Gulf nations earn record oil profits
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Friday, December 8, 2000
LONDON — After years of decreasing returns, the Gulf Cooperation
Council is expected to earn a windfall from oil revenues.
The six nations of the GCC are expected to nearly double their revenues
from oil in 2000. Oil revenues this year is estimated at $151 billion as
compared to $82 billion in 1999.
The estimates were issued in a report by the Emirates Industrial Bank,
which based its figures on average oil prices and production.
The bank said revenue by OPEC members, excluding Iraq, will rise to $280
billion by the end of the year. Last year, the revenue was $160 billion.
The study said the majority of OPEC producers has reached maximum output
and warned that in March the market will undergo major changes in global
supply and demand. On Thursday, the price of oil in world markets dropped to
$27, the lowest in months.
In a related issue, Algeria plans to increase by 50 percent its oil
output by 2004. The increase would boost the current production of 900,000
barrels a day to 1.4 million barrels.
Analysts said the windfall in revenues has revived defense projects in
Arab oil-rich states. They said major European and U.S. contractors have
launched a marketing drive to sell new weapons to GCC and other states.
One such contractor is the Paris-based Thomson-CSF. The French defense
electronics group announced it was changing its name to Thales, which
reflects such new partners as the Dutch Signaal and Britain's Racal. The
name will be changed on the Paris stock exchange on Dec. 18.
"The company considered that its current identity no longer
satisfactorily represented its reality today," company chairman Denis Ranque
said.
Thales will be a key participant in the Arab defense exhibition, IDEX,
in Abu Dhabi. The next exhibition is scheduled for March 19.
Friday, December 8, 2000
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