Facebook takes small step into cloud storage
Facebook is slowly moving into the cloud.
The social networking giant confirmed yesterday it was rolling out a storage service for users, creeping into the territory of Dropbox, Google and others, which offer free or paid storage of files that can be accessed from a variety of devices. The move could give Facebook, which is launching a massive public offering next week, another service for its 900mn members worldwide. Facebook will limit file sizes to 25 megabytes and will not allow certain items such as music, which could be subject to copyright. Other potentially “malicious” file types will also be excluded. Source: Gulf Times
Qatar buys ‘major’ stake in oil giant Shell
Qatar is ploughing more of its commodity wealth back into
Shell is the operator of the world’s largest gas-to-liquids plant, Pearl GTL, developed under a Production and Sharing Agreement with Qatar Petroleum
the sector with the purchase of a major stake in Royal Dutch Shell while also reportedly eyeing a chunk of Italian oil major ENI.
A Shell spokeswoman confirmed the purchase while declining to detail its size but the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reported earlier that Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund (QIA) was looking at a 3-5% stake.
If Qatar did buy 5%, it would be just ahead of Blackrock, which is currently Shell’s biggest investor with 4.97%, according to Reuters data.
Shell is already an important partner for Qatar, with two big projects in the country. Its $19bn Pearl gas-to-liquids plant 80km north of Doha is the biggest of its kind in the world. It has also partnered with Qatar Petroleum on a big LNG facility.
Shell said last month that the Pearl gas-to-liquids venture would reach full capacity by the middle of the year. The plant, which converts gas to liquid fuels such as kerosene and diesel, began operating last year. Once fully operational, it will be able to convert 1.6bn cubic feet a day of gas into 140,000 barrels a day of liquid fuels such as kerosene and base oil that are normally produced in a refinery. The facility will also make 120,000 barrels a day of condensate and liquid petroleum gas.
Qatar’s massive gas supplies have made it rich, allowing it to create a sovereign wealth fund that has been buying up assets, including stakes in listed companies, around the world.
“We are delighted to welcome the Qatar Investment Authority as a long-term and major shareholder in Shell, and particularly given our excellent strategic relationship with the Qatari state,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
Shell’s London-listed “A” shares rose 1.1% to trade at 20.74 euros by 1526 GMT, against a 0.4% rise in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index.
Eni, whose shares traded up 1.9% at 16.89 euros, had no comment on the MEES report that Qatar was negotiating a stake in it.
Two analysts said the Qatar fund might be interested in buying the ENI stake of around 3.4% that state-controlled finance company CDP could sell to help fund its acquisition of a stake in transmission operator Snam from Eni.
Prime Minister Mario Monti had a meeting with HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in Rome in April. Monti told reporters at the end of that meeting that Qatari institutions had shown interest in long-term investments in Italy.
In Italy investors must inform the market regulator Consob when they buy stakes of more than 2% in a listed company.
A senior executive of the Qatari fund said in April that the financial crisis had restricted investment in commodities and that he expected a supply-demand gap to emerge by 2016 or 2017.
“We like commodities, we like to invest in commodities. Since 2002, the commodity price trend keeps going up,” Qatar Investment Authority Executive Board member Hussain al-Abdulla told reporters.
Qatar Holding, a unit of QIA, said last month that it had increased its stake in French oil group Total to 3% and is undecided on buying more shares.
Qatar signed a deal in April to co-invest $250mn with Barclays’ natural resources private equity investment unit.
QIA has been the most active of the region’s sovereign wealth funds in recent years, deploying profit from its natural gas riches into assets ranging from German sports car maker Porsche to British bank Barclays.
The fund has also been slowly buying into London-listed miner Xstrata recently. Its current holding in Xstrata, which is planning to merge with commodities trader Glencore, is about 7.2%.
Yesterday, the Financial Times reported Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund planned to increase its Xstrata stake to at least 10% as part of a long-held strategy to invest in Glencore, suggesting the state could provide crucial support to the pair’s $90bn merger deal.
Qatar recently increased its stake in Lagardere, the French media-to-aerospace conglomerate, to 12.8%. It said it could raise the holding further and may seek representation on the supervisory board.
Qatar also owns stakes in Volkswagen, Porsche , Iberdrola, Hochtief, Vinci , Veolia, Vivendi, Sainsbury, the London Stock Exchange, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Agricultural Bank of China and Santander Brasil. It owns Harrods outright.
In rare comments last month, a senior official from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund was upbeat on the commodities sector, predicting a supply-demand gap would emerge in 2016 or 2017, pushing prices higher. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Source: Reuters, Gulf Times
Qatar endorses pact on green growth institute
HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, chairman of Administrative Control and Transparency Authority, signed the agreement on behalf of Qatar at the Global Green Growth Summit, in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday.
