Energy Supplies: Germany, Japan Look to Mideast for More Oil, Gas - Bloomberg

Energy Supplies: Germany, Japan Look to Mideast for More Oil, Gas - Bloomberg

Government ministers from Germany and Japan are heading to the Middle East in a bid to safeguard their energy security after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upended global supplies.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Japan’s Foreign Minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, are set to hold separate meetings with officials in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates over the next several days.

“The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has put the issue of energy security at the center of international discussion,” Habeck said in a statement.

The conflict has caused extreme volatility in oil and natural gas markets, triggering price spikes and pushing some of the world’s major consumers into a frantic search for alternatives to Russian supplies. Russia accounts for about a third of Europe’s gas.

DP World risks UK reputational damage with P&O sackings | Financial Times #Dubai #UAE

DP World risks UK reputational damage with P&O sackings | Financial Times

Touring the United Arab Emirates last month to promote trade with the UK, Prince William was shown around DP World’s Jebel Ali port in Dubai — a facility opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1979. 

Now the Dubai company’s UK relations have been plunged into crisis after its P&O ferries business berthed all its ships and summarily fired 800 British-based sailors. 

While DP World says P&O’s restructuring was necessary to sustain the business, politicians are aghast at the way staff were let go on a Zoom call without consultation to be replaced by cheaper agency staff. Some fear the company has imported Dubai’s approach to labour relations — unions in the emirate are banned and workers’ rights constrained. 

“This is a complete own goal — it can’t impact their reputation positively and will generate huge amount of political attention,” said one UK official. “The business logic may be correct, but this is going to have wider ramifications for DP World as an investor and employer.” 

However, the government faces a dilemma in how to respond. The company, which last week reported record full-year ebitda of $3.8bn, has been a huge investor in UK industry, pumping £2bn into the country with another £1.5bn earmarked for the coming years. 

The state-controlled group runs the UK’s second-biggest shipping terminal in Southampton and its third-biggest in London, handling more than half the intercontinental container traffic that enters the country, and has expressed interest in new UK freeport contracts.