Author: Rigs & Barge World

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has delivered a severe blow to Qatar’s economy, with oil and gas exports reduced to a trickle. The deficit nearly doubled to $2.8bn in Q1 and will widen again in Q2, but Doha can still draw on its considerable reserves. Qatar released its Q1 fiscal results on 26 May, providing a first glimpse into the economic impact of the Middle East conflict. With the disruption covering only one month of the quarter, the figures are likely to understate the damage. Yet the deficit still nearly doubled from $1.5bn in Q4 to $2.8bn (see…

Oil prices in last week of May, 2026Oil prices continue to fluctuate in direct response to President Trump’s statements on Truth Social, creating a pattern of volatility since the current conflict began on February 28, 2026. When the President suggests potential breakthroughs in negotiations with Iran, prices tend to drop, even if Tehran subsequently dismisses the claims. Conversely, threats of escalation consistently drive prices higher. Critics argue these communications are strategically timed to influence both oil markets and broader stock market rallies.A recent example occurred last Friday, when the President claimed to be entering the Situation Room to finalize an agreement…

Israel’s NewMed Energy (45.34%) and Ratio Energies (15%), junior partners at the 22.4tcf Leviathan gas field, announced on 20 May that they had signed a long-term gas supply agreement with local power producer Dalia Energies. Unlike all previous deals for Leviathan gas, the agreement does not include field operator Chevron (39.66%). The agreement marks the first independently marketed gas sales deal from an Israeli gas field and is estimated to be worth $6.7bn. Deliveries under the 20-year contract are due to start in January 2030. (CONTINUED – 944 WORDS) Read this article for free Gain access to over 60-years of…

Eni has made its largest gas discovery in Egypt’s Western Desert in 15 years following successful drilling of the South Bostan-1X well. The well encountered multiple sandstone and limestone reservoirs with a combined net pay thickness of around 400 feet, with preliminary estimates indicating resources of 330bcf of gas and 10mn barrels of condensate and crude, according to the Agiba joint operating company of Eni and state firm EGPC. Although Eni’s primary Egyptian operations are in the offshore Mediterranean region, it retains a significant footprint in the Western Desert through Agiba. (CONTINUED – 215 WORDS) Read this article for free…

Abdulla bin Hamad al-Attiyah, Qatar’s former oil minister affectionately known as the “godfather of LNG,” died on 27 May from complications arising from a double lung transplant he had undergone more than a decade ago. A former deputy prime minister, Mr Attiyah had stepped back from the political limelight in 2015 after more than 20 years of service (MEES, 20 March 2015), during which he oversaw the emirate’s transformation into one of the wealthiest nations on earth. When he assumed the role of minister in 1992, Qatar’s economy was in crisis. Oil prices had fallen below $10/barrel, and the country’s…

Recent Internal communications reveal that major tech companies are being forced to deal with massive bills as they turn to AI agents for coding and efficiency.Take Microsoft, for example. Employees increasingly turned to advanced AI models for every possible task. The catch? These AI agents charge based on the number of tokens used for a specific job. When scaled across a massive organization, the costs quickly multiply. To curb these spiraling expenses, Microsoft has urged its developers to rely more heavily on its own in-house tools like GitHub Copilot rather than external models. Unchecked reliance on these models has, in some…

Japanese engineering firm Chiyoda will restart work on QatarEnergy’s 32mn t/y North Field East (NFE) LNG expansion project. Work was halted as a result of the insecurity around the Iran War which included an 18 March attack on existing LNG trains at Ras Laffan (MEES, 20 March). But employees are returning to Qatar to work on site under added safety precautions, according to Japan-based weekly Nikkei Asia. Chiyoda and France’s Technip Energies were awarded the EPC contract back in 2021 under the Chiyoda Technip Joint Venture (MEES, 12 February 2021). Since then, the commissioning of the first trains at the…

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza signed in October 2025 is near breaking point, with repeated attacks since then resulting in the deaths of at least 738 Palestinians (according to the Hamas-run health ministry) and five IDF soldiers (official IDF figures), and little progress has been made on key terms of post-conflict transition. The agreement called for Israel to withdraw to an initial ‘yellow line’ to be followed by further withdrawals (MEES, 17 October 2025). But this week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel has been advancing beyond this line, and has gone from controlling 53%…

Iraq’s new government plans to restart commercial talks with ExxonMobil and Chevron next month regarding high profile upstream investments. Talks are slated to resume after the Eid holidays that end on 30 May. Continued interest from the two US majors will be seen as a welcome vote of confidence in Iraq’s upstream sector, which has been battered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz since early March. The lack of export options has meant widespread upstream shutdowns, with Iraqi production dropping by 2.76mn b/d between February and April. The previous government late last year signed preliminary agreements with Exxon…

Oman’s upstream sector has been unaffected by the conflict that has forced other producers in the Gulf region to shut in as much as 13mn b/d of crude oil production. Because Oman is situated outside of the Strait of Hormuz, crude oil exports have not been affected while production rose to a two-year high of 1.053mn b/d in the first month of the conflict. Production capacity is well below that of other regional producers such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the UAE, while more challenging geology means higher production costs. However, the conflict has underscored Oman’s geopolitical stability, which could…