Economy

Tokyo aims to strengthen its ties with oil-producing countries to ensure stable energy supplies from the Middle East

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday launched a SR750 million ($200 million) fund for early investment in local and international high-tech companies, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The initiative is part of a strategy announced for the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. It aims to transform research into economically […]

Oil prices soared almost six percent in Asian trade Monday morning after major producers led by Saudi Arabia announced a surprise cut of more than one million barrels per day. The West Texas Intermediate contract jumped 5.74 percent to $80.01 a barrel, while Brent jumped 5.67 percent to $84.42. The move by Saudi Arabia, Iraq, […]

RIYADH: Credit Suisse’s largest shareholder Saudi National Bank has confirmed there is “no impact” on its growth plans or profitability after the troubled Swiss lender was bought out by UBS. The SNB made a SR5.5 billion ($1.4 billion) investment in the bank in November 2022, but as of a month later it only represented 0.5 percent of the […]

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has raised $5.5 billion through its second green bond issuance, it has announced. The sovereign wealth fund will use the money to finance its sustainable investments, in accordance with its Green Finance Framework. The issuance follows PIF’s inaugural green bond in October 2022, the first-ever such financial instrument issued […]

The US Treasury Department in a statement said it imposed sanctions on six Iran-based petrochemical manufacturers

LONDON/DUBAI: An OPEC+ panel endorsed the oil producer group’s current output policy at a meeting on Wednesday, leaving production cuts agreed last year in place amid hopes of higher Chinese demand and uncertain prospects for Russian supply. Ministers from OPEC+ countries — members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and others including Russia […]

TOKYO: Japan remained heavily dependent on Arab crude oil to generate about 30 percent of its energy needs for its economy in December 2022, data showed. In numbers, Arab Petroleum provided 93.2% of the 91.87 million barrels of oil imported by Japan in that month, with 93.2% of that amount, or 85.62 million barrels, coming […]

CAIRO: Egypt has signed a $1.5 billion financing agreement with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corp. to fund its trading, including imports of energy products and essential commodities, CNBC Arabia wrote on Twitter, citing the head of the corporation.  Last year Egypt signed a similar agreement also worth $1.5 billion with the ITFC, which is headquartered in […]

LONDON/SINGAPORE, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Russia remained China’s second-largest source of crude oil in 2022, following repeat top supplier Saudi Arabia, as Chinese refiners snapped up low-cost Russian barrels while Western countries shunned them after the Ukraine crisis. China’s crude oil imports from Russia jumped 8% in 2022 from a year earlier to 86.25 million […]