Monday 12 January 2015

Goldman Oil Forecast Sees Further Declines: Is $40 Next?: Video - Bloomberg

Goldman Oil Forecast Sees Further Declines: Is $40 Next?: Video - Bloomberg: ""



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U.A.E. Seeks More Natural Gas From Qatar Via Dolphin Pipeline - Bloomberg

U.A.E. Seeks More Natural Gas From Qatar Via Dolphin Pipeline - Bloomberg:



"The United Arab Emirates, which needs natural gas to meet surging domestic demand, wants to import more fuel from Qatar through the Dolphin pipeline, Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said.



The U.A.E. also will boost imports of liquefied natural gas and develop its own deposits of high-sulfur, or sour, gas, he said yesterday at an industry presentation in Abu Dhabi. The country’s energy subsidies will become unsustainable because these sources of fuel are more expensive than gas produced from conventional fields, Mazrouei said.



“We expect to see a significant shift in the supply dynamics of gas” within the next 10 years, he said."



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U.A.E. Sticks With Oil Output Boost Even as Prices Drop - Bloomberg

U.A.E. Sticks With Oil Output Boost Even as Prices Drop - Bloomberg:



"The United Arab Emirates will stick with a plan to increase oil-production capacity to 3.5 million barrels a day in 2017 even as an oversupply pushed prices to the lowest in more than five years.



“In this time of unstable oil prices, we are showing in Abu Dhabi and across the country that we remain dedicated to reach our long-term production goals,” Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said in a presentation in Abu Dhabi yesterday. “Our investments remain there.”



Oil fell to the lowest level since March 2009 yesterday after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Societe Generale SA (GLE) cut their price forecasts. Venezuela called on producers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to work together to lift prices back toward $100 a barrel. The U.A.E., the fifth-largest OPEC member, produced 2.7 million barrels a day last month and has a current capacity of 3 million barrels a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."



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Dubai World Reaches Deal to Extend $14.6 Billion of Debt - Bloomberg

Dubai World Reaches Deal to Extend $14.6 Billion of Debt - Bloomberg:



"Dubai World, the state-owned company at the center of the emirate’s 2009 financial crisis, reached an agreement with a majority of creditor banks to amend and extend terms on about $14.6 billion of debt.



The deal entails early repayment of $2.92 billion due this year and the extension of debt due in 2018 to 2022, according to an emailed statement today from the company. Dubai World also said it pledged additional collateral and increased pricing as part of the agreement, without giving further detail.



Dubai World, which owns stakes in companies such as port operator DP World Ltd. (DPW) and shipyard Drydocks World LLC, was one of several companies in the emirate to delay debt payments when credit markets froze and asset prices slumped during the financial crisis. The company in November agreed to sell a subsidiary, including its Jebel Ali Free Zone FZE logistics park in Dubai, to DP World for $2.6 billion."



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BBC News - Russia reveals huge cost of supporting the rouble

BBC News - Russia reveals huge cost of supporting the rouble:



"The Russian central bank has revealed the huge cost of trying to prop up the value of the rouble.



In the past year, the bank spent $76bn and 5.4bn euros as it repeatedly bought roubles on the foreign exchanges.



The Russian currency has been under sustained pressure because of Western sanctions over Ukraine and because of the falling price of oil."



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Deflation and its discontents - YouTube

Deflation and its discontents - YouTube: ""



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MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf markets edge down as oil drops; Saudi banks strong | Reuters

MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf markets edge down as oil drops; Saudi banks strong | Reuters:



"Gulf stock markets ran out of steam on Monday after several strong sessions as oil prices fell by more than $1 a barrel, although positive fourth-quarter corporate earnings supported individual stocks.



Brent crude traded below $49 after analysts at Goldman Sachs cut their average forecast for the benchmark in 2015 to $50.40 a barrel from $83.75.



Saudi Arabia's stock index slipped 0.1 percent as shares in petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries fell 1.9 percent; petrochemical industry earnings are under major pressure from weak oil prices."



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India's economic reforms gather pace - YouTube

India's economic reforms gather pace - YouTube: ""



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Stop looking for grand design in the oil price crash | The National

Stop looking for grand design in the oil price crash | The National:



"As the oil price has fallen past US$100 per barrel, then $80, now $50, one major newspaper has decided to stop talking of “psychologically important barriers”, which seem to be bypassed as easily as the Maginot Line.



Despite plenty of muttering about plots, in fact neither of the key players in this oil price crash actually did anything voluntarily to cause it. Unlike their actions in 1986 and 1998, the Saudis have not increased production sharply; rather they have trimmed it slightly but not made major cuts, active only in masterly inactivity.



And a cursory examination of the vagaries of US energy policy should dispel any idea of a coherent grand strategy. The thousands of individual shale oil producers are in cut-throat competition, not collusion."



