Oil’s physical strength defies slowdown woes - FT.com

The physical oil market continues to show a remarkable strength even if futures prices are lagging amid worries about the impact of an economic slowdown on demand.

The latest signals of supply and demand tightness come from Asia and the Middle East. On the one hand, the cost of Oman-Dubai crude, the regional benchmark, in the spot market has surged significantly above the price for delivery later on in the year and into early 2012. The downward slope of the curve, known as backwardation, is an indication of immediate tightness. On the other, the premium that Saudi Arabia charges to Asian refiners for its main crude stream has jumped to an all-time high.

“The dire macro outlook continues to weigh on the oil complex,” Edward Morse, the veteran oil watcher at Citigroup in New York said this week, “but there remains very little in the way of weakness visible in the oil market itself.”

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Qatar Airways Plans ‘Multi-Billion-Dollar’ Jet Order Next Month, CEO Says - Bloomberg

Qatar Airways Ltd., the Middle East’s second-biggest carrier, plans to place a “multi-billion-dollar aircraft order” at the Dubai Air Show next month, Chief Executive Officer Akbar al Baker said today.

The Gulf airline already has orders for more than 200 aircraft with a value in excess of $40 billion at list prices, Al Baker said at a press conference in Oslo, without specifying whether he’s interested in more single-aisle or widebody jets.

Qatar Airways failed to place an order for Airbus SAS’s A320neo at the Paris Air Show in June after earlier saying it would sign a deal for the re-engined version of the European company’s narrowbody model. The requirement to be filled at the Dubai expo starting Nov. 13 isn’t for Qatar’s planned discount unit, which would use existing jets, Al Akbar said today.

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Mideast's Unrest Hits Investment Banks - WSJ.com

Investment-banking revenues in the Middle East tumbled to the lowest level since 2004 in the third quarter, as the twin burden of the global economic downturn and the region's political upheaval has crippled deal activity.

Investment banks in the region saw revenues from equity, debt and mergers advisory fall to a combined $36 million, compared to $73 million in the same quarter in 2010, figures from Dealogic show.

The result is the lowest since the second quarter of 2004 and a mere fraction of what banks earned in 2007 when Dubai was rising rapidly as a financial center and attracting bankers from across the globe. Based on the figures, banks across the whole of the Middle East made as much as Finland and South Africa, but only about half of the fees earned in Belgium.

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Japan hopes to keep UAE oil relationship - The National

Japan's trade minister is to meet Abu Dhabi's top oil officials as the country seeks to maintain its position as the emirate's top crude customer.

Yukio Edano is scheduled to meet the head of the emirate's oil company and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on Sunday, according to the Japanese ministry.

Japan holds concessions to pump oil from the emirate's offshore fields that begin expiring in 2018.

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Agility well-placed to capitalise on emerging market growth - The National

Agility, the Kuwaiti storage and logistics provider, looks well positioned to capitalise on growth in emerging markets, according to Rasmala Investment Bank, based in Dubai.

"The strength of the logistics industry is significantly affected by economic growth," said Daniel Abood and Aly Mansour in a note to clients. "Agility's competitive advantage lies in its emerging-market platform, which we expect to experience high growth in the future," the analysts said.

A report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development said developed economies were expected to post growth rates of up to 2 per cent this year. Emerging markets, however, were expected to have much stronger growth, at more than 6 per cent.

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Qatari Sovereign Fund Seen As Buyer Of Dexia Luxembourg Bank -Source - WSJ.com

The Qatar Investment Authority, the nation's sovereign wealth fund, is the leader of a consortium of investors that is set to buy Dexia SA's (DEXB.BT) Luxembourg retail banking subsidiary, a person familiar with the discussions said Thursday.

The sale is part of a plan to break up Dexia set in motion after Moody's Investors Service this week warned that the bank's heavy dependence on wholesale funding threatened its stability.

The Luxembourg government would have a blocking minority stake in the business, Dexia Banque Internationale a Luxembourg, if the deal is finalized, which could happen over the weekend, the person said.

Dexia will also have to sell other units under the breakup plan, including its asset management business and DenizBank AS (DENIZ.IS), the Turkish retail bank. The asset management business will be easiest to sell, the person said.

"There's interest from all over the world," he said.

The sale of DenizBank will take longer because interest will be limited to buyers from the region, according to the person.

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