It has been 50 years since Dubai first struck oil in the Fateh field, but in 2016 the emirate’s determination to ensure it did not become dependent on petroleum wealth is paying dividends. Although the impact on its neighbours of lower global oil prices may have an indirect impact on Dubai’s fortunes in the years to come, in the immediate...
The vast deserts of the GCC were often seen as obstacles to development in the past, preventing widespread cultivation, holding down population growth and hindering overland travel. The oil sitting beneath those deserts changed that view. Like its GCC neighbours, Kuwait relied on oil resources to fuel its rapid economic development in the 20th...
Prior to the 20th century, Kuwait’s merchants and pearl divers leveraged the country’s location to offer their wares on trade flows connecting British India with the Ottoman Empire’s Arabic-speaking realms. The 1938 discovery of oil in the Burgan field did not disrupt those trade flows but replaced their cargoes with oil, which became the...
Across the GCC, spending cuts have come to the forefront of fiscal discussions as hydrocarbons exports continue to fetch lower prices on global markets, resulting in decreased revenues. Subsidies, in particular, have been on the chopping block. In January 2016, Qatar announced plans to raise petrol prices by 30% to help address its expected...
While generally well-endowed with oil of a variety of grades, Kuwait’s Greater Burgan field in the southeast is the world’s second-largest after Ghawar in Saudi Arabia. Consisting of the Burgan, Magwa and Ahmadi reservoirs, Greater Burgan makes up the lion’s share of Kuwait’s production, with average output of 1.1m-1.3m barrels per day (bpd),...
With global oil and gas prices remaining depressed in mid-2016, impacting government revenues and production, state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) is now rolling out an ambitious restructuring programme that aims to reduce its domestic workforce and expand into international energy markets, with a focus on production. Restructuring and...
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