Saturday 7 December 2019

#Saudi Prince’s First OPEC Outing Brings Last-Minute Oil Surprise - Bloomberg

Saudi Prince’s First OPEC Outing Brings Last-Minute Oil Surprise - Bloomberg:

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has attended OPEC meetings for three decades, but this was the first time he’s been the star turn.

For two days, Saudi Arabia’s new oil minister appeared to have stage fright. As he shuttled between Vienna’s ultra-luxury Park Hyatt hotel and the headquarters of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, he said almost nothing to the massed reporters ready to transcribe his every word. 

He set the tone for the entire meeting. Normally chatty officials said they couldn’t talk. Ministers used backdoor entrances to their hotels. The traditional manic media scrum that opens the meeting was canceled.

Then after two days of often fractious talks on the cartel’s oil policy, he sprung two surprises at the closing press conference: Saudi Arabia will voluntarily cut supply deeper than the new deal requires, and the kingdom in gunning for a $2 trillion valuation for its newly public oil producer, Aramco.

' #Dubai is over-built, #Saudi has just been opened and Bahrain is very small', says Mohammed Jassim Khalid Al-Marzouq - Arabianbusiness

'Dubai is over-built, Saudi has just been opened and Bahrain is very small', says Mohammed Jassim Khalid Al-Marzouq - Arabianbusiness:

Mohammed Jassim Khalid Al-Marzouq, chairman of Tamdeen Group, has revealed why he has no intention of adding to his development portfolio with projects throughout the GCC.

Al-Marzouq told Arabian Business: “Dubai is over-built, Saudi has just been opened and Bahrain is very small.”

Al-Marzouq is behind huge projects in Kuwait such as 360 Mall; Al Kout, Kuwait’s largest waterfront, retail and leisure destination; Al Khiran, the region’s first hybrid mall; and the three-storey residential complex Tamdeen Square.

He said he was previously looking to invest in an unnamed project outside Kuwait, but pulled the plug on proceedings.

He said: “I believe for me to do any business, the legal structure of a country should protect me as an investor. Kuwait has the best legal structure where I am secured, there is no threat from any outside influence.