recorded a 46% rise in profits to $1.99 billion in 2008. More good news from QAPCO, a Qatar Industries subsidiary. In an exclusive interview to Petrochemicals Middle East general manager, Dr. Mohamed Yousuf Al-Mulla, said that all the major QAPCO projects were still going ahead and he expected growth in 2009. Â
OPEC were the subject of much speculation last week as analysts tried to second guess whether or not they will cut production in a bid to raise oil prices. Some experts believed that they would and that a cut in production would see oil prices rising to the $70 mark, while others, rather more controversially, believed that $40 oil gave the equivalent of a $1 trillion stimulus to the global economy and should be maintained. No prizes for guessing how well that particular opinion went down in the Middle East.Â
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