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Accelerating MENA’s gas transformation
Gas has become a pillar of MENA economies and a catalyst for development strategies, fostering cooperation and creating new paths for economic diversification. Continued progress will require substantial investment and adapted regulations
Mideast states power up their gas priorities
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar are ploughing resources into gas—with a growing eye on facilitating domestic use in power and value-added sectors
Natural gas: A vital bridge for the Middle East’s energy future
With responsible development and rigorous regulation, gas can help the region move forward not just as an energy exporter, but as a global leader in the energy transition
MENA's gas metamorphosis
Across the Middle East and North Africa, gas is taking an enhanced role in helping build out economies that need to diversify away from crude oil dependence
Middle East doubling down on oil strength
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq and Kuwait aim to turn geological advantage into sustained geopolitical power via greater spare capacity
Middle East gas can power regional prosperity
The Middle East natural gas playbook is being rewritten. The fuel source offers the region a pathway to a cleaner, sustainable and affordable means of local power, to fasttrack economic development and as a lucrative opportunity to better monetise its energy resources.
TotalEnergies sticks to winning formula
TotalEnergies is an outlier among other majors for remaining committed to low-carbon investments while continuing to replenish and expand its ample oil and gas portfolio, with an appetite for high risk/high return projects.
Saudi Arabia and Russia pull OPEC+ in different directions
The two oil heavyweights’ diverging fiscal considerations are straining unity within the group
OPEC++, the sequel, has arrived
It is time to acknowledge that the US-Saudi Arabia nexus is driving a fundamental shift in OPEC strategy
Saudi-US energy ties adapt to multipolar world
Saudi Arabia and US relations can construct a new ‘field of dreams’, but opportunism may be the new rules of the game
Saudi Aramco Saudi Arabia TotalEnergies Petrochina
Gerald Butt
Riyadh
26 June 2018
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Aramco ploughs ahead

The jewel in the kingdom's crown is concentrating on downstream joint ventures, as it awaits the IPO go-ahead

High above the Riyadh rooftops, tall cranes form thin fingers of lattice patterns against the colourless early-morning sky. Many of the cranes are starting to move again after a year or more of remaining idle, a signal that the higher global oil prices of recent months have given the Saudi economy a boost. The economic slump meant that some contractors put projects on hold and others went bust. Today, the signs are that the worst of the cash-flow crisis is over. Saudi Arabia is determined to make sure that there's never a return to the dark days when oil was trading at less than $30 a barrel, triggering an economic crisis across the kingdom. It's why Saudi Arabia has been the driving force i

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