4/25/08
$120 - a new and worrying number
During the rush of the Pennsylvania primary, a $100 billion mortgage bailout in London and the global wake up call of higher food prices, oil prices quietly nudged up against a new threshold of $120 a barrel.
The unlikely source for news this week came out of Rome, one of the world’s most beautiful cities and a place I fortunately called home for four years. This week producing and consuming nation representatives gathered for the International Energy Forum, where they debated what future demand may be during a period of economic slowdown. The 13 members of OPEC, ranging from Indonesia in the east, Venezuela in the west and giant Saudi Arabia in between, provide about 30 million barrels of today’s daily demand of roughly 85 million barrels. Of the 13 countries, oil executives and analysts say only Saudi Arabia has the excess capacity to meet the needs with China and India still growing at 8 percent or more. However, if one reads between the lines of the comments coming out of the eternal city this week, there has not been a rush by the Kingdom or other players from OPEC to invest in developing excess capacity. If you can be paid nearly $120 a barrel for your existing production or $80 if you put more oil on the market, what would you choose? Saudi Arabia is producing roughly 9 million barrels a day. At $120 dollars, it will make over $1 billion dollars a day; at $80 dollars subtract roughly about 30 percent of that. That, as they say in the U.S., is some serious money. Knowing that simple math, G8 consuming nations have increased the calls for more production to the market. It is not as easy as basically opening the taps a bit more. Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani who was a guest on Marketplace Middle East recently, put today’s excess capacity within the cartel at 300,000 to 500,000 barrels a day. That provides some cushion, but will not reverse the rise in prices over the past two years, for two key reasons. While in Dubai I had a chance to talk to Martin Lovegrove Vice Chairman of Oil & Gas at Standard Chartered bank about the ingredients of the recent surge. Lovegrove broke down current demand in the market for oil overall. He reckons that $20 of the current price is a result of a 38 percent drop in the dollar since 2003. Another $20 is based on a surge of investment fund capital riding the wave of commodity prices. With equity and now real estate prices softening, the hot money has gone into, and will likely stay, in oil. So $40 of the roughly $120 we see today has nothing to do with supply and demand. OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri tried to assuage leaders this week in Rome when he confidently stated that the cartel will be able to add another five million barrels a day to the market in the next five years. While politicians are looking to calm consumer jitters, Badri did not seem to share their sense of urgency and said, “There are some problems, maybe a delay of a year or two … but it will come. I am not disturbed at all. I would like to assure the world that all the countries are investing.” To do so, they are committing to spending $160 billion on infrastructure to expand production. That is about half of what Saudi Arabia takes in each year at today’s prices. The investment certainly won’t break their bank or others within the OPEC group of nations and as we now know from OPEC’s secretary general, will not erase the new target for oil traders of $120 dollars a barrel. 4/17/08
From Dubai to Doha
We took our programme on the road again this week to explore Dubai’s next wave business strategy.
There is a rich history of trading in Dubai which stretches back to the 1850s. It is a mindset which is at the heart of the Emirate’s business plan for the next quarter century. Take DP World, the trading division of Dubai World. It has forged 23 different deals stretching from China to Djibouti. This allows Dubai Inc. to place a corporate flag in each country, planting the seeds for future relationships and growth. This sounds simple, but it may be the key differentiating factor for the United Arab Emirates vis-à-vis its competitors in the Gulf. This week I had a chance to take an in-depth look at some of the building blocks for the future and to take in some high-level analysis from some of the top political and business leaders in the region at two forums -- the Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade and Business Week’s Middle East-China Leadership Forum in Dubai. Pieces of the Puzzle Over the weekend, I sat in a few business plan briefings at three divisions of Tatweer, itself a division of Dubai Holdings, the key development vehicle of the government. Dubai Land, Dubai Healthcare City and Dubai Industrial City fit into the next stage of growth. To be candid, it was hard to appreciate the scale of these projects. You might have seen the brands on the many flags, which flutter in the Arabian winds, but to see where they fit into the puzzle of this economy is quite a different perspective. I could write a column on each of the projects, but simply put, one represents sizable theme parks and residential real estate; another is a new approach to integrated healthcare which is sorely needed and the final piece an industrial hub to support the growth which is underway. The hotel, residential and retail hub Bawadi according to its Executive Chairman Saeed Al Muntafiq is worth $53 billion alone. The industrial city is under construction; 55 square kilometres of real estate which has logistics facilities, land available for global and regional manufacturers to lease space and even low income housing for laborers. This is to address one of the thorniest issues facing the governments in the region; that is to take care of the thousands of workers, primarily from South Asia who have been imported into the U.A.E. If you take a step back, one can see the industrial logic of all the blueprints and buildings to come. Hotels, golf courses and villas are built to attract visitors and residents. The largest airport in the world is being constructed to bring tourists in and the industrial city will be there to support light industry which has expanded to accommodate the growth. The division managers of these projects smile when asked about the original feasibility studies presented by consultants for all these projects. They were rejected, I am told, by the Ruler of Dubai and now Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. It is obvious after this week in the region that the bar is set very high. Dubai seems to be sprinting to stay ahead of its Gulf neighbors who are now constructing their own visions of the future. On the final approach after a 40 minute flight to Doha from Dubai, one can witness how Qataris plan to expand to more than a million people. The Pearl is the giant project on the cards. Like Dubai, Qatar realizes that trained workers and graduates will be needed to fill the buildings and map out the strategies for the future. The first graduates from the Qatar Foundation campus of four university programs with links to the West will commence May 6th. This is encouraging. New Culture of Globalization While the small but wealthy Gulf emirates expand, the sizable players of the Middle East are benefiting from what Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan called “the new culture of globalization.” Since coming to power in 2003, foreign direct investment has surged from $1 billion to $22 billion. Turkey has not only a large population, but is able to look East and West as an export hub for Europe and the Middle East. Egypt is enjoying similar growth in FDI. This is the benefit of greater integration. U.A.E. officials say they mapped out their blueprints not on the 40 million people of the Gulf, but the 310 million people of the Greater Middle East Free Trade Area or GAFTA. They have tapped into years of pent up demand, especially after many residents repatriated their savings and assets after 9/11. While consultants may want to be conservative with their project studies presented to their clients in the Gulf, the leaders in the region have no plans to heed that advice. With oil at $110 or more per barrel, it is full steam ahead. 4/10/08
Food Inflation: From Chronic to Acute
The scenes seem to be from a different era; men and women scramble for what little bread there is left to buy. President Hosni Mubarak of 2. The rush to bio-fuels has created an artificial shortage for a basket of grains 3. Hedge fund investors have piled money into commodities, driving prices up even further 4/3/08
The East-East Economic Axis
Representatives from sovereign funds GIC and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt and agreed on the principles that will govern best practices for investments. This process will wind its way through organizations like the International Monetary Fund and the O.E.C.D., the |
ABOUT THIS BLOG
John Defterios’ blog accompanies the weekly business program, Marketplace Middle East (MME) that is dedicated to the latest financial news from the Middle East. As MME anchor, John Defterios talks to the people in the know, finding out their opinions on the big business moves in the region, he provides his views via this weekly blog. We hope you will join the discussion around the issues raised.
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