Good morning, friends. It’s been a tumultuous 14 hours in our neighborhood: We went to bed heartbroken over Egypt’s World Cup exit against Argentina in what was initially shaping up to be the biggest upset of the tournament (and an excellent showing overall for the Pharaohs). We then woke to news of a fresh round of aggression between the US and Iran that once again throws into question the lasting power of last month’s interim peace agreement.
The US militarylaunched a fresh roundof retaliatory strikes against Iran overnight, putting last month’s interim agreement squarely at risk. Central Command says the strikes on military targets came in response to Iranian attacks on commercial vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. Washington also revoked the 60-day waiver that had let Tehran sell oil openly — in USD, even to US importers — a lever it granted only last month and has now yanked back.
Iran, for its part, isn’t claiming the vessel attacks — but isn't backing down either. In a document filed with the International Maritime Organization, the UN’s shipping agency, Tehran reasserted its authority over parts of the strait. Read that as a floor, not a ceiling — the diplomatic language is doing a lot of quiet work.
A Qatari LNG carrier also got hit leaving Hormuz: The Nakilat-owned Al Rekayyat was struck by a drone or missile early Tuesday while exiting Hormuz, with a fire reported roughly 8 nautical miles east of Oman, Bloomberg reports. This attack came right as Gulf trade was tiptoeing back — with Qatar and Iran recently just restarting maritime shipping between Iran’s Dayyer port and Qatar’s Al Ruwais port on Sunday after roughly five months of disruption.
AND- Longtime readers will remember EnterpriseAM launching with editorial commentary from the then-resident seven-year-old. She is now a non-resident 18-year-old, having completed her first year of university. This morning’s Lede is Jamilah FitzPatrick’s first feature for EnterpriseAM MENA+. –Salma
What do you do when you’re a young, ambitious video game fanatic who just happens to be the crown prince of one of the world’s richest countries? You turn your passion into one of the soft-power cornerstones of an ambitious economic development policy — one the outside world will get a taste of when the Esports World Cup formally kicks in Paris this coming Wednesday. The event, which runs through the end of August, is the creation of the Riyadh-based Esports Foundation, a global organization backed by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund.
Video games aren’t just a pastime in MENA — they’re a fast-growing industry where ambitious people can build careers and businesses thanks to a “cultural shift,” says Farah Tamer, senior director of strategy at the Esports Foundation. “Five years ago, if a young Saudi kid told his parents he wanted to go work in the games industry, they would have laughed at it — like, ‘No, of course not.’ Today, it’s encouraged.” (You can read more about Tamer’s odyssey to the games industry here and check him out on LinkedIn here.)
The MENA video games industry — once a sleeping giant — has woken up. The games market generated revenues of c. USD 5.62 bn in 2024 and is on track to be worth USD 6.94 bn by 2027. And that figure includes only direct spending on software and games — it doesn’t factor-in add-ons or event spending like the Esports World Cup or last week’s B2B-focused Global Games Show.
Annual video game and content salesin the so-called MENA-3 (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE)grew at a CAGR of 9.9% from 2019-2025, according to data from games analyst Matthew Ball’s Epyllion. That’s sharply faster than the Mature Market 8 (spanning the United States and Canada to Western Europe, Japan, and South Korea), which had a 1.4% CAGR in the same period.
Three revenue streams drive spending in the industry, Tamer says, pointing to hardware (“the console, the VR goggles, the Steam Deck, the controller. All that fun stuff”), software (the games themselves, including single-purchase titles as well as free-to-play games that make money on microtransactions such as the purchase of in-game skins and objects), and “adjacencies” — revenues from merchandise, television deals, brand partnerships, esports, and in-person events (which include sponsorships and ticket revenues).
MENA players have long been avid consumers — now, we’re investing, Tamer says, pointing to Saudi, where for the longest time there were “only two games companies worth talking about in the Kingdom.” Now, one of the key targets of Saudi’s National Gaming and Esports Strategy (part of Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious Saudi Vision 2030) is to establish 250 games companies in the Kingdom and create 39k new jobs in the industry by 2030.
