BASRA: Iraq has launched the third and final phase of work to expand its southern Halfaya oil field, aiming to double its output capacity in 2018 to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), a state-run oil company said.
Additional facilities to separate crude oil from associated natural gas will be set up as part of Halfaya’s expansion, Adnan Noshi, head of Maysan Oil Co., which oversees oil fields in Maysan province, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Halfaya, operated by PetroChina, is Maysan Oil’s largest field, producing 200,000 of the company’s total output of 380,000 bpd, Noshi said.
Expansion at Halfaya should raise Maysan’s overall output to nearly 600,000 bpd in 2018, he said. Iraq plans to increase its oil output capacity to 5 million bpd before the end of the year.
Output stood at more than 4.7 million bpd, Oil Minister Jabar Al-Luaibi said on April 2.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia, Iraq produced at a rate of 4.464 million bpd in March, down by more than 300,000 bpd from late last year. Iraq has reduced its output alongside other oil exporters this year as part of an agreement aimed at boosting crude prices.
Iraq begins expansion of oil field aiming to double output
Iraq begins expansion of oil field aiming to double output
Oil Updates — prices rise as US-China talks counter OPEC supply worries
SINGAPORE: Oil prices climbed on Tuesday as investors awaited the outcome of US-China talks that could pave the way for easing trade tensions and improve fuel demand.
Brent crude futures rose 22 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $67.26 a barrel by 09:45 a.m. Saudi time. US West Texas Intermediate crude was up 18 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $65.47.
On Monday, Brent had risen to $67.19, the highest since April 28, buoyed by the prospect of a US-China trade deal.
US-China trade talks were set to continue for a second day in London as top officials aimed to ease tensions that have expanded from tariffs to rare earth curbs, risking global supply chain disruptions and slower growth.
Prices have recovered as demand concerns have faded with the trade talks between Washington and Beijing and a favourable US jobs report, while there are risks to North American supply due to wildfires in Canada, Goldman Sachs analysts said.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the talks with China were going well and he was “only getting good reports” from his team in London.
A trade deal between the US and China could support the global economic outlook and boost demand for commodities including oil.
Elsewhere, Iran said it would soon hand a counter-proposal for a nuclear deal to the US in response to a US offer that Tehran deems “unacceptable,” while Trump made clear that the two sides remained at odds over whether the country would be allowed to continue enriching uranium on Iranian soil.
Iran is the third-largest producer among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and any easing of US sanctions on Iran would allow it to export more oil, weighing on global crude prices.
Meanwhile, a Reuters survey found that OPEC oil output rose in May, although the increase was limited as Iraq pumped below target to compensate for earlier overproduction and Saudi Arabia and the UAE made smaller hikes than allowed.
OPEC+, which pumps about half of the world’s oil and includes OPEC members and allies such as Russia, is accelerating its plan to unwind its most recent layer of output cuts.
“The prospect of further hikes in OPEC supply continues to hang over the market,” Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ, said in a note.
“A permanent shift to a market driven strategy (in OPEC) would push the oil market into a sizeable surplus in H2 2025 and almost surely lead to lower oil prices.”
UAE shares end higher as outcome of US-China trade talks awaited
LONDON: Stock markets in the UAE ended higher on Monday, in step with Asian peers, as investors awaited the outcome of US-China trade talks in London in the hope that a deal could boost the global economic outlook.
Top US and Chinese officials will sit down in London on Monday for talks aimed at defusing the high-stakes trade dispute between the two super powers that has widened to export controls over goods and components critical to global supply chains.
Dubai’s benchmark index hit its highest levels since 2008 and settled up 1 percent, with almost all sectors in positive territory.
Tolls operator Salik Company gained 2.3 percent and Deyaar Development surged 14.6 percent.
In Abu Dhabi, the index was up for a third straight session and gained 0.1 percent, lifted by a 1.6 percent rise in blue-chip developer Aldar Properties and a 1.8 percent advance in Abu Dhabi’s flagship energy firm Abu Dhabi National Energy Company.
Most stock markets in the Gulf and Egypt including Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait are closed on Monday due to a public holiday.
Saudi commercial bank profits jump 16% in April, topping $2bn before zakat, tax
- Year-to-date earnings reached SR32.97 billion, an annual rise of 20%
- Banks getting balance sheets ready for next investment wave
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s banking sector extended its winning streak in April, posting SR7.77 billion ($2.07 billion) in pre-zakat and tax profits, a 16 percent increase compared to the same month last year.