Describing the GGGI as an important initiative to address the challenge of climate change, al-Attiya stated that it plays a critical role in the collective effort to promote the paradigm of green growth, and ultimately improve the economic, environmental and social conditions of both developing and emerging countries.
Al-Attiya, who is also the incoming president of the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC-COP18), which Qatar is hosting in November and December this year, stressed the importance of institutions like GGGI in advancing climate change discussions.
The agreement will be signed by Qatar on the margins of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio 20), being held from June 20 to 22, at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
With the establishment of the GGGI, the founding member-countries move towards shaping the global knowledge agenda for green growth, a global initiative that will work on identifying and addressing major knowledge gaps in green growth theory and practice.
Qatar’s endorsement of the agreement reflects its willingness to promote green economy strategies and to forge collaborative partnerships with member-states, notably South Korea.
The GGGI will identify areas of opportunity that promote economic growth while increasing overall environmental
sustainability.
It will also help member-countries to work together in designing and implementing initiatives that achieve green growth goals.
By joining the initiative, Qatar aims to play an active role in promoting a more resource-efficient and low carbon economic development while helping developing countries embrace green growth.
This event marks the formal launch of essential international co-operation on testing, exploring, and refining policies and actions on green growth for practical implementation in both developed and developing countries. Present at the initialling ceremony, Fahad bin Mohamed al-Attiya, chairman of the Qatar National Food Security Programme, called upon arid and semi-arid countries to work together to confront the threat of food insecurity on sustainable basis.
In line with the GGGI vision and goals, he welcomed the dry land countries who recently expressed willingness to join the Global Dry Land Alliance (GDLA), a collaborative initiative among dry land areas around the world to take action amid zones vulnerable to agricultural perils and food crisis.
Al-Attiya explained that the GDLA will offer partnership between developed and developing countries with dry lands to harness the best of science and technology to meet the challenges of food and water security as well as environmental sustainability.
During the opening ceremony of the Global Green Growth Summit, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak also highlighted Qatar’s leadership in launching the GDLA.
New research and technical innovation supported by the GDLA would be targeted to the specific conditions of the members.
The knowledge and best practices developed in this way could then be shared widely with dry land countries around the world, particularly those suffering from poverty and hunger.
Members of the GDLA would be dry land countries facing similar challenges, but it would be open to partnerships with other interested countries and with multilateral institutions. Source: Gulf Times
Inflation may rise in Qatar 3% this year
Inflationary pressures will mount in Qatar this year with government spending picking up and recent public sector salary increases raising aggregate demand, a new report said yesterday. According to Samba Financial Group, Qatar may see an inflation rate of 3% in 2012.
Data through March show inflation holding at 1.2% year-on-year, held down by “sustained falls” in the heavily weighted rental component.
Food price increases also remained relatively modest at 3.4% and there was a sharp deceleration in the transport and communications component which dropped to 2% year-on-year in March having averaged 6.4% during 2011.
The latter two factors helped dampen the consumer price index (CPI) excluding rents, which dipped to 3.8% in March (in this index food has a 19.5% weight and transport and communications 30.2%), Samba said.
Proposed government infrastructure spending in the National Development Strategy (NDS) was put at $65bn to be spent on the port, airport, roads, water, wastewater, power, metro and rail, Qatar-Bahrain causeway, Education City, Sidra Hospital, and real estate developments implemented through Qatar Diar and Barwa.
Samba expects that the budget covering 2012/13 will continue to emphasise spending in line with priorities laid out in the NDS, which will include large investments in infrastructure projects, as well as sustained spending on health and education.
Under the initial 2011-16 plan government infrastructure spending was scheduled to peak in 2012, although delays in project implementation will probably result in a smoother and more extended path of spending. In particular, key mega-projects such as the Qatar-Bahrain causeway and the metro-system appear to be currently stalled at the planning stage.
The release of the 2012/13 budget, which was due to start on April 1, has been pushed back to May-end due to changes in the government’s accounting system and the way it prepares budgets, according to official sources. Source: Gulf Times
Oil and gas industry’s future bright, says al-Sada
“Oil producing countries have the responsibility to lead the
oil industry into future”
HE the Minister of Energy and Industry, Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada has said.
“I remain a firm believer in the bright and sustainable future of oil and gas industry,” al-Sada said at a ministerial session at the 13th International Oil Summit in Paris yesterday.
