Month: June 2013

UAE equities rebound in low trade

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: June 12, 2013 , ,

Markets in the UAE resumed gains on Tuesday, although trading was volatile as an early-year surge in share prices faltered.

Dubai’s index rose 0.6 per cent, having been down as much as 0.9 per cent in early trade. That initial drop followed a 2.3 per cent decline on Monday, Dubai’s largest in 15 months, but low volumes — less than 20 million shares changed hands in the opening 30 minutes, considerably below recent norms — indicated that few investors were willing to sell at those prices.

Trading then picked up as stocks rebounded. The DFM General Index rose 0.6 per cent to 2,358 points. Abu Dhabi main index climbed 0.3 per cent to 3,567 points. “The market, as expected, is volatile and there’s no clear trend at the moment,” said Sebastien Henin, portfolio manager at The National Investor. Dubai is up 45.3 per cent in 2013 and Abu Dhabi has gained 35.6 per cent over the same period, with this surge likely to give way to more sustained profit taking eventually.

A potential trigger for a sell-off may be MSCI’s decision on whether to upgrade the UAE and Qatar to emerging market status. The index complier will announce its verdict at 2100GMT. “The market will correct whether we get upgraded by MSCI or not — it’s more of a short-term consolidation period as we come closer to the summer,” said Musa Haddad, head of investment advisory services at National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

“The market still looks very strong, volumes are positive and liquidity is available, which shows the longer-term upward trend isn’t about to change.”

MSCI has opted against upgrading the UAE and Qatar from frontier markets classification on multiple occasions since 2009, but traders are hopeful the UAE will make the cut this time following market reforms. An upgrade would likely attract additional foreign money to UAE stocks, although the country’s weighting on MSCI’s emerging market index would be less than one per cent so the impact could be limited.

“The big question is how the market would react after the announcement,” added Henin.

Long-term investors will likely use any market pull-back to accumulate shares at lower prices, said NBAD’s Haddad. “We expect the market to have further upside this year, but at this point in time it will be in a consolidation phase,” he said.

Emaar Properties was Dubai’s main support, rising 0.7 per cent.

Emirates NBD fell 1.9 per cent. Dubai’s largest bank said on Tuesday it had completed the acquisition of BNP Paribas’ Egyptian assets after receiving regulatory approval in the North African country.

Egypt’s bourse rose 1.5 per cent from Monday’s 10-month low, ending a seven-session losing streak. Trading fell to a week-low, with investors wary due to ongoing political instability in the Arab world’s most populous country.

Protesters are preparing for mass demonstrations on June 30 to mark President Mohamed Mursi’s one-year anniversary in office. “Egypt’s market is driven by political factors and whenever politics is the main driver, we would rather stay away,” added Haddad. —

 

Source: Khaleej Times

Petronas to spend $16 billion on Canadian facility

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: June 12, 2013 , , ,

Malaysian national oil company Petronas says it expects to spend up to $16 billion to build a liquefied natural gas export facility in western Canada.

Arif Mahmood, Petronas vice president of corporate planning, says the company will invest between $9 billion and $11 billion to construct two LNG liquefaction plants.

Another $5 billion will be invested in a 750 kilometer-long pipeline, to be built by TransCanada Corp., to supply gas to the two plants, he said Tuesday in an email to The Associated Press.

The Pacific Northwest LNG project, located on Lelu Island in the Port Edward district, will liquefy and export natural gas produced by Progress Energy Canada. Both companies are owned by Petronas, which secured its first LNG buyer, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co.

Source: Khaleej Times

Dubai SME100 rankings Nominations up 171 percent

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: June 12, 2013 , , ,

Dubai SME on Tuesday announced that nearly 3,000 small and medium enterprises have been nominated for the 2013 Dubai SME100 rankings, with their estimated output pegged at over Dh53 billion.

The nominations represent a 171 per cent increase over the 1,092 SMEs nominated for the 2011 ranking. Sector-wise, 53 per cent of SMEs nominated are from the trading sector, 36 per cent from services and 11 per cent from manufacturing.

“The Government of Dubai has launched various initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and SME development under its SME five-year plan. This commitment to promote entrepreneurship and SMEs is in the DNA of Dubai, supported and led by our socio-economic stability, openness and visionary leadership. Dubai has moved to the next level of growth, and in our renewed dynamism and development outlook, SMEs play a strategically significant role in creating new value-add to the economy of Dubai and the UAE,” Sami Al Qamzi, director-general of Dubai Department of Economic Development, said in a statement.

“Over 95 per cent of the businesses in Dubai today are small and medium enterprises. Together, SMEs constitute the largest reserve of knowledge, innovation and human capital in the UAE as well as a significant contributor to the nation’s GDP. The Dubai SME 100 initiative provides an added incentive for SMEs to keep growing. They will definitely feel encouraged to think outside accepted parameters, push their creativity and thus achieve their unique goals.”

Dubai SME100 identifies the top-performing SMEs in Dubai to help groom them into bigger and more sustainable enterprises, and support them through their growth into larger, internationally-oriented companies.

