Friday 6 August 2010

Abu Dhabi aims to become 'leading exporter' of gas - The National Newspaper

Abu Dhabi has long-term plans to expand its gas exports, an independent study of the emirate’s energy sector shows.

The emirate’s two big gas pro-jects, the Shah gas and “integrated gas” developments, “will go a long way to meet domestic needs and establish Abu Dhabi as a leading gas exporter through expansion of its gas terminals”, said Gilles Valentin, the editorial director of The Oil and Gas Year Abu Dhabi 2010, released yesterday by Wildcat Publishing in the UK.

Mr Valentin’s remarks, which followed months of interviews with senior industry executives by researchers working on the yearbook, provided some of the first indications of Abu Dhabi’s plans for gas exploitation once its sole export contract expires in 2019."

Persia International’s assets frozen in Dubai clampdown - The National Newspaper

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has frozen the assets of Persia International Bank’s Dubai branch to comply with tougher EU sanctions on Iran.

The freeze follows the addition of Persia International to the EU’s list of sanctions targets on July 26 as Iran comes under greater pressure to cease a uranium enrichment programme it has pursued sporadically since the 1950s. Iran insists the nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

“As part of this [EU] regulation, the assets of a number of persons, entities and bodies were frozen, including Persia International Bank,” the DFSA, which regulates companies based in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), said in an alert on its website yesterday. “The asset freeze applies to [the bank’s] Dubai branch, a DFSA-authorised firm.”

Ipic has assets worth Dh169b

Abu Dhabi's state-run International Petroleum Investment Co (Ipic) has about $46 billion (Dh168.82 billion) in assets, exceeding targets, Chairman Khadem Abdullah Al Qubaisi said.

The investment fund with unit Aabar Investments became the biggest investors in carmaker Daimler AG, bought stakes in Spanish utility Compania Espanola de Petroleos and started sponsoring a Formula 1 team last year. IPIC invests in international oil and gas projects.

"Perhaps we have to recalibrate our growth targets," Al Qubaisi said in an interview published in a UAE energy yearbook entitled Oil & Gas Year that was presented yesterday.

Kuwait wins back Moody's stable outlook

Ratings agency Moody's Thursday changed the outlook of Kuwait's Aa2 sovereign ratings from negative to stable, after parliament passed long-awaited economic laws, the agency said.

Moody's Investors Services said the decision affects the government's Aa2 foreign and local currency bond ratings and the Aa2 country ceiling for foreign currency bank deposits.

"The outlook on the Aa2 country ceiling for foreign currency bonds remains stable," it said in a statement, adding that Kuwait's local currency ceilings remain at Aa2.

Moody's last assigned a negative outlook to Kuwait in June 2009, but said at the time that it would change it to stable if ties between the government and parliament improved, the statement said.