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Blanchard

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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