In-person events are a cornerstone of that strategy, but they’re also a risk: Games events are sputtering globally. Industry-leading events have shut down (the Electronic Entertainment Expo, where landmarks including PlayStation, GameCube, and XBox were launched) or are now online-only (Minecon). Even physical video game stores — from hundreds of GameStops in the United States to the remaining standalone Game stores in Britain — are being shut in favour of online sales. Fans blame the rise of downloads and what Tamer calls the “Esports winter” prompted by covid-19.
“Read the press today and it sounds like events are coming out of that Esports winter after the announcement of the Esports World Cup. There’s a correlation — maybe not causation — with EWC and Saudi’s commitment to this reinvigorated sector.”
Tamer likens the Esports World Cup in Paris to the Olympics — in format, at least, calling the EWC a “first-of-a-kind, multi-genre, multi-title competition,” where international games clubs go head-to-head. Where the Olympics has national teams competing in multiple sports, the Esports World Cup has world-class club teams competing in multiple titles. (Many teams are made up of competitors from multiple countries, but some — like the Falcons from Saudi — are all from a single country.)
What’s unique, for our fellow games nerds, is that the EWC is “a club championship, which has never been done before. What we’re saying is, ‘It isn’t enough for a club to be world-class in Counter Strike. They need to be great at Counter Strike, really good at League of Legends, and really good at a couple of other titles so that they can rise to the top.’”
At stake:A prize purse of USD 75 mn. “That’s the EWC’s unique selling proposition,” Tamer notes. “It’s the best clubs in the world, playing the most popular titles, for the biggest prize money out there, on a global stage.”
The Esports World Cup’s home is Riyadh, but because of the US-Iran conflict, organizersmovedthis year’s round to Paris. Tamer states the Esports Foundation sees that as an opportunity to “show the world that this is [intellectual property] that can travel.” From Shanghai to New York, Tamer says that the EWC is “something that should go around the world,” like the FIFA World Cup.
Paris “is a different beast entirely. Expectations are higher in Paris,” he says.
What’s with that Saudi commitment to games as an industry? It doesn’t hurt, Tamer says, that “the Crown Prince is a huge gamer.” And he’s not alone: Saudi is a nation of gamers, with the communications and IT ministry estimating that 89% of Saudis play games. It’s a stat that rings true for Tamer: Saudis once had limited entertainment options, “but there were plenty of games around.” MbS and the kingdom’s leadership picked up on the popular hobby and asked, “How do you take a consumption passion and turn it into a productive capacity,” Tamer explains. The answer was Savvy Games (the PIF-backed gaming platform) and investments in organizations like the Esports Foundation.
The aim in Riyadh is to see the Arab world not just consuming Western IP, but exporting games to the world. How that happens is ultimately in the hands of the studios, Tamer says, but he thinks that where there’s a strong player base, more studios will sprout. PIF-backed Savvy is on track to become a key player in the global games industry, he argues, pointing to its investments in existing studios, developing games and events, and supporting young people with interests in the games industry. Savvy is home to USD 12 bn in games stocks transferred from PIF; it bought earlier this year mobile developer Moonton Games for an estimated USD 6 bn and acquired mobile publisher Scopely for USD 4.9 bn in 2023.
“The original studios that were in the region were always producing games, but they never really gained much traction. Now, we’re seeing more and more content being produced in the region, and in particular from Saudi. It’s a waiting game, really. It’s a hit-driven industry,” Tamer notes. “My hope would be that the existing studios in the Middle East see Savvy as a partner to collaborate with, to co-develop titles and co-promote each other’s titles. Beyond that, I hope the existence of something like Savvy spurs the creation of other studios.”
Homegrown studios in MENA may have a unique competitive advantage beyond the deep pockets of sovereign backers, he suggests. “We’re the middle. We’ve been here, between the East and the West, as far as what our preferences are.” MENA players enjoy Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty (distinctly Western games), but will also devour Eastern series like Final Fantasy. Tamer would like to see more MENA-developed games that cater to the preferences of MENA gamers — and that can be exported globally.