“Oil producing countries’ investments in productive capacity, their innovative views on technology development and business implementation, and their willingness to achieve economic development in a sustainable way are the key domains we need to address as individual nations and as a group,” al-Sada said.
The summit is attended by energy and industry ministers and high officials from Algeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, Nigeria and Columbia.
Al-Sada, who is on official visit to France to attend the Summit, is leading a delegation comprising high officials and representatives from Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Petroleum International, Qatargas and Qapco.
During the visit al-Sada met Eric Besson, France’s Minister of Industry, Energy and Digital Economy.
Talks during the meeting, which was attended by Mohamed Jiham al-Kuwari, Qatar’s Ambassador to France, covered co-operation between the ministries concerned in the energy sector in addition to issues of mutual interest.
Al-Sada held other separate meetings with senior officials from major French companies. The minister met at a lunch banquet Christophe de Margerie, chairman & CEO of Total. Later he met Yves-Louis Darricarrer,Total president (Exploration & Production), Benoit Potier, Air Liquide Chairman and CEO and Jean-Marie Dauger ,GDF Suez executive, Jean-Marc Aubry, Technip France chairman and Yves Kervren- Qatar country manager, Technip Group. (Source: Gulf Times)
6% increase in population
The population of Qatar reached 1,792,134 people on April 30, Qatar Statistics Authority said. The figures showed a 6% increase compared to the figure of the same month last year. The figures included Qatari nationals and expatriates who were present in Qatar on April 30, but excluded those who were outside the country at the moment of conducting the count. The total number of male population was 1,327,091, while female population was 465,000.
HH Sheikha Moza hails strategic importance of Qatar University
 |
| HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser meeting with faculty and students during a visit to Qatar University |
HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser has met with a number of members of the administrative authority, faculty and students at Qatar University during an open dialogue organised by the university at the education building yesterday morning.
During the meeting a number of topics were addressed, most notably the importance of Qatar University’s role as a national university besides discussion on a decision Arabicising the medium of instruction as well as the university’s role in support of many programmes in the scientific research field.
HH Sheikha Moza said she was proud of being one the Qatar University graduates and spoke about the significance of the university as a national university and a major player upon which the country’s national strategy relies.
Qatar University, since its foundation, has made significant achievements at various levels, the most important of which being the provision of Qatar labour market with local workforce.
HH Sheikha Moza thanked the university for its efforts to “nationalise” scientific research and to form a research infrastructure for 480 projects supported by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).
In response to queries by some students on the decision of the Supreme Council for Special Education to Arabicise the medium of instruction at the university, HH Sheikha Moza praised the Arabic language as “our mother tongue which we must work to revive”, stressing that it was and to date is a language of science and research.
She said the university must continue to work to develop students’ skills in the English language by offering different programmes involved in this area, provided that English is a prerequisite for graduation from the university and not an obstacle hampering acceptance in it.
 |
| College of Engineering students at Qatar University brief HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser on the ‘Life is Engineering Project’ where they reach out into the community and engage high school students interested in science and engineering. This year, the project resulted in 13 schools participating to assemble car kits and in May, six schools will compete in the final race challenge held at Lusail Racing Circuit. PICTURES: Aisha al-Musallam/HHOPL |
In a speech addressed to the administrative authority and the faculty, HH Sheikha Moza underlined the need to open channels of communication between the faculty and students, work to understand their needs and solve the problems that impede their academic and scientific drive at the university.
She added that the university should take into consideration development in various sectors of the state and meeting of the labour market requirements through its programmes and qualifying of students.
With regard to the relationship between the University of Qatar and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), HH Sheikha Moza said both are national organisations of common goals, explaining that when the Foundation adopted the partnership model with an elite of prestigious universities, its prime objective was to benefit from their expertise and co-operation with the University of Qatar as a reference for quality and educational upgrading.
At the conclusion of the visit, HH Sheikha Moza toured the university campus’ new buildings such as the library, the research complex and premises of the engineering, management, economics and law faculties.
Source: Gulf Times
Qatar owns the Highest Tower in Europe
Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al- Thani and Prince Andrew Albert Edward, the Duke of York, will jointly inaugurate The Shard tower in London, in which Qatar is a majority investor (95%), on July 5.
The announcement of the inauguration of the tower was made by Qatar Central Bank governor HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saoud al-Thani during a recent visit of a Qatari delegation to inspect the tower’s latest developments and completion details. The Shard, in which Qatar is a majority investor (95%), is considered the centrepiece of London’s historic London Bridge Quarter. HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saoud al-Thani is the chairman of the board of directors of the Shard Funding Limited.
The delegation also included Ali Shareef Al Emadi, QNB Group Chief Executive Officer and board member of the Shard Funding Limited.
