https://arab.news/29xwm
RIYADH: Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority expects the canal’s revenues to rise by about $700 million annually as the transit fees for all types of ships to be increased by 15 percent by January 2023, the chairman and managing director told CNBC Arabia.
“The size of the share that will be offered from the channel will range from 10 percent to 15 percent,” Osama Rabie said.
The decision to increase the transit fees was taken to deal with the impact of global inflation.
He added: “The rise in global inflation rates by eight percent led to an increase in the cost of maintenance and operation within the canal.”
Rabie said that transit fees for both dry bulk vessels and cruise ships will increase by 10 percent.
The increase in fees is attributed to the rise in energy prices, freight rates and daily time rental values, according to the cabinet statement.
Rabie reasoned that the rise in fees for passing the canal “is inevitable and a necessity” to deal with the impact of the current global inflation rates that have exceeded eight percent.
It comes in light of “unprecedented” daily increases in charter rates for most types of vessels.
Daily charter rates for crude oil tankers increased on average by 88 percent in 2022 over the last year, while daily charter rates for liquefied natural gas carriers rose on average by 11 percent this year, compared to the previous year.
Rabie explained that the most important factor in determining Suez Canal transit fees is the average freight rates for various types of ships.
RIYADH: Saudi National Housing Co., one of the largest developers, has signed two agreements for a total of SR1.27 billion ($338 million) to develop residential units in Riyadh.
The first agreement was signed with Retal Urban Development Co. to build 759 housing units worth an estimated SR864 million, according to a bourse filing.
The second agreement was signed with Sumou Real Estate Co. for constructing residential units valued at SR403 million.
Both projects are expected to improve the company’s results at the beginning of sale and implementation, according to the statement.
RIYADH: Al Sagr Cooperative Insurance Co. said it signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with its rival Gulf Union Al Ahlia Cooperative Insurance Co. to discuss a potential merger between the two companies.
After the proposed merger is completed, Gulf Union Alahlia will issue new shares to Al Sagr Insurance shareholders in exchange for all issued shares of Al Sagr, according to a bourse filing.
After Gulf Union Alahlia and Al Sagr have conducted all necessary due diligence, Gulf Union Alahlia and Al Sagr will determine the share-for-share exchange ratio.
Al Sagr hired Alinma Investment to act as its financial advisor for the proposal.
RIYADH: Oil prices steadied on Tuesday after rising in the previous session on concerns that further US interest rate hikes this week to tame inflation will curb economic growth and fuel demand in the world’s biggest oil consumer.
Brent crude futures for November settlement rose 3 cents to $92.03 a barrel by 0449 GMT.
US West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was at $85.76 a barrel, up 3 cents. The October contract will expire on Tuesday and the more active November contract was at $85.29, down 7 cents, or 0.1 percent.
Russia weighs hike in taxes on oil, gas: Kommersant
Russia is considering raising taxes on the oil and gas sector in order to plug the 2023 budget gap, the Kommersant daily said on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the discussions.
The government wants, in particular, to raise the export duty on gas to up to 50 percent, start levying a duty on liquefied natural gas and raise domestic gas prices so that companies pay more in minerals extraction tax, the paper said.
The finance ministry has also proposed hiking the oil export duty and increasing state revenue from the oil products trade.
Investors see US oil between $80 and $100 per barrel next year: Survey
US crude oil prices will average between $80 and $100 per barrel next year, investors attending a Barclays conference this month estimated, suggesting a stronger outlook than future prices suggest.
In the Barclays surveys, some 56 percent of participants at its CEO Energy & Power Conference indicated they expect global oil inventories to be lower over the next 12 months.
The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy, expects oil production to average 12.6 million barrels per day next year, up about 800,000 bpd from forecasts for 11.8 million bpd this year.
Barclays’ survey participants anticipate oilfield inflation to remain a problem, with 68 percent suggesting costs will jump by 10 percent to 20 percent in 2023.
Barclays did not disclose the number of participants in the survey.
Iranian fuel ships to sail to Lebanon soon: Embassy
Iranian fuel ships will sail to Lebanon in a week or two, the Iranian embassy in Beirut told Lebanon’s Hezbollah Al-Manar TV on Monday.
A Lebanese delegation arrived in Tehran for talks with oil and energy ministries.