A hit of our own? Tamer is optimistic that the MENA games industry of the future will see studios developing titles that reflect the Arab world’s diverse games palette, preferred mechanics, stories, and game styles. He imagines “a title that comes out of Saudi and explodes — that people are talking about all over the world — and it’s one of those games that gets a mn monthly active users and maintains that. That’s the big milestone.”
Until then, you won’t catch Tamer on stage at the EWC, but “if anyone wants to challenge me in Street Fighter… I’m open. Drop me a message.” Like a true gamer, Farah Tamer is always competing.
France just put its name on Syria’s rebuild: At the end of a trip to Damascus at the helm of a business delegation, French President Emmanuel Macron and Syria’s Ahmed Al Sharaa walked away with a declaration of intent, a stack of MoUs, and a sector-by-sector plan that reads less like a visit and more like a term sheet. Al Sharaa called it “an integrated roadmap for reconstruction,” which includes aviation, air cargo, energy and infrastructure, and more.
Al Sharaa’s pitch to French capital: “Our industrial cities are ready to be a launchpad for French factories” as Syria looks to cultivate a partnership “built on interests that serve our peoples, not slogans,” the president said.
Aviation got the first hard signatures. The Syrian Civil Aviation Authority signed an MoU with France’s Transport Ministry to fold Syria back into the European and global aviation system, plus an agreement with Thales to overhaul air-traffic control. Separately, Syrian Airlines’ holding company inked a strategic partnership with CMA CGM Air Cargo to stand up a cargo fleet.
The headline name, though, is TotalEnergies. CEO Patrick Pouyanne flew in with Macron to discuss signing an exploration contract, building on the May MoU with the Syrian Petroleum Company for an offshore Mediterranean block. “Syria’s offshore has never really been explored,” Pouyanne said. He also floated pipelines carrying Iraqi crude through Syria — a Strait of Hormuz workaround that suddenly looks strategic after the US-Israeli war with Iran.
France isn’t the only Western country pouring into Damascus: A German business delegation was in Syria just a day ahead of the French, where they met with Economy Minister Nidal Al Shaar to kick the tires on reconstruction investments.
Payments from banks in Saudi Arabia to accounts in the UAE have been delayed, returned, or blocked outright since at least May, often with no explanation from the banks moving them, a source in the know tells EnterpriseAM, confirming news first reported by the Financial Times and Bloomberg.
What’s going on? The alleged cases involved money leaving a Saudi account and never landing in Dubai, some transfers held for about a week and then bouncing back, and electronic payments refused with a mere “transaction failed,” the FT reports. Our source says the issue has been happening for about a month. They think it most likely reflects the Saudi Central Bank tightening compliance screening on inbound and outbound transfers rather than a blanket block.
Official statements point in the same direction. The Saudi Central Bank said the financial sector “operates within a robust regulatory framework” with “no direct restrictions on specific countries,” and that banks “apply risk-based measures consistently across all transactions.” The UAE’s Economy Ministry also said it has had no complaints from private-sector firms about transfer problems.
If true, this would create friction in the Arab world’s largest trade relationship. Bilateral trade between the two hit USD 25.7 bn last year, up from USD 21.7 bn in 2024, and many firms run their Saudi-facing business through Dubai hubs. Some companies caught in the delays are reportedly already rerouting through Bahrain or onto costlier rails like PayPal to keep goods moving.
The backdrop is the sharpest UAE-Saudi rift in years, with tension over Yemen reaching a boiling point in December, followed by Abu Dhabi’s April exit from Opec. Whether these snags are routine de-risking or a symptom of that strain, they raise the cost and the uncertainty of moving money between Dubai and Riyadh.
Baghdad is now drafting its FY 2027 federal budget, after essentially giving up on pushing through a budget for 2026, Finance Minister Faleh Al Sari told parliament’s finance committee on Tuesday. A cocktail of factors — a bruising government formation process under Ali Al Zaidi, regional disruption gutting oil revenue, and the calendar simply running out on 2026 — made it impossible for Iraq to enact a budget for the current fiscal year. The draft budget is heading to the Ministerial Council for Economic Affairs, then Cabinet, then parliament.