According to the Saudi Central Bank, also known as SAMA, this brought year-to-date earnings to SR32.97 billion, an annual rise of 20 percent, keeping the Kingdom firmly on course for another record-breaking period.
The sustained momentum is attributed to a robust mix of state spending on giga-projects, resilient consumer demand, and still-elevated interest rates.
Financing volumes continue to climb, driven primarily by corporate borrowers across a growing range of industries, including manufacturing, utilities, insurance, and private education.
Contractors are also racing to secure long-term credit for giga-projects such as NEOM, Diriyah, and the Jafurah gas field.
A wider Gulf picture
Strong as those local figures are, the broader region is also gaining momentum. A Kamco Invest report released in May showed that Gulf banks collectively earned a record $15.6 billion in the first quarter of 2025, an 8.6 percent increase from a year earlier.
Financial institutions in the UAE posted the largest absolute increase, adding $639.6 million, while Saudi lenders recorded the fastest annual growth at 17.2 percent.
Kamco added that fee income is rising, costs are under control, and loan-loss provisions fell sharply during the period, cushioning a small dip in net interest income.
Investor appetite is visible in market valuations. Forbes Middle East’s “30 Most Valuable Banks 2025” March list includes 10 Saudi lenders with a combined market cap of about $269 billion— roughly one-third of the entire ranking.
Al Rajhi Bank led the pack at $105.6 billion, with Saudi National Bank following at $54.7 billion.
Global Finance named Saudi Awwal Bank the Kingdom’s best lender in its May “World’s Best Banks in the Middle East 2025” release, highlighting its HSBC-backed mobile app upgrades, Visa Direct payments, and one-stop small and medium-sized enterprises lending platform.
Cleaning the books and raising cash
Banks are also getting balance sheets ready for the next investment wave.
Bloomberg reported in March that lenders are exploring sales of older non-performing loans to specialist investors to free up capital for upcoming mega project drawdowns.
They’re also tapping capital markets. By June, they had issued over $5.6 billion in Additional Tier-1 bonds, already a full-year record and the world’s second-largest AT1 issuance in 2025, according to Bloomberg.
The spree includes Al Rajhi Bank’s $1.25 billion deal in April, Banque Saudi Fransi’s $650 million perpetual at 6.375 percent in May, Saudi Awwal Bank’s $650 million inaugural issue, and Alinma Bank’s $500 million of sustainable sukuk, all heavily oversubscribed.
By tapping eager investors now, while margins remain healthy and global demand for Gulf paper is strong, lenders are bulking up capital buffers and keeping loan-to-deposit ratios in check. That leaves them better prepared to fund the fast-rising credit needs of projects like NEOM and Diriyah without tripping liquidity alarms later in the year.
Fintech role
Fintech is reshaping Saudi banking from the ground up. The Saudi Central Bank’s Open Banking Framework — most recently updated in September to cover payment-initiation services — sets common technical rules that let lenders and start-ups plug their systems together safely and at speed.
Speaking at the inaugural 24 Fintech conference in September, Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan revealed that the Kingdom had licensed 224 fintech firms by the second quarter of 2024, up from fewer than 100 just three years earlier.
One of the newest players is Riyadh-based Stitch, which closed a $10 million seed round on May 28. The company offers a single set of application-programming interfaces that lets banks, fintechs and even non-financial brands bolt on real-time payments and open-banking functions far faster than older systems.
Early adopters already include Lulu Exchange and point-of-sale platform Foodics. The founders say the fresh cash will go toward doubling the engineering team and expanding the product suite.
Looking ahead
Riyad Capital’s first-quarter preview, released in April, expects another double-digit profit rise this year, about SR19 billion for the listed banks it tracks, as loan growth stays strong and rate cuts arrive slowly.
S&P Global, in its Saudi Arabia Banking Sector Outlook 2025 report, says a 10 percent increase in lending should outweigh a 20- to 30-basis-point dip in margins, keeping sector returns on assets near 2.1 percent to 2.2 percent.
Funding is the main watchpoint. Moody’s shifted its system outlook to stable on Feb. 25, saying strong credit growth is tightening liquidity, but capital buffers remain solid.
For now, asset-quality risks remain low. S&P expects non-performing loans to edge up to just 1.7 percent by the end of 2025, while loan-loss provisions are projected to stay around 50 to 60 basis points. Banks’ total capital ratios, hovering near 19 percent, provide a solid buffer to absorb potential shocks from falling oil prices or rising private-sector leverage.