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Saudi banks’ profits shake off fall in oil | The National

Saudi banks’ profits shake off fall in oil | The National:



"Some of Saudi Arabia’s biggest banks kicked off earnings season in the kingdom yesterday with bumper fourth quarter profits.



Saudi Hollandi, Bank Al Bilad and Riyad Bank yesterday reported strong growth in earnings for the three months ended December.



Saudi Hollandi said its fourth quarter net income increased 33 per cent to 461.9 million riyals (Dh452.4m), while Bank Al Bilad’s quarterly income rose 16.5 per cent to 249m ryals."



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Dubai stocks fairly valued at current levels — Emirates NBD | GulfNews.com

Dubai stocks fairly valued at current levels — Emirates NBD | GulfNews.com:



"Dubai stocks are fairly valued at current levels after a violent correction recently, but 2015 will be a challenging year for investments, a senior official at Emirates NBD Wealth Management said on Sunday.



The Dubai Financial Market General Index witnessed volatile swings late last year, to a point it gave away all of its 2014 gains in early December, before ending the year about 13 per cent higher.



“The drop in crude had significant impact on asset prices. Real estate has corrected somewhat. Stock market saw violent correction and that will ease off very soon,” said Arjuna Mahendran, chief investment officer, with Emirates NBD Wealth Management."



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Top Russian Ruble Forecaster Sees Fresh Run at Record Low - Bloomberg

Top Russian Ruble Forecaster Sees Fresh Run at Record Low - Bloomberg:



"The world’s top ruble forecaster is unimpressed by the currency’s 30 percent rebound from a record low.



The analyst -- Danske Bank A/S’s Vladimir Miklashevsky -- says the ruble could be testing new lows again this quarter as the plunge in oil, Russia’s top export, threatens to cost the country its investment-grade credit ratings and turns Russians away from their currency. The ruble traded at 62.7805 per dollar at 10:36 a.m. in Moscow, after reaching 80.1 on Dec. 16, the weakest on record.



“We can easily see new records as the oil price is much lower,” Miklashevsky said by phone from Helsinki, last week. Concern over a rating cut and the loss of confidence among Russians “are the ingredients for a further bout of weakness,” he said."



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Goldman Sees Need for $40 Oil as OPEC Cut Forecast Abandoned - Bloomberg

Goldman Sees Need for $40 Oil as OPEC Cut Forecast Abandoned - Bloomberg:



"Goldman Sachs said U.S. oil prices need to trade near $40 a barrel in the first half of this year to curb shale investments as it gave up on OPEC cutting output to balance the market.



The bank cut its forecasts for global benchmark crude prices, predicting inventories will increase over the first half of this year, according to an e-mailed report. Excess storage and tanker capacity suggests the market can run a surplus far longer than it has in the past, said Goldman analysts including Jeffrey Currie in New York.



The U.S. is pumping oil at the fastest pace in more than three decades, helped by a shale boom that’s unlocked supplies from formations including the Eagle Ford in Texas and the Bakken in North Dakota. Prices slumped almost 50 percent last year as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries resisted output cuts even amid a global surplus that Qatar estimates at 2 million barrels a day."



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Dubai’s Damac Rises on First Trading Day in Home Market - Bloomberg

Dubai’s Damac Rises on First Trading Day in Home Market - Bloomberg:



"Damac Properties Dubai Co., the developer working with Tiger Woods and Donald Trump on a golf course in Dubai, climbed in debut trading in the emirate. 




Damac added as much as 21 percent before trading 1.8 percent higher at 2.84 dirhams at 11:57 a.m. local time. The company received regulatory approval to list in Dubai last month and offered to exchange each London-listed global depository receipt, known as GDRs, for 23.077 ordinary shares in Dubai until Jan. 9. The stock declined 11 percent in London last year compared with a 2.7 percent drop in the FTSE 100 Index. (UKX)



“Many of these companies that went and looked for international recognition through listings in London are coming back amid low trading volumes there,” Mohammed Ali Yasin, managing director of NBAD Securities LLC in Abu Dhabi, said by phone. “They are finding out that people who will pay premiums for the shares are those who are familiar with it in its home market.”"



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Saudi Fransi Capital Plans Dubai Office as Market Opens - Bloomberg

Saudi Fransi Capital Plans Dubai Office as Market Opens - Bloomberg:



"Saudi Fransi Capital, the investment banking arm of Banque Saudi Fransi (BSFR), plans to open an office in Dubai before the kingdom opens the Arab world’s largest bourse to foreign direct investment for the first time.



The bank expects approval to start operating in the Dubai International Financial Centre this month, Yasir Al Rumayyan, chief executive officer of the unit, said by phone yesterday. Saudi Fransi Capital International, as the Dubai office is to be named, will focus on asset management and brokerage activities.



The largest economy in the oil-producing Gulf Cooperation Council may open the stock market to overseas investors from April, three people briefed on the plans said last month. The move could attract as much as $40 billion of foreign cash into the $478 billion exchange, Schroders Plc. said in July."



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