The new Sharjah gas exploration joint venture between the local enterprise Crescent Petroleum and Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil giant, has been just three months in the making, demonstrating that red tape can be cut quickly when regional priorities are at stake.
Talks between the seemingly odd couple began in early March, following a flurry of trade missions between the UAE and Russia, Badr Jafar, the executive director of the privately owned Crescent, said yesterday in an exclusive interview.
They moved quickly.
"We were pleasantly surprised," said Mr Jafar. "It was gratifying to discover we shared not only values but also an ability to move forward quickly to achieve specific goals."
Beyond pure profit, the partnership's main goal is to increase the natural gas output of a region where demand is running well ahead of supply.
Its first project is the venture announced on Saturday to drill gas prospects in Sharjah and develop any discoveries that turn out to be commercially viable.
"There is a huge requirement for gas in the Middle East," Mr Jafar said. "Previously, people thought of the region as a source of gas exports but the Middle East is growing as a huge gas market in itself."
A result of this largely unforeseen growth has been power cuts in Sharjah and other Gulf states. Most have been left scrambling for gas to fuel power stations.
For many, the only immediate alternative is imported diesel, which is expensive and contributes significantly more than gas to local air pollution.
New projects such as the Crescent-Rosneft joint venture could help matters but only if more private-sector investors become involved.
In the past, potential investors have been sceptical of the profit potential due to the regional prevalence of low domestic gas prices that are fixed and heavily subsidised by governments. But Mr Jafar sees signs of change.
"There is an increasing trend in the Gulf and Middle East to move towards market pricing," he said. "If you don't do that, you have no investment in developing reserves and you have a huge drain on government finances which greatly impacts economic development."
Nevertheless, even at Sharjah's current gas prices, development of new gas discoveries in the emirate could be profitable, Mr Jafar believes.
"We've done our economics based on the prevailing gas prices and they satisfied our hurdles for economic investment," he said. "Based on estimated reserves, the project is economic."
The discovery of gas rich in condensate would be a bonus because the ultra-light oil could be stripped from the gas and sold separately at international prices.
But the Sharjah project is not dependent on condensates, Mr Jafar added.
For Rosneft, gas development opportunities in the Gulf may be more attractive than in Russia, he suggested.
Gazprom, the biggest Russian gas producer, has long depended on exporting Russian gas for profits.
That is because Moscow also subsidises domestic gas supplies and the practice may be even more entrenched in the former Soviet country than in the Middle East.
In most Gulf states, the imbalance between gas supply and demand creates more urgency than in Russia to remove subsidies, Mr Jafar said. "Russia is a major net exporter of gas, while most Gulf countries are net importers," he said. "If Russia moved towards market prices there would be an incredible move in investment to develop even more reserves but it's not urgent."
Crescent does not publish financial statements or details of its oil and gas reserves and production but with 320 full-time managers at its Sharjah headquarters supervising a fluctuating workforce in the field that typically runs to thousands, it is clearly no minnow.
"We're not a small company but we're not a major yet," Mr Jafar said.
Crescent is eyeing major regional oil and gas opportunities that are for the moment the preserve of the world's biggest petroleum companies. They include potential projects in southern Iraq, which is believed to hold the world's biggest concentration of undeveloped conventional oil and gas resources. Iraq is also the ancestral home of Mr Jafar's family.
That is the type of opportunity that Crescent and Rosneft might one day jointly pursue.
But first, the partners want to see a stable legal framework in place for Iraqi oil and gas contracts - a pending issue that, according to Mr Jafar, "unfortunately has been heavily politicised to the detriment of the people".
"In the interim, we will discuss the potential. There isn't anything immediate, unfortunately," he said.
When the time comes, Crescent and Rosneft would be ready to pounce.
In addition to its 40 years of operating experience in the Middle East, Crescent's competitive edge comes from "very fast decision-making", Mr Jafar said.
@Email:tcarlisle@thenational.ae
Notable cricketers and political careers
- India: Kirti Azad, Navjot Sidhu and Gautam Gambhir (rumoured)
- Pakistan: Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi (rumoured)
- Sri Lanka: Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan (rumoured)
- Bangladesh (Mashrafe Mortaza)
Specs
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Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
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Company%20Profile
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The biog
Fast facts on Neil Armstrong’s personal life:
- Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, Ohio
- He earned his private pilot’s license when he was 16 – he could fly before he could drive
- There was tragedy in his married life: Neil and Janet Armstrong’s daughter Karen died at the age of two in 1962 after suffering a brain tumour. She was the couple’s only daughter. Their two sons, Rick and Mark, consulted on the film
- After Armstrong departed Nasa, he bought a farm in the town of Lebanon, Ohio, in 1971 – its airstrip allowed him to tap back into his love of flying
- In 1994, Janet divorced Neil after 38 years of marriage. Two years earlier, Neil met Carol Knight, who became his second wife in 1994
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MATCH INFO
AC Milan v Inter, Sunday, 6pm (UAE), match live on BeIN Sports
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Gulf rugby
Who’s won what so far in 2018/19
Western Clubs Champions League: Bahrain
Dubai Rugby Sevens: Dubai Hurricanes
West Asia Premiership: Bahrain
What’s left
UAE Conference
March 22, play-offs:
Dubai Hurricanes II v Al Ain Amblers, Jebel Ali Dragons II v Dubai Tigers
March 29, final
UAE Premiership
March 22, play-offs:
Dubai Exiles v Jebel Ali Dragons, Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Dubai Hurricanes
March 29, final
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
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
