QatarEnergy extends LNG force majeure until mid-June

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Some real estate developers in the UAE are introducing indirect discounts, including lowering down payments for units to 2-20%, as well as rolling on or waiving the standard 4% registration fee, Al Khaleej reports. Most are not touching their headline prices in a bid to protect their baseline pricing when the war ends.

Others, however, aren’t making any changes, with Emaar CEO Mohamed Alabbar telling Bloomberg that the firm wouldn’t lower sales points by a single USD, pointing to the fact that Emirati firms had bounced back quickly following previous regional tensions. Alabbar also said monthly customer data showed clients were still confident in local real estate, but noted that Emaar was delaying offering tenders for new construction.

Sign of the times

1Q 2026 was the first quarter in a while where Dubai International Airport (DXB) did not report a rise in traffic. The airport saw traffic fall 20.6% y-o-y during the quarter, while March traffic plunged 65.7%. Even during the war, around 6 mn passengers moved through DXB, and 213k tons of cargo came through as of 30 April.

Only up from here? “Aviation has a long track record of rebounding quickly from shocks,”

Richard Maslen, head of analysis at CAPA - Centre for Aviation, tells EnterpriseAM. “Dubai International Airport remains one of the most structurally advantaged hubs in global aviation. The question is not whether it recovers — but how quickly confidence returns to match demand.”

QatarEnergy has extended force majeure on its LNG supply until mid-June, as the strait remains effectively shut to tanker traffic, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. “They are giving the understanding that as soon as the situation normalizes, they will start the operations and they will start supplying the gas,” India’s Petronet Managing Director Akshay Kumar Singh said.

Background: QatarEnergy invoked the contractual clause back in March at the start of the conflict, along with Aluminium Bahrain, Emirates Global Aluminium, Kuwait Petroleum, and Bapco Energies.

Iraq’s Prime Minister-designate Ali Al Zaidi is expected to submit the lineup of the country’s new cabinet next week, two weeks ahead of deadline. The new government is expected to include 22 ministers — 12 seats for the ruling Shiite bloc the Coordination Framework, six for Sunni parties, and four Kurdish ministers.

IN CONTEXT- Iraq’s messy post-2003 political process allocates cabinet seats to religious groups via an informal points system that has previously caused deadlocks, but observers are hopeful that the PM-designate — a former banker — has the political support he needs from both Iraqi political actors and the US to get to the finish line.

The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) is exploring ways to invest some of its frozen liquid assets in Germany, after LIA chairman Ali Mahmoud discussed the issue with German diplomats at the UN. LIA assets in Germany reportedly stand at USD 8 bn and include energy assets, cash deposits, and equities.

Background: The LIA has about USD 63 bn in assets overseas that were frozen in 2011 under a Security Council resolution. This includes some USD 20 bn liquid assets that could be reinvested, the investigative policy organization the Sentry reports. A UN exemption framework allows for reinvestments of some unutilized assets, but still prevents repatriation of returns. Other estimates put LIA’s assets at the territory of USD 70 bn.

Data point

5.6 mn — that’s the number of tourists visiting Egypt in 1Q 2026, a 43.5% y-o-y increase from the 3.9 mn recorded during the same period last year, Tourism Minister Sherif Fathi told a press pool on the sidelines of an event at the Grand Egyptian Museum. The surge in arrivals pushed quarterly tourism revenues to nearly USD 5.1 bn, up 34% y-o-y. Egypt is looking to hit 21 mn tourists in 2026, a 10.5% y-o-y increase.

Tourist arrivals in Jordan fell by 29% y-o-y to 632k during the first four months of the year, with international visitors accounting for nearly two-thirds of that figure. Jordan’s tourism revenues fell 3.8% y-o-y in 1Q 2026 to USD 1.7 mn.