Economy
Saudi Arabia's Aramco, the world's largest energy company, has discovered a new gas field in the Red Sea, 26km north-west of the port of Daba, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday quoting the oil minister.
Gas flowed at the rate of 10m cubic feet a day at a test well at the depth of 17,700 ft, Ali al-Naimi was quoted as saying.
Naimi said more wells would be drilled in order to evaluate the size of the field.
Thousands of Lebanese school teachers and civil servants have begun a one-day strike to press the government and Cabinet to implement a long-awaited salary scale.
Most private and public schools in the country will close as a result of the strikes waged by teachers, demonstration organizers and the Union Coordination Committee said.
“The general strike would be observed in all public and private schools, high schools, institutes and public administrations,” a statement issued by the UCC said.
Brent crude slipped below $114 on Wednesday after a 2 percent jump the previous day, with a cloudy economic outlook offsetting fears about disruptions to Middle East oil supply as a conflict between Turkey and Syria escalated.
A stronger US dollar, as investors shied away from risk on concerns about a slowdown in global growth, also weighed on oil prices, making the commodity more costly for holders of other currencies.
Brent crude had slipped 67 cents to $113.83 a barrel by 0245 GMT, after a 2.4 percent rise on Tuesday to its highest since Sept. 18.
Cyprus is close to short-listing companies bidding for offshore oil and gas contracts in the energy-rich east Mediterranean, officials said Tuesday.
The island has received 15 bids from companies or consortiums for nine offshore blocks rimming the south of the island in an area where a significant natural gas discovery was reported in December 2011.
Israel, Cyprus and Lebanon have reported significant natural gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean region, known as the Levant basin.
Iraq could more than double its current daily oil production by 2020, vastly boosting its economy and helping to bring stability to global energy markets, the International Energy Agency has forecast.
The country's crude oil output could grow to 6.1 million barrels per day (mbpd) in eight years' time from about 3.0 mbpd currently, the IEA said as it unveiled its Iraq Energy Outlook report in London.
The Paris-based IEA added that Iraq stood to gain almost $5.0 trillion (3.85 trillion euros) in revenue from exporting oil up to 2035, as long as the country invested more than $530 billion on raising its energy output.
Emirates Aluminium, a joint venture of Abu Dhabi's Mubadala MUDEV.UL and Dubai Aluminium, has mandated three banks for a bond issue of up to $1 billion, two banking sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
In a separate statement on Tuesday, an Emal spokesman denied the company had named banks for the bond issue.
"EMAL and its shareholders, Dubai Aluminium and Mubadala, have not selected nor mandated any banks for any potential bond," the spokesman said in a text message but declined to be identified.
Egypt hopes to agree a $4.8 billion IMF loan within two weeks of talks set for the end of October, ministers said Tuesday, after long delays caused by political turmoil in the Arab world’s biggest nation.
Egypt urgently needs support to prop up state coffers weakened by a turbulent transition since the popular uprising last year that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
The IMF, which has said a loan agreement could be reached by the end of 2012, wants Egypt to put a program in place to narrow a budget deficit that has mushroomed to 11 percent of gross domestic product since the uprising.