A redesign: The Finance Ministry is moving Iraq off its decades-old line-item budget toward a program-and-performance model, coordinated with the World Bank and meant to turn the budget into the country’s main development tool. It’ll roll out in a handful of governorates first, then go national.
The 2027 draft budget is expected to lean hard on non-oil revenue as Iraq’s crude exports have cratered to under 10 mn bbl / month from 100 mn bbl prior to the regional turmoil. Baghdad will focus on activating an automated customs system, standing up a development fund and an energy fund, and tightening collection, all while protecting public salaries and social security.
IHC is making the largest foreign investment ever for India’s metals sector. The mining arm of Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company (IHC), International Resources Holding (IRH), has signed an MoU alongside Adani Enterprises with the Odisha state government to build an USD 11.5 bn integrated aluminum complex through a 50:50 JV, according to a statement. It’s the biggest single commitment IHC has made to its four-year Adani relationship, and the second Adani JV of 2026.
The buildout: The facility will feature a 4 mn tons per annum (tpa) alumina refinery, a 2 mn tpa aluminum smelter, a 4k MW captive power plant, and a 1 mn tpa downstream manufacturing park. USD 7 bn will go to phase one, with USD 4.7 bn going to phase two. Odisha — home to some of India’s largest bauxite reserves and 54% of national aluminum output — will fast-track land, power, and water clearances.
The UAE-India corridor is ramping up: This investment comes just weeks after Emirates NBD closed its USD 2.8 bn acquisition of a 60% controlling stake in RBL Bank, marking the largest foreign direct investment ever in India's banking sector, and the first time a foreign bank has taken majority control of a profitable Indian lender. Between the two transactions, UAE institutions have now put more than USD 14 bn into India's banking and metals sectors in barely a year — and both arrived as India and the UAE work toward more than doubling bilateral trade to USD 200 bn in bilateral trade by 2032.
The demand case
India is the world's second-largest aluminum producer and third-largest consumer — it made 4.2 mn tons in FY 2025 against consumption of 5.5 mn tons, with per-capita use still at 3.4-3.9 kg versus a global average of 8-12 kg. A government aluminum-vision document projects domestic consumption climbing to 8.5 mn tons by FY 2030 and more than tripling to 28 mn tons by 2047, which would require national capacity to scale to 37 mn tpa. That gap is the commercial logic for IHC underwriting a plant this size rather than buying into an existing producer.
Microsoft appointed Ayman Al Ghamdi (LinkedIn) as president of Microsoft Arabia, effective 5 July, according to a company statement. A 14-year Microsoft veteran, Al Ghamdi steps into the role from his previous position as VP of Public Sector in Saudi Arabia, where he worked with government entities on AI adoption and cloud deployment.
Al Ghamdi takes the helm as Microsoft prepares to launch its Saudi Arabia cloud region and has committed to training 3 mn people in AI skills by 2030.
The Gulf’s capital-markets machine is running flat out this morning — and, for once, from both sides of the trade. Regional issuers are raising (a first-ever AT1 out of Ajman, dual-tranche sukuk from SRC), sovereign and wealth funds are deploying (Adia into India’s biggest asset manager, Mubadala opening a USD 25 bn credit book to outsiders), and the money is showing up oversubscribed. Even Bahrain — the GCC’s most fiscally stretched sovereign — just cleared an issuance.
Bahrainraised USD 1 bnwith orders topping USD 3.2 bn, tightening the 10-year yield to 7.125% from 7.5% guidance — an early sign that appetite for regional risk is thawing. It’s a bellwether worth watching: Bahrain is the GCC's most fiscally stretched sovereign and needed a UAE backstop (a c. USD 5.5 bn currency swap) to steady its bonds in April, so a clean, oversubscribed print reopens the door for bigger issuers.
Ajman Bank is joining the Gulf’s AT1 party. The Dubai-listed BBB+ lender has mandated nine banks — our friends at Mashreq, ASB Capital, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, FAB, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered, and Warba Bank — to arrange a USD-denominated perpetual non-call 5.5-year AT1 capital sukuk, its first-ever capital securities transaction. Investor calls kicked off yesterday ahead of a potential pricing.
Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company (SRC) is back in the market. The mortgage refinancer plans a Reg S senior unsecured USD-denominated sukuk in 5.5-year and 10-year tranches, issued under SRC Sukuk Limited's Trust Certificate Issuance Program, Zawya reports. Fixed-income investor meetings began on Monday.
Oman India Fertiliser Company (Omifco) started trading on the Muscat Stock Exchange today under the ticker OMIF, after a privatization that offloaded 1.67 bn existing shares to domestic retail and international institutional investors. Led by OQ and Indian state backers, the listing takes a cross-border industrial JV public — another step in Muscat’s push to deepen exchange liquidity and prove it can execute institutional-grade privatizations.
T2S (Techniques Science Santé), a Moroccan medtech group, set terms for a MAD 1.1 bn (c. USD 118 mn) IPO on the Casablanca Stock Exchange — the bourse’s first listing of the year, according to a statement (pdf). Shares are priced at MAD 223, subscription runs 13-17 July, and trading begins 27 July under the ticker T2S. The offering includes MAD 350 mn in new shares and MAD 750 mn in secondary sales, with UK-based Trone Investment Holdings selling down its stake from 62% to 42%.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) is set to anchor the USD 1.2 bn IPO of India’s largest asset manager, SBI Funds Management, alongside Singapore’s GIC, Reuters reports, citing unnamed sources. SBI Funds — a joint venture between State Bank of India and France’s Amundi — manages INR 12.5 tn (USD 131.1 bn) and is targeting a valuation of around USD 12.3 bn. The two shareholders plan to sell a combined 10% stake, with the offering expected to open next week.
Demand already outstrips supply: Institutional commitments have come in at nearly 5x the allocation on offer, led by domestic investors alongside Gulf and Singaporean sovereign funds. Even so, SBI Funds is reserving half the offering for retail.
An investment firm owned by members of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family is making its first major move into the global LNG sector: The Private Department of Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalid Al Nahyan will invest USD 1.13 bn in MidOcean Energy, the LNG company formed and managed by US energy-focused private equity firm EIG, according to a press release.
The two sides are also setting up a strategic partnershipcovering capital aggregation, agreement origination, and institutional investment across the UAE and select regional markets, with energy and adjacent infrastructure as a stated area to explore next.
Mubadala is turning one of its biggest in-house investment engines into a product it can sell. The Abu Dhabi wealth fund is transferring management of a USD 25 bn credit portfolio — about 6% of its USD 385 bn balance sheet — to Mubadala Capital under a long-term agreement, while keeping ownership of the assets, Bloomberg reports. Mubadala is also committing another USD 4.65 bn to expand the platform as Mubadala Capital prepares to raise from pension funds, insurers, and wealthy clients.
Mubadala is using its balance sheet as a launchpad for fee-generating asset management. The credit business had previously invested only Mubadala's own capital — it can now raise traditional funds, evergreen vehicles, and other products for outside money. The bet: Bank retreats from direct lending will open up more room to lend, particularly in Europe and Asia.
Khaldoon Al Mubarak takes over as chairman of Mubadala Capital, which has grown from an in-house PE unit into a broader alternatives manager spanning credit, insurance, real estate, and wealth management. It now manages, advises, and administers more than USD 600 bn, with over 200 staff across Abu Dhabi, New York, London, San Francisco, and Rio de Janeiro.
DAE goes shopping for capital, again. Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) and Neuberger Specialty Finance are launching Mustang Aerospace — a new aircraft-leasing co-investment platform targeting around USD 6 bn of investments across multiple vehicles over the medium term, according to a press release. The two will use it to acquire a diversified fleet for airline customers worldwide. Goldman Sachs, Mizuho, BNP Paribas, MUFG, Société Générale, and Truist have all agreed to provide committed warehouse financing for the vehicle.
This is DAE’s second co-investment platform in three months, after launching Equator with Blackstone Credit & Insurance in April — which targets around USD 1.6 bn in annual aircraft investments. The through-line: DAE is scaling on institutional money rather than its own balance sheet.