Post ranking, the SMEs are given specialised capability development training in such critical areas as investment development, corporate governance, valuation, legal support and risk management. The ranking is valid for two years.

“We are delighted at the substantial increase seen in Dubai SME100 applications compared to 2011. It shows the level of interest in the ranking and its growing market recognition. We hope that more SMEs will apply for the ranking as it will help them gain greater value in the market, as demonstrated by the 2011 batch of Dubai SME100 companies,” Dubai SME CEO Abdul Baset Al Janahi said.

 

 

Source: Khaleej Times

Oil prices up in Asia after upbeat US jobs data

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: June 12, 2013 , ,

Oil prices rose in Asian trade Monday as moderate growth in new jobs in the United States raised hopes about a pick-up in demand in the world’s biggest crude consumer, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in July, gained five cents to $96.08 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for July added three cents to $104.59 in the afternoon.

“At this moment, the crude market is driven by the positive sentiment about job creation in the United States, which points towards a growing economy,” Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Singapore, said.

US Labour Department figures released Friday showed 175,000 jobs were generated in May, despite worries that huge government spending cuts would lead to a slowdown in hiring.

The numbers for May were a firm gain from April’s 149,000 rise, though still below the 193,000-a-month January-April average.

The jobs data, which came after several lacklustre US economic reports last week, also boosted hopes the Fed will hold off any moves to rein in its monetary easing programme any time soon.

 

 

Source: Khaleej Times

Crude Oil Production for ARAMCO 2012

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: June 7, 2013 , , ,

Aramco crude production up to 9.506m barrels in 2012 –

Dubai: State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, saw its average crude production rise to 9.506 million barrels a day in 2012, the highest level in more than three decades, up from 9.067 million barrels a year earlier amid output outages in Libya and Western sanctions against Iranian crude.

Recoverable and proven crude-oil and condensate reserves also increased to 260.2 billion barrels in 2012, compared with 259.7 billion barrels in 2011, Saudi Aramco said in an annual review posted on its website. Exports of crude reached 2.521 billion barrels for the year, or about 6.9 million barrels a day, up from 2.421 billion barrels, or 6.63 million barrels a day in 2011.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has played an important role in the last two years as one of the few countries with enough spare production capacity to respond to market changes.

The kingdom’s highest record output was 9.901 million barrels a day in 1980, when it opened the taps to make up for a sharp fall in Iranian output after its 1979 revolution.

 

 

 

Source: http://gulfnews.com/business/oil-gas/aramco-crude-production-up-to-9-506m-barrels-in-2012-1.1189510

Saudi Arabia Lowering-down crude prices for Asia in July

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: June 7, 2013 , , ,

Singapore/Beijing: Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is expected to reduce the official selling prices (OSP) for most of the grades it sells to Asia in July due to weaker Dubai prices, a Reuters survey showed on Monday.

Saudi Arabia may drop the OSPs for Arab Extra Light and Arab Light by 15 and 45 cents per barrel respectively, while Arab Medium and Arab Heavy could see cuts of 60 and 50 cents, according to the median of estimates from eight refiners, traders and an analyst.

Ample supply of sour crude has depressed the front-month Dubai price, narrowing the prompt inter-month spread in backwardation. In a backwardated market, prompt prices are higher than future months.

Improved gasoil cracks could limit the downside for light grades, Arab Extra Light and Arab Light, while heavier grades such as Arab Medium and Arab Heavy could fall more on weaker fuel oil cracks.

 

 

 

Source: http://gulfnews.com/business/oil-gas/saudi-arabia-may-cut-july-crude-prices-for-asia-1.1192249

Contract $500m to Petrofac Emirates

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: June 7, 2013 , ,

London: Petrofac Ltd (PFC.LN), an international service provider to the oil and gas production and processing industry, said Tuesday Petrofac Emirates, its joint venture with Mubadala Petroleum, has been awarded a $500 million onshore engineering, procurement and construction contract by Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations for expansion of compression facilities at the Bab Field, 150km southwest of Abu Dhabi.

Petrofac Emirates will undertake modifications to three of the existing compressor stations and install a new fourth facility. The scope of work also includes 27 well head facilities, associated gas pipelines, direct gathering and modifications to remote manifold stations. The project will be completed in a phased manner in 30 months when commissioning will start.

Source: http://gulfnews.com/business/oil-gas/petrofac-emirates-wins-500m-contract-1.1192826

Gulf Special – OPEC output rose in May

Posted by: Chemist Posted on: June 7, 2013

London: Opec oil production rose in May as an increase in Saudi Arabian flows more than offset lower Iranian output, a Dow Jones Newswires survey of industry sources and analysts showed on Monday. Crude-oil production from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries averaged 30.575 million barrels a day in May, up 109,000 barrels a day from 30.466 million barrels a day in April.
Iran’s oil output has been hit by mounting sanctions on its exports and production equipment. But “Saudi Arabia increased its output by 125,000 barrels a day to 9.4 million barrels a day ahead of the direct crude burning season and the ramping up,” of the Manifa field, Vienna-based consultancy JBC Energy GmbH said in a note last week.

 

Source: http://gulfnews.com/business/oil-gas/opec-output-rose-in-may-1.1192825