Kuwait has reached a deal with Qatar to begin receiving shipments of costly liquefied natural gas (LNG) to fuel power stations this summer.
Qatar's RasGas will supply 1.6 million tonnes of LNG to Kuwait each summer for five years, starting in June, the Kuwaiti independent daily newspaper Al Seyassah reported yesterday, quoting Hamad al Mohannadi, the RasGas managing director and chief executive.
Shipping LNG such a short distance was highly uneconomical, experts said, but Kuwait's government had no alternatives for its power stations. Domestic gas is in short supply, oil products such as diesel are expensive and polluting, and neighbouring states with large gas reserves are unlikely to agree to provide supplies by pipeline.
"This is craziness to be taking LNG such a short distance," said Jonathan Stern, the director of gas research at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies in Britain.
Kuwait's government is the second in the region to import LNG, after Dubai signed a similar deal with Qatar early last year.
By May, the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) will have completed an offshore facility to re-gasify the LNG, the deputy chairman of KOC, Mohammed Hussain, said in January.
KOC has rented a re-gasification ship from Excelerate, a US firm, that will dock at an offshore pumping station in the summer months. Incoming LNG carriers from RasGas will pump LNG directly into the Excelerate ship, which will then warm the liquid and inject it into the Kuwaiti pipeline network.
A RasGas spokesman did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.
Although importing LNG was impractical, the Kuwaiti government had little choice, Mr Stern said.
The main fuel for power stations in the Gulf is gas, but Kuwait is far behind its neighbours in the race to increase domestic production. Before 2000, experts thought there were no commercial-sized reserves of gas separate from oil reservoirs, and the Kuwaiti parliament has blocked the participation of foreign partners to help KOC develop gas deposits.
KOC still hopes to raise domestic gas production to 1 billion cubic feet per day by 2015.
In the meantime, the government has looked to burn dirty fuel oil and import gas via pipeline. Fuel oil consumption jumped 18 per cent last year, according to PFC Energy, a Washington-based consultancy.
Pipeline deals with Iran and Qatar were unlikely to eventuate, Mr Stern said.
A pipeline between Qatar and Kuwait was first proposed in 2000, but remains in doubt because Saudi Arabia does not want it to cross the kingdom's territorial waters.
Mr Stern said he was sceptical that any Arab country, including Kuwait, would get a pipeline deal with Iran. "Anything to do with Iran - there have been so many announcements in the past, nothing has happened over the past 20 years," he said.
cstanton@thenational.ae
Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
The Florida Project
Director: Sean Baker
Starring: Bria Vinaite, Brooklynn Prince, Willem Dafoe
Four stars
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Punjabi Legends Owners: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Intizar-ul-Haq; Key player: Misbah-ul-Haq
Pakhtoons Owners: Habib Khan and Tajuddin Khan; Key player: Shahid Afridi
Maratha Arabians Owners: Sohail Khan, Ali Tumbi, Parvez Khan; Key player: Virender Sehwag
Bangla Tigers Owners: Shirajuddin Alam, Yasin Choudhary, Neelesh Bhatnager, Anis and Rizwan Sajan; Key player: TBC
Colombo Lions Owners: Sri Lanka Cricket; Key player: TBC
Kerala Kings Owners: Hussain Adam Ali and Shafi Ul Mulk; Key player: Eoin Morgan
Venue Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Format 10 overs per side, matches last for 90 minutes
Timeline October 25: Around 120 players to be entered into a draft, to be held in Dubai; December 21: Matches start; December 24: Finals
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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