Oman sets up hydrogen alliance
Oman has established a national hydrogen alliance to develop an industry for the production, transport and use of the fuel that Gulf states have been increasingly looking to as a business to meet the worldwide demand for clean fuels.
Oman’s alliance consists of 13 institutions from the public and private sectors, including government agencies, oil and gas operators, educational and research institutions and ports, state news agency ONA said on Thursday.
The project is part of Oman’s energy diversification aims within its Oman Vision 2040 economic transformation plan.
In May, Oman announced a consortium including state-owned oil firm OQ would develop a solar- and wind-energy powered project capable of producing millions of tonnes of zero-carbon green hydrogen per year. read more
So-called green hydrogen, created by splitting water into its two components using electricity from renewable energy sources, is increasingly viewed as a fuel to replace fossil fuels and their high carbon emissions.
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Kuwait’s economic makeover under threat
Thousands of small and medium Kuwaiti businesses could go to the wall after being walloped by the pandemic, potentially torpedoing a private sector central to the country’s efforts to remake its unorthodox and oil-pumped economy.
The government, which spends more than half of its annual budget on the salaries of Kuwaitis who mostly work in state jobs, has encouraged citizens to set up their own businesses over the past decade in an effort to engineer a private sector.
The aim has been to ease state finances, reduce reliance on the imported labour of expatriates who make up most of the population, and also help Kuwait diversify away from oil, which brings in 90 percent of state revenues but is looking increasingly precarious as the world moves away from fossil fuels.
Yet much of that decade of work to foster small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which involved about $500 million of state financing, has been undone by the COVID-19 outbreak, according to many industry experts.
Most of the 25,000 to 30,000 SMEs in Kuwait were operating with limited cash reserves even before the pandemic struck and were unable to weather a halt in operations due to lockdowns, investment management firm Markaz said.
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Contractors used by us companies in Afghanistan stuck in Dubai
Some of the foreign contractors who powered the logistics of the United States’ long war in Afghanistan have found themselves stranded on an unending layover in Dubai without a way to get home. After nearly two decades, the rapid US withdrawal from Afghanistan has upended the lives of thousands of private security contractors from some of the world’s poorest countries – not the hired guns, but the hired hands who serviced the US war effort. For years, they toiled in the shadows as cleaners, cooks, construction workers, servers and technicians on sprawling US bases.
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Saudi and Qatar stocks tread water amid delta fears
Saudi Arabia’s and Qatar’s stocks gave up early gains to close flat on Thursday, amid fears about the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus weighing on sentiment. The GCC stock markets were impacted by fears of an economic slowdown as China takes steps to limit the spread of the coronavirus, said Daniel Takieddine, senior market analyst at FXPrimus.
“The second-largest economy has seen significant increases in COVID cases, which increased concerns about an economic slowdown and disruptions of the global trade network.”
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UAE business cannot treat employee mental health
Corporations are increasingly taking the lead on employee wellbeing, with structured programmes that aim to support both mental and physical health. Among companies in the US with 200 or more employees, 81 percent offered some type of workplace wellness programme in 2020, up from 70 percent in 2008, according to a Employer Health Benefit Survey by Kaiser Family Foundation. In the UAE, the federal government has announced that enhanced wellbeing is a key long-term policy priority. The Cabinet recently adopted the National Strategy for Wellbeing 2031, which aims to make the UAE a world leader in overall quality of life. Through organised activities that focus on exercise and diet, corporate wellness programmes aim to encourage individuals to lead more active and healthy lifestyles that help prevent illness. The activities typically offered include gym memberships, access to online programs, quit smoking sessions and group exercise classes. Many companies are also revisiting traditional meal and snacking options with healthier food and drink options.
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OPEC upbeat on oil demand surge as IEA dims outlook
The International Energy Agency on Thursday said oil demand abruptly reversed course in July and is set to proceed more slowly due to the spread of Covid-19 Delta variant, but oil producers’ group stuck to its earlier prediction of a strong recovery in 2021 and further growth next year.
In a sharp contrast to Opec’s upbeat view, the Paris-based IEA drastically downgraded demand surge for the second half of 2021 as new Covid-19 restrictions imposed in several major oil consuming countries, particularly in Asia, look set to reduce mobility and oil use.
“We now estimate that demand fell in July as the rapid spread of the Delta variant undermined deliveries in China, Indonesia and other parts of Asia,” it said in its monthly oil report.
The IEA put the demand slump last month at 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) and predicted growth would be half a million bpd lower in the second half of the year compared to its estimate last month, noting some changes were due to revisions in data.
“But the scale could tilt back to surplus in 2022 if OPEC+ continues to undo its cuts and producers not taking part in the deal ramp up in response to higher prices,” it said.