Energy prices rebalancing after OPEC deal: Qatar

April 28, 2017

Istanbul, Apr 28: Global energy markets are heading to a rebalancing in the next few years after oil prices fell to historic lows due to oversupply, Qatar’s Energy and Industry Minister Mohammed Saleh Abdullah Al-Sada said on Thursday, praising members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for their adherence to a “successful” November deal to cut production.

Energy

He told the Atlantic Council summit in Istanbul that a decade of high oil prices had led to a dangerous oversupply and subsequent price falls.

“The consequence was an unprecedented shrinkage in investment and if that trend continues, it will lead to new instability — a price spiral and a tightening of the market which is not in anyone’s interest,” he warned.

OPEC members agreed in November to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day for six months beginning from the start of the year in a bid to shore up prices.

The move was also partly matched by non-OPEC producers led by Russia and the critical question is whether OPEC will take new action at its next meeting on May 25 or not.

“A balancing was bound to happen. What we want to do is to hasten that process of balancing,” said the minister.

He hailed the fact that compliance to the November agreement has been almost 98 percent including all participants, and had sometimes been over 100 percent among OPEC members, meaning they had exceeded the output cuts demanded.

Compliance has historically been a problem within OPEC and Al-Sada said that adherence to past agreements had been on average only 70 percent. “The agreement was very successful and it helped the process of rebalancing,” he said.

“It (the market) is picking up. We hope to get a more accelerated balancing process in the second half of the year.”

Al-Sada said the rebalancing was coming but would still take time.

“The market today is well supplied and will be for the next years. The upturn is definitely going to come and the market will balance, yes, not in the coming two years but in four or five.”

Oil prices currently hover just around $50 per barrel after shedding around half of their value since mid-2014.

Al-Sada denied that low oil prices were of benefit to anyone.

OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo, meanwhile, said that a global oil overhang was declining, but he added that stocks remained high and needed to fall further. OPEC is discussing extending its cuts into the second half of the year, but the group has an uphill task.

Oil prices fell on Thursday after news that two key oilfields in Libya had restarted, pumping crude for export into an already bloated market.

Benchmark Brent crude fell $1.14 a barrel to a low of $50.68 before recovering slightly to trade around $50.85 by 1220 GMT. The contract has fallen more than 10 percent from this month’s peak.

US light crude oil hit a low of $48.51, down $1.11 a barrel on the day.

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Agencies
April 8,2020

Riyadh, Apr 8: Saudi Arabia's health minister has warned the number of COVID-19 cases in the country could reach 200,000 in coming weeks.

As of Tuesday, the kingdom registered a total of 2,795 coronavirus infections, including 41 deaths.

"Within the next few weeks, studies predict the number of infections will range from a minimum of 10,000 to a maximum of 200,000," health minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah was cited as saying by the official Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia extended the duration of daily curfews in four governorates and five cities to 24 hours.

The kingdom imposed round-the-clock lockdowns in the capital Riyadh, Tabuk, Dammam, Dhahran and Hofuf, the interior ministry said on Twitter.

The same measures were also imposed on the governorates of Jeddah, Taif, Qatif and Khobar, the ministry added.

Authorities had already sealed off the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, barring people from entering and exiting as well as prohibiting movement between all provinces.

Last month, Saudi Arabia suspended the year-round "Umrah" pilgrimage over fears of the coronavirus pandemic spreading to Islam's holiest cities.

Authorities are yet to announce whether they will proceed with this year's Hajj, scheduled for the end of July. Last week, authorities urged Muslims to temporarily defer preparations for the annual pilgrimage.

Last year, about 2.5 million people travelled to Saudi Arabia to take part in the Hajj, which all Muslims must perform at least once in their lives if able.

The Arab world's biggest economy has also closed down cinemas, malls and restaurants and halted flights as it steps up efforts to contain the virus.

King Salman has warned of a "more difficult" fight ahead against the virus, as the kingdom faces the economic double blow of virus-led shutdowns and crashing oil prices

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Agencies
May 2,2020

Doha, May 2: Twenty-three staff at a hospital in Qatar were injured when tents being used to boost capacity in response to coronavirus collapsed in a fierce storm, local media reported Friday.

Winds of up to 72 kilometres per hour (45 miles per hour) caused two temporary tent annexes at Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital in Qatar's Industrial Area to collapse on Thursday, the Gulf Times reported.

No patients were hurt and most injuries to staff at the facility, 20 kilometres south west of central Doha, were minor, the daily added, citing the health ministry.

During the gale-force winds on Thursday, a Qatar Airways Boeing 787 on the ground was blown into a nearby Airbus A350 at Doha's Hamad airport causing minor damage but no injuries, the airline said in a statement.

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The Industrial Area is a gritty, densely-populated district that is home to mostly migrant labourers and has been the epicentre of Qatar's outbreak. 

Tens of thousands of residents were quarantined in the area after cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed among the community in mid-March.

Qatar -- home to hundreds of thousands of foreign labourers working on projects linked to the 2022 World Cup -- has reported 12 deaths and 14,096 cases of the Covid-19 respiratory disease.

The hospital's executive director Hussein Ishaq said the incident was being treated "very seriously" and that an investigation had been launched.

Hospital staff had "helped ensure that no patients were injured and were safely transferred to other hospitals", he said, quoted in the Gulf Times.

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Agencies
July 14,2020

Dubai, Jul 14: The UAE-based parents of children under 12 stranded in India are in a tight spot with multiple airlines refusing to accept unaccompanied minors.

Starting July 12, Indians wanting to return to the UAE have been given a 15-day window to travel back on the condition that they have valid residency permits. They also have to produce a negative Covid-19 test result.

But parents of minors said they are feeling helpless as children are unable to avail of the travel opportunity despite having return permits.

"It has been more than three months since my daughter has been stuck in India. We have GDRFA approval for her but the airlines are not accepting her booking, saying she is under 12," Poonam Sapre, a Dubai-based mother, told Khaleej Times.

Her daughter Eva Sapre, 10, is in Hyderabad and is awaiting a reunion with her parents.

"She is just 10 and it has already taken an emotional toll on her. She is eager to come back and is asking me every day about her return. This is so frustrating."

Barring Emirates and Etihad, other airlines including flydubai, Air Arabia and Air India Express are not accepting unaccompanied minors. With India extending the travel freeze till July 31, normal flights are yet to resume and only special flights are allowed between India and UAE under a bilateral agreement.

Sapre said only flydubai is flying the Hyderabad-Dubai route, and the carrier has restrictions on minors travelling alone. "My daughter is too young to fly through indirect routes," claims the mother.

When Khaleej Times reached out to the airlines for comment, they confirmed that such rules on unaccompanied minors were already in place even before Covid-19 travel restrictions came into effect.

Another Dubai-based distressed parent, who did not want to be named, said her eight-year-old son is in Kerala and is unable to fly due to airline policies on unaccompanied minors.

"I called up Air India Express and they said this has been their rule even before the Covid-19 outbreak. I am appealing to them to re-consider and make an exception during these trying times so that our children can come home safely," she said.

Faced with this eventuality, some parents are forced to fly out of the UAE so they can accompany their children on the flight back home.

An Indian mother, who is currently in Mumbai, said she flew out of Dubai on Monday morning solely for the purpose of bringing back her twin daughters, aged 10.

"I had no choice. Ideally, they could have travelled together, but under these circumstances I thought it best to get them with me personally," said the mother.

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