Saudi lenders are still the region’s earnings workhorse. Profits are rising, market values are high, and fresh money — from bond buyers to venture capitalists — is flowing in. If they can keep gathering deposits quickly enough to fund a fast-growing loan book, the Kingdom’s banks look set to stay ahead of their Gulf neighbors in both profit and ambition well into next year.
Saudi carrier flynas to expand operations across 4 hubs, official says
- Hubs include Riyadh, Jeddah, Madinah, and Dammam as part of growth plan
- Carrier expanded its summer schedule, launching four new international destinations
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s low-cost carrier flynas is set to expand operations across its four main hubs — Riyadh, Jeddah, Madinah, and Dammam — as part of an ambitious growth plan, according to a top official.
In an interview with Al-Eqtisadiah, Waleed Ahmed, the company’s official spokesperson, said that flynas holds the largest aircraft order in the Kingdom and one of the biggest in the Middle East, with a total of 280 aircraft set to be received.
This follows a major deal signed in July with Airbus to acquire 160 new aircraft, including 30 wide-body A330neo and 130 single-aisle jets across A320neo, A321neo, and A321LR models.
The airline has seen a sharp rise in passenger traffic, with volumes climbing from around 11 million in 2023 to more than 14.7 million in 2024, reflecting the low-cost carrier’s rapid expansion in line with Saudi Arabia’s push to position itself as a leading global hub for tourism and business.
“These numbers reinforce the company’s role in supporting Vision 2030, which aims to increase the number of passengers to 330 million and attract more than 150 million international passengers by that year.” Ahmed said, as quoted by Al-Eqtisadiah.
He also highlighted that, as part of its ambitious strategic plan, flynas has expanded its summer schedule by launching four new destinations for the first time: Krakow in Poland, Geneva in Switzerland, Milan in Italy, and Rize in Turkiye, in addition to its usual summer routes.
Last week, flynas finalized its initial public offering at SR80 ($21) per share — the top of its indicated price range — following strong demand from both institutional and retail investors.
The pricing values the airline at an estimated market capitalization of SR13.6 billion at listing.
The offering followed the company’s announcement last month of its intention to float 30 percent of its share capital on the Saudi Exchange, making flynas the first airline in the Kingdom to go public and the first Gulf airline IPO in nearly two decades.
In line with its ongoing fleet expansion, flynas recently took delivery of its fourth Airbus A320neo of 2025, bringing the total number of A320neo aircraft in its all-Airbus fleet to 57. The current fleet includes 63 aircraft — 57 A320neo, four A320ceo, and two A330neo wide-body jets.
Al-Habtoor Group chairman to lead high-level delegation to Syria, exploring investment opportunities
Al-Habtoor Group chairman to lead high-level delegation to Syria, exploring investment opportunities
- Group said visit reflects its ongoing strategy to explore new cooperation with Syrian government
- Khalaf Al-Habtoor to visit Syria in coming days
RIYADH: The head of Dubai conglomerate Al-Habtoor Group is set to visit Syria with a delegation of senior executives to discuss potential investments and partnerships with the new government.
According to a statement, the visit reflects the group’s ongoing strategy to explore new avenues of cooperation with the Syrian government and to assess potential investment opportunities across multiple sectors.
It added that the trip stems from “a firm belief” in Syria’s ability to recover its strength and regional standing and the importance of public-private partnerships in the country’s rebuilding phase.
The move comes as Syria’s transitional government, led by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, pushes economic reforms to attract foreign investment, including privatizations, relaxed trade policies, and major infrastructure deals.
Speaking ahead of the trip, the group’s Chairman Khalaf Ahmad Al-Habtoor said: “Syria is a country rich in culture, history, and capable people. We believe in its future potential and are eager to play a role in its revival through meaningful projects that generate employment.”
He added: “We look to Syria with great confidence. Its people possess the energy and resilience needed to shape a strong and prosperous future. As an Arab group with deep regional roots, we consider it both a moral and economic responsibility to stand as a partner in rebuilding stable and thriving societies.”
Al-Habtoor Group, a UAE-based multinational with a strong presence in the hospitality, real estate, and automotive industries, has a history of large-scale investments in the Middle East. The move follows the organization’s recent withdrawal from Lebanon, where it cited instability as a barrier to business.
