Abu Dhabi is in talks to store its oil in Japan, the biggest importer of the emirate's crude.
The deal, which would allow the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to establish a crude reserve on Japanese territory, is the latest in a series of steps the emirate and the Asia-Pacific countries that buy most of its oil have been taking to strengthen their political and trade ties, particularly regarding energy.
It could also provide the UAE and Japan with an insurance policy against short-term disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The project has been under discussion since March and is expected to start this autumn, with stocks of oil from ADNOC being stored in a reserve base of Nippon Oil in Kagoshima, southern Japan, the Japanese trade ministry said.
Japan would have the pre-emptive right to buy the crude during times of emergency, it added.
The ministry did not provide details of the volume that Japan was expected to receive from ADNOC.
The agreement "would contribute to enhancing Abu Dhabi's relationship with Asian markets generally and Japan particularly, and guarantee the flow of crude oil supplies to these market in emergencies", according to WAM, the government news agency.
Abu Dhabi has long harboured concerns about the potential for geopolitical turmoil or maritime accidents to disrupt its oil exports by closing the Gulf choke-point through which 40 per cent of the world's seaborne oil shipments pass. The Government has charged the state-owned International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) with building a strategic pipeline from the emirate's biggest onshore oilfields, at Habshan, to an export terminal in Fujairah, on the Arabian Sea.
The Government's concern with safeguarding both its major revenue stream and the continuity of oil supplies to its key customers may have increased with the rise of political tension in Iran, after the controversial presidential election. In a sign that Iranian unrest could spill over into the oil sector, Tehran this week removed a senior oil official, Akbar Torkan, from the position of deputy oil minister for planning. Mr Torkan, a former defence and transport minister, has close political ties with Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful cleric who has broken ranks with the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to Robin Mills, an energy economist based in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, the biggest OPEC oil exporter, previously tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a deal to establish a strategic oil reserve in the US. "It would have remained Saudi oil, but in a safe place," he said.
The UAE has a long-standing relationship with Japan dating back to the 1960s. It is the second-biggest supplier of crude to Japan, after Saudi Arabia. Japan imports more than 800,000 barrels a day of crude from the Emirates, mainly from Abu Dhabi.
In January, Abu Dhabi granted a 20-year extension of an offshore oil concession to a Japanese consortium led by Cosmo Oil, a refining company in which IPIC holds a 20 per cent stake. In the same month, the UAE and Japan signed an agreement for peaceful nuclear co-operation.
@Email:tcarlisle@thenational.ae
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Sunday's games
All times UAE:
Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace, 4pm
Manchester City v Arsenal, 6.15pm
Everton v Watford, 8.30pm
Chelsea v Manchester United, 8.30pm
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The Uefa Awards winners
Uefa Men's Player of the Year: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Uefa Women's Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze (Lyon)
Best players of the 2018/19 Uefa Champions League
Goalkeeper: Alisson (Liverpool)
Defender: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Midfielder: Frenkie de Jong (Ajax)
Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Uefa President's Award: Eric Cantona
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
The%20trailblazers
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Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
'Lost in Space'
Creators: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Irwin Allen
Stars: Molly Parker, Toby Stephens, Maxwell Jenkins
Rating: 4/5
All the Money in the World
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Charlie Plummer, Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer
Four stars
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Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final
Esperance de Tunis 0
Al Ain 3 (Ahmed 02’, El Shahat 17’, Al Ahbabi 60’)
Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
- 1st Test India won by 304 runs at Galle
- 2nd Test Thursday-Monday at Colombo
- 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
THE%20JERSEYS
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Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
Spare
Profile
Company name: Spare
Started: March 2018
Co-founders: Dalal Alrayes and Saurabh Shah
Based: UAE
Sector: FinTech
Investment: Own savings. Going for first round of fund-raising in March 2019
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
FORSPOKEN
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Starfield
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