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Good morning, folks. We are sending you off to your weekends with a brisk read, featuring news from Oman, Egypt, and more.

Leading today’s issue is Asyad’s wager on dual-fuel technology, with a USD 389 mn order for three very large crude carriers. With the EU’s Emissions Trading System entering 100% enforcement this year and as more decarbonization mandates go live in the next few years, Asyad is moving to ensure its tankers don’t become financial liabilities, especially while serving oil shipments to the European market.

In the Spotlight: Egypt’s agriculture is being held back by a fragmented cold chain infrastructure. From a lack of on-farm pre-cooling to the lack of data monitoring integration in domestic reef trucking, we look at why the fix must involve modular hubs at the farm gate — and not just massive centralized warehouses.

Watch this space-

PROJECTS — DP World breaks ground on its Pakistan projects: DP World, Pakistan Railways, and the National Logistics Corporation (NLC) have officially begun construction on the dedicated freight corridor and multimodal logistics park at Pakistan’s Pipri Marshalling Yard. The first phase is targeted to be completed within four months.

Background: The USD 400 mn project — first announced in September — is set to rehabilitate a 52-km rail link between Karachi Port and the new state-of-the-art logistics hub. The projects will offer integrated services, including warehousing, cargo consolidation, and value-added logistics.

TRADE — The Egyptian gov’t is in talks to increase Israeli gas imports by some 150k cf / d in February, a government source tells EnterpriseAM. The addition would bring our total imports of Israeli gas to 1.15-1.25 bcf / d. The additional volume would flow despite the ongoing standoff between the two governments over the “Israel first” clauses added to the USD 35 bn gas agreement.

We could hear more about the supply bump and the gas agreement soon with officials from Israel reportedly in Cairo this week to try to work out the gas agreement.

AVIATION — Boeing outpaces Airbus with 1.2k orders in 2025: US planemaker Boeing locked in nearly 1.2k orders in 2025, including 174 orders just last month, outselling Airbus for the first time since 2018. Airbus secured about 1k orders — 656 of which were for the A320.

But Airbus took the lead on deliveries: Airbus secured a delivery lead last year, handing over 793 aircraft — a nearly 4% y-o-y increase — hitting a previously lowered annual target from 820 due to faulty fuselage panels in the A320 model. Meanwhile, Boeing delivered 600 planes in 2025 — a stunning 70% y-o-y increase but still short of Airbus.

ALSO- Airbus raised concerns this week about future Pratt & Whitney supplies, as it received engines for the A320neo family in 2025, much later than expected. The planemaker is yet to lock in an agreement with Pratt & Whitney for the engine supplies needed “for the foreseeable future,” commercial CEO Christian Scherer told reporters.

Market watch-

Oil prices saw a sharp dip in the early morning following US President Trump's remarks that appeared to be soothing concerns over a US intervention in Iran, Reuters reports. Brent crude futures were down USD 1.67 to trade at USD 64.85 / bbl as of 01:09 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell by USD 1.54 to USD 60.48 / bbl.

On a more long-term note, Opec keeps its 2026 oil demand forecast steady at about 1.4 mn bbl / d, unchanged for the fifth consecutive month, it said in its monthly report (pdf). For 2027, Opec sees demand growth of roughly 1.3 mn bbl / d, supported by resilient consumption in non-OECD countries despite geopolitical tensions. Total demand is projected at 106.5 mn bbl / d in 2026 and 107.8 mn bbl / d in 2027.

REMEMBER- The eight Opec+ producers agreed this month to maintain current output, reaffirming November’s pause on 1Q 2026 increases. This preserves 3.24 mn bbl / d of cuts, or 3% of global demand. In December, the cartel’s output fell by 238k bbl / d to 42.8 mn bbl / d as declines in Kazakhstan and Russia offset increases from Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Opec’s demand forecast is still double the IEA’s 860k bbl / d projection, with Opec citing resilient growth in Asia — especially China — while the IEA points to emerging-market slowdowns and rising EV adoption curbing oil demand.

The Baltic Index slide shows no sign of slowing down: The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index — which tracks rates for the capesize, panamax, and supramax vessel segments — fell 42 points to hit 1,608 points on Wednesday. The capesize dipped by 5.1% to 2,322 points, while the panamax index saw a slight uptick. Meanwhile, the smaller supramax index remained unchanged.

Data point-

10.6% –– that’s the y-o-y increase in container throughput across Saudi ports in 2025, with volumes reaching 8.3 mn TEUs. Transshipment rose 11.8% y-o-y to 1.9 mn TEUs, while exported containers climbed 11.7% y-o-y to 3.1 mn TEUs and imported containers grew 8.8% y-o-y to 3.2 mn TEUs. Total cargo handled –– spanning general, dry bulk, and liquid bulk –– also inched up 1.06% y-o-y to 242.1 mn tons.

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