Both sides are also discussing the construction of new power plants and fixing electrical power networks, the embassy added.
(With input from Reuters)
RIYADH: China’s crude oil imports from Russia in August surged 28 percent from a year earlier, data showed on Tuesday, but it handed back its top supplier ranking to Saudi Arabia for the first time in four months.
Imports of Russian oil, including supplies pumped via the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline and seaborne shipments from Russia’s European and Far Eastern ports, totaled 8.342 million tons, data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs showed.
The August amount, equivalent to 1.96 million barrels per day, was slightly off May’s record of nearly 2 million bpd. China is Russia’s largest oil buyer.
Russian imports rose as Chinese independent refiners extended purchases of discounted Russian supplies that elbowed out rival cargoes from West Africa and Brazil.
China’s purchases have climbed in order to reap the benefits of a plunge in European buying just when Beijing needs it most as the Ukraine crisis pushes Moscow in search of alternative markets.
Still, imports from Saudi Arabia rebounded last month to 8.475 million tons, or 1.99 million bpd, 5 percent above the year-ago levels.
Saudi Arabia also remains the biggest supplier on a year-to-date basis, shipping 58.31 million tons of oil from January to August, down 0.3 percent on the year, versus 55.79 million tons from Russia, which was up 7.3 percent from the year-ago period.
China’s crude oil imports in August fell 9.4 percent from a year earlier, as outages at state-run refineries and lower operations at independent plants caused by weak margins capped buying.
The strong Russian purchases continued to weigh on competing supplies from Angola and Brazil, which fell in August by 34 percent and 47 percent year-on-year, respectively.
Customs reported no imports from Venezuela or Iran last month. State oil firms have shunned purchases since late 2019 for fear of falling foul of secondary US sanctions.
However, Reuters reported that defense-focused China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. has moved 25 million barrels of Venezuelan crude into China since late 2020, which Chinese customs does not report.
Tuesday’s customs data also showed imports from Malaysia, often used as a transfer point in the past two years for oil originating from Iran, Venezuela and more recently Russia, nearly doubled from a year earlier, to 3.37 million tons, or 794,000 bpd.
China did not import any crude from the US, data showed.
DUBAI: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to sign contracts for liquefied natural gas during his visit to the UAE on Sunday, his deputy chancellor said, as Germany looks for new partners to replace Russian energy imports.
“The gas offering is slowly broadening. The government is permanently in talks with many countries,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said, pointing to his own trip to Qatar and the UAE in March.
In May, sources told Reuters that LNG talks between Germany and Qatar were fraught with differences over key conditions, including the duration of any contract.
German is acquiring LNG terminals as part of its efforts to diversify away from Russian gas.
Habeck was speaking in Lubmin in northern Germany, where the government hopes a state-leased floating storage and regasification unit can be operational at the end of 2023 at the earliest.
The government is permanently in talks with many countries.
Robert Habeck, economy minister
“We must show that in times like these, we can plan, authorize and build faster than is usually the case in Germany,” Habeck said of the construction drive, adding that LNG projects in Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbuettel were examples of this.
“There is a good, realistic chance … that the two FSRU vessels there will be able to feed into the German gas network from the turn of the year,” he said.
EWEC water project
The Emirates Water and Electricity Co. has invited expressions of interest on the development of Abu Dhabi Islands Reverse Osmosis Independent Water Project.
The project consists of two stand-alone greenfield reverse osmosis seawater desalination plants to be located on Saadiyat Island and Hudayriat Island, reported Zawya.
Through sustainable and low carbon methods, both plants will produce 100 million imperial gallons per day — covering the water demand of 180,000 households in Abu Dhabi.
“Reverse osmosis is a vital low-carbon intensive seawater desalination technology that enables EWEC to strategically change its water and power generation portfolio, and ultimately contribute to the decarbonization of the energy sector,” stated EWEC CEO Othman Al-Ali.
ADNOC’s transmission system
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.’s project — a $3.6 billion high-voltage, direct current subsea transmission system — is on the verge of financial close.
A consortium led by South Korean Kepco — including Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co. International and Électricité de France — was awarded the public-private partnership contract last December.
The transmission system will decrease ADNOC offshore’s carbon footprint by 30 percent through using sustainable power sources in Abu Dhabi’s onshore power network, according to MEED.
Construction on the project is expected to begin soon.
