- Nisreen Hatoum
- BBC Gulf Affairs Correspondent
CEO and Chairman of Aramco Amin Nasser
The stock of Saudi Aramco recorded a record high during recent trading, and Aramco ranked second following Apple in terms of market value, benefiting from the world oil prices reaching their highest levels since 2014, due to the repercussions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on world energy supplies.
While experts believe that this rise in oil prices will reflect positively on the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and compensate them for the losses caused by price fluctuations and the Corona epidemic, they affirm that the situation is temporary and will disappear with the end of the war and its repercussions on the oil scene.
Aramco displaces Microsoft and approaches abut rather
The rise in global oil prices has continued with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The price of a barrel of Brent has exceeded $100 for the first time since September of 2014.
This situation was reflected in the world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, where Aramco’s stock rose to its highest levels since its listing on global markets. Saudi Aramco ranked second with a market value of $2.23 trillion.
The second place was monopolized by Microsoft, which had a market value of 2.1 trillion dollars, at a time when Apple still occupies the first place in the world, with an estimated market value of regarding 2.6 trillion dollars.
International oil expert Dr. Mamdouh Salameh
The international oil expert, Dr. Mamdouh Salameh, indicated in an interview with BBC Arabic that the rise in oil prices in the world will positively affect the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, especially Saudi Arabia, but he stressed in return that this benefit will cease with the end of the war and things will return to their previous era.
Salameh added to the BBC: “The Gulf countries export more than 19 million barrels of oil per day, and therefore their impact on the global oil scene is very large, and they will certainly benefit from the rise in oil prices, especially if military operations continue between Russia and Ukraine, but prices will fall once more with The end of the war,” he said.
As for the writer specializing in energy economics, Imad Al-Rammal, in an interview with the BBC, he considered that historical experiences have previously shown that large increases in oil prices will be followed by sharp drops in prices at a later stage, which in his opinion will make the GCC countries work with the OPEC group. + On finding a balance in the oil markets and resorting to measures through which to reassure global markets.
Can Egypt and Algeria TDo we believe in the alternative to Russian gas?
Al-Rammal added that Saudi Arabia exports regarding 20 to 25 percent of its oil production to Europe, at a rate of two million barrels per day, and this rate is still within its natural limits, and Qatar still exports regarding 15 percent of its gas production to Europe to cover between 8 to 10 percent of the needs of the European continent, while Russia covers 40 percent of that need.
Imad Al-Rammal, a writer specializing in energy economics
In this regard, Al-Rammal says: “Europe’s gas needs are very large, amounting to 550 billion cubic meters annually, while Qatar annually produces regarding 70 billion cubic meters, and therefore the difference between the volume of Qatari production and the size of the European need, so it cannot be in any way possible. That Qatar alone will be able to cover the Russian vacuum in the event that Moscow decides to stop its gas supplies to the European Union, in addition to that Qatar is committed to long-term contracts with Asian countries regarding the export of Qatari gas.”
In the same context, international oil expert Dr. Mamdouh Salameh told the BBC that the biggest loser from stopping Russia’s gas supplies to Europe is the European Union, because the production of Qatar, Australia and the United States combined cannot compensate for the difference, and Russia has other options, in his opinion, which are In the Chinese markets, which Russia can touch at any moment.
Speaking regarding the alternatives that Egypt and Algeria can secure in the field of gas, especially since the two countries are located on the coasts of the Mediterranean close to Europe, the writer specializing in energy economics Imad Al-Rammal asserts that although Algeria ranks third in the world in terms of gas reserves, the Its investments in this field do not reflect this stock, due to its limited production compared to Russian production, and because of its lack of advanced transportation technologies as well.
As for Egypt, it will also not be able to fill the Russian gas void. On this issue, experts say that the quantities of liquefied gas exported from the Egyptian stations of Damietta and ADCO on the Mediterranean coast cannot be increased at the present time, especially since Egypt has recently committed to transferring quantities of gas to Lebanon via the “Arab Gas Pipeline” that extends from Egypt to Jordan and from Then Syria and Lebanon.
While the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, we see the world awaiting Moscow’s decision to stop its gas supplies to the European continent, which has not happened so far, which makes gas a trump card for Moscow, which no one knows when and how it will decide to play it.