During the visit, HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saoud al -Thani was given a detailed brief on the last stages of the construction process, the security and safety measures, and the multi-use features of the tower, including prime residential apartments, high quality offices, signature restaurants and the 5-star Shangri-La hotel.
Towering over the South Bank of the Thames, The Shard is the tallest building in Western Europe at 310m (1,016ft) and will consist of the capital’s highest public viewing gallery offering 360° views of the City of London.
HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saoud al-Thani said that the inauguration date was quite significant as it coincided with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and was just a few weeks prior to the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics that will be held in London during this summer.
“In addition to punctuating the skyline, The Shard, which appears over London Bridge Station, will be the highly visible face of London’s newest commercial quarter for the millions of people who pass through the transport hub.
“The Shard is an enduring symbol of the close ties between Qatar and the United Kingdom and joins a broad investment portfolio that highlights the synergy between our countries, pointing out that the relatively fast completion of this project is a significant milestone.”
He also said that the external investments embody the Qatar 2030 Vision; “a roadmap to achieve a diversified income that is independent from oil and gas revenues. Therefore, from an investment perspective, this landmark is the path towards realising our objective.”
Ali Shareef al-Emadi said: “This towering endeavour embodies our vision to create an alternative investment to oil. And today, I’m proud to say that we are at the final stages of inaugurating The Shard, London’s newest iconic landmark.”
The Shard enjoys a unique, contemporary design and offers a wide array of modern facilities. It uses a thermally efficient façade that prevents overheating by reacting to natural lighting levels maintaining stable temperatures.
London Bridge Quarter will comprise two major buildings, The Shard and The Place, which is an office building. The multi-use vertical city features high quality offices, the 5-star Shangri-La hotel with more than 200 rooms and suites that is due to open by November 2012 and 3 floors of signature restaurants. It will also feature exclusive super prime residential apartments.
The Place is a ground-breaking new business destination that makes a strong and compelling corporate statement in London’s newest commercial quarter. London Bridge Quarter also includes the Shard Plaza, a new public space, new station concourse and bus station, which will be fully completed by the end of the first quarter 2013.
Designed by leading international architect, Renzo Piano, a piazza will link the two buildings with London Bridge Station transforming the area into a vibrant public attraction and making London Bridge Quarter the centre of a rejuvenated South Bank.
The London Bridge Quarter redevelopment has been carefully designed to be a community resource. It will be part of the continuing regeneration of this already exciting part of London’s South Bank and is also expected to help make this area a destination for both international business and tourists.
Visitors to the Shard will be treated to stunning views of the capital and its surrounding countryside. And it is estimated that more than 1mn people a year will take advantage of the highest public viewing gallery in Europe.
Total income down $217 million
French giant Total has recorded a fall of $217 million in its first quarter adjusted net income, down 5% on the first quarter of 2011 on the back of stagnant oil and gas production rates and tough refining and chemicals activities.
But when calculated in Euro, the fall amounted to €30 million, down 1% to €3.07 billion from the €3.1 billion recorded the year before.
The adjusted net income, which excludes special items, slipped to €3.07 billion ($4.03 billion) in the quarter from €3.1 billion ($4.25 billion) in the first quarter of 2011.
But that income rate was higher than the €3.05 billion ($3.67 billion) in adjusted net income recorded in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Commenting on the results, Total chief executive Christophe de Margerie said the company was satisfied with its first quarter profit.
Oil prices had been favourable for the company’s Upstream sector, he said, which had recorded a rise in adjusted net operating income to €2.94 billion ($3.85 billion) on the back of an 11% (7%) rise in sales earnings.
But those same prices had made things more difficult for its refining and chemicals activities.
Total has brought several production facilities on stream this year, including the offshore Usan oilfield in Nigeria, the Islay field in the North Sea and the Bongkot field in the Gulf of Thailand, he said.
Hydrocarbon production had reached 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent a day during the first quarter, stable on the previous year’s results.
Adjusted net operating income at Total’s refining and chemicals division fell 77% to €61 million after it sold its stake in Spain’s Cepsa last year to help reduce its exposure to low-margin European refinery activities.
The company expects production start-ups at the Sulige project in China and Angola Liquefied Natural Gas in the second quarter, though it predicted production would be impacted by incidents in the UK, Nigeria and Yemen.
Al Fikra Qatar Business Plan Competition
Dr. Theodore and THEWORLDOFENERGY.com
WELCOME YOU to
Al Fikra Qatar Business Plan Competition
Inspire YourSelf &
Bring Your Business Dreams into Reality!