Adnoc Distribution is buying its way into South Africa. The retailer signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of Shell Downstream South Africa (SDSA) in a transaction valued at around USD 1 bn before debt and working-capital adjustments, according to a press release (pdf). The acquisition covers 580 fuel stations plus wholesale fuels, aviation, and lubricants businesses, and is expected to close in 2027.
The details: Adnoc plans to sell a 28% stake in SDSA to a local empowerment partner and an employee stock ownership plan after closing, to comply with South Africa's Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment rules. It will keep the Shell brand for retail and lubricants under a long-term licensing agreement.
Why South Africa? It’s one of the few fuel-retail markets with regulated pricing designed to protect retailers’ margins from inflation, FX volatility, and swings in global oil prices — a framework that offers more earnings visibility than deregulated markets, according to an investor presentation (pdf).
A new Saudi private equity fund built to pull foreign money into the kingdom is targeting a first close in 3Q 2026, an Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) spokesperson tells EnterpriseAM. Institutional investors are running due diligence on the fund and its agreement pipeline now, the spokesperson said. A&M, which helped structure the vehicle, has already put its own capital in and may increase its commitment.
The pitch is co-investment, not just capital. The fund is targeting at least USD 500 mn and will take controlling stakes in defensive, asset-backed sectors — cold storage, warehousing, data centers, and healthcare — AGBI first reported. It will put up roughly half the equity and package “pre-wrapped” agreements so foreign investors can come in alongside a blue-chip Saudi partner rather than source and structure deals themselves. A&M MENA regional leader Colie Spink told AGBI he expects the fund to drive equity deployment worth “a multiple” of its own size.
Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are rerouting their joint AE15 Asia-Mediterranean-Europe service back through the Suez Canal instead of around the Cape of Good Hope, according to a press release. Egyptian ports (Port Said and Damietta) are back on a direct Asia-Europe loop for the first time since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The carriers called it “a step towards a gradual return to the trans-Suez corridor” after a Red Sea security assessment — with contingency plans to revert to the Cape still in place. Any escalation could reverse the return, MDS Transmodal senior consultant Antonella Teodoro previously told EnterpriseAM.
Canal revenues are recovering: FY 2025-26 revenues rose 23% y-o-y to USD 4.8 bn and transits rose 10%, Suez Canal Authority Chairman Osama Rabie said in an interview (watch, runtime: 02:00). That’s still well below the USD 10.2 bn recorded in 2023, with the authority targeting USD 8 bn in revenues by the second half of 2027, Rabie said.
Second plug
Portugal is exploring an electricity interconnection with Morocco to harden its grid against the kind of disruption that plunged the Iberian Peninsula into darkness last spring, Reuters quotes Portugal’s Energy Minister Maria da Graca Carvalho as telling reporters this week. A Moroccan line would give Portugal — connected only to Spain today — a second cross-border source and hand Rabat a foothold in the European power market.
What’s next: Moroccan Energy Minister Leila Benali is set to meet with Carvalho in Lisbon soon to discuss the feasibility of the interconnection project.
Filling the tank
Adnoc signed a 15-year sales and purchase agreement to supply Japan’s energy company INPEX with 1 mtpa, primarily from the Ruwais LNG project — with deliveries expected to begin with the project’s commercial operations in 2028, according to a press release.
Marsa Maroc secured a 20-year extension for Container Terminal 3 (TC3), operated through its wholly owned TC3PC subsidiary, Morocco World News reports. The Moroccan operator has also laid out an MAD 3 bn investment program across its two container terminals at the port, which it says will take TC3’s annual capacity to 900k TEUs by 2030 from 600k TEUs.
What’s in store? The project involves expanding quay infrastructure, upgrading cargo-handling equipment, and reconfiguring storage areas across the two container terminals operated by Marsa Maroc — upgrades aimed at boosting operational efficiency and increasing cargo throughput capacity.
] WATCH THIS SPACE- None of the USD 50 bn in investments the UAE committed to Canadalast yearhas moved yet. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s own Major Projects Office (MPO) told a visiting UAE delegation mid-June that Canada has no shovel-ready projects to deploy capital into, the Financial Times reports, citing three officials it says are familiar with the matter.
Even a USD 1 bn critical minerals agreement Carney said in November was “in the process of being finalized” still hasn’t materialized. It’s not a UAE-specific issue — former Quebec premier Jean Charest, who co-chairs the UAE-Canada Business Council, says the MPO is giving the exact same answer to everyone right now: “we’re not ready.”
Abu Dhabi’s line: A UAE official pushed back on the delay framing, telling the salmon-colored paper the investments are simply moving through standard due diligence — the review and planning phase any foreign investment goes through before deployment. The official added that the two sides remain closely engaged “on all levels,” calling the relationship one of the most important partnerships globally.
Where the UAE might actually plug in: Carney recently announced a fresh slate of projects meant to catalyze well over USD 141 bn in new investment — including a proposed 1 mn bbl / d pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s west coast that currently has no private backers. Charest says the UAE delegation has specifically “raised interest” in the pipeline and is broadly circling Canada’s energy sector.
What to watch: Carney is under pressure to sell “shovel-ready” at the upcoming Toronto investor summit in September, which aims to generate USD 1 tn in total investment over five years. Also: Carney has ordered his staff to finalize a UAE-Canada trade agreement he wants signed this month — a sign he’s still pushing to move the relationship forward even as the investment side stalls.
Oil watch
Aramco slashed Arab Light crude’s selling price for Asian buyers in August by the largest margin in 26 years, Bloomberg reports, citing a price list. The company cut the price by USD 11 / bbl to a USD 1.5 reduction to the regional benchmark, exceeding the USD 8 / bbl cut analysts expected.
China placed orders for at least 26 mn bbl for delivery in July or August from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Iraq via tenders and one-off purchases from trading firms, the Financial Times reports, citing data from Argus. Beijing seeks to replenish domestic stocks — depleted during the regional war — that may have fallen to around 1 mn bbl / d in May and June. Beijing intentionally chose not to replace its missing Gulf oil with alternatives from elsewhere, forestalling fears of surging global prices.
The return of Beijing to Middle Eastern crude markets is a bullish signal, S&P director of oil trading research Zhuwei Wang told the FT. That said, a major rebound in Chinese crude oil purchases depends on Beijing lifting informal export restrictions on refined products like gasoline and jet fuel, Argus’ head of Asia crude pricing Fabian Ng says. These controls — put in place to protect domestic supply during the Iran war — cap the amount of raw crude China can currently import.
QatarEnergy halved its scheduled LNG deliveries to Bangladesh for 2026, Reuters reports, citing Petrobangla acting chairman Abdul Mannan. The move is pushing Dhaka to seek replacement volumes through additional sport purchases and government-to-government supply agreements. Qatar was Bangladesh’s largest LNG supplier last year — providing almost 4.2 mn tons of the nearly 7 mn tons the country imported.
The shortfall reflects the lasting Hormuz disruption. No Ras Laffan-loaded cargo has reached Bangladesh since the war began around five months ago, despite 19 Qatari cargoes arriving under long-term contracts earlier this year. It has instead imported 35 sport cargoes since March, while at least 14 LNG cargoes loaded at Ras Laffan have exited Hormuz without reaching Bangladesh.
Data point
Dubai residential sales hit AED 221.3 bn on nearly 79.2k transactions in 1H 2026 — a large market, but cooler than 2025, according to Cavendish Maxwell insights published in a press release. Transaction volumes are down just under 14% y-o-y and sales values fell 15.7%.
June signaled resilience: Residential transactions rose nearly 30% m-o-m to 12.3k, worth AED 25.17 bn, partly on delayed post-Eid activity. Off-plan continued to carry the market, accounting for 76% of June transactions and AED 17.6 bn in sales.
Luxury residences still running hotter than broader market: Dubai logged a record 296 homes worth more than USD 10 mn in 1H, with the luxury transaction value rising 14% y-o-y to USD 5.1 bn, according to a Knight Frank report (pdf). But timing matters — many of those agreements were closed before the regional conflict and were registered later, meaning the real test for prime demand may come after summer.
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