“For Saudi Arabia, oil production and expenditure often change substantially and quickly. With considerable spare oil production capacity and a demonstrated policy of actively adjusting production depending on demand and supply conditions in the global market, oil production is more variable for a country that always produces at full capacity. Historically, government spending has also tended to increase as oil prices rise, meaning that the market and breakeven oil price often move together.”
Tim Callen, Visiting Fellow, AGSIW, The Breakeven Oil Price Is a Poor Guide to Saudi Arabia’s Fiscal and Oil Production Policies [Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington]
“US-Saudi ties have warmed unquestionably in recent months. Dialogue has just gotten much more extensive and friendly and this subject is driving that.”
Ali Shihabi, Saudi analyst, Rocky US-Saudi bond boosted by Israel normalisation push [AFP]
“Foreign investors sold the most Saudi Arabian stocks in almost five months last week as concerns about economic growth and a disappointing outlook for banks in the kingdom hit sentiment. Outflows reached 6.5 billion riyals ($1.7 billion) in the week through Aug. 3 as the benchmark Tadawul All Share Index slumped 4%. That resulted in the largest net exit by non-residents and worst performance by the local market since March, when global equities were in the grips of a crisis over the health of US banks.”
–Farah Elbahrawy, writing in Bloomberg, Foreigners Flee Saudi Stocks as Growth Worries Interrupt Rally. [Bloomberg]
“Millions of people in Saudi Arabia rely on Tabby today, so it’s an incredibly important step to crystalize our foundations in the Kingdom and continue building toward financial freedom for our community.”
-Tabby CEO Hossam Arab. Tabby entered into Saudi Arabia’s fintech scene with a green light from the Saudi Central Bank. [Arab News]
“The Shura Island is one of the most iconic projects around the world…We’ve got a big sustainability drive across the development that’s led us to look at different construction techniques. We are incorporating off-site manufacturing wherever we can. For example, we are using recast panels to help us reduce the number of laborers on the site and to help us control the quality of the project, and to reduce waste.”
-Mohammed Khayat, Associate Project Director at Red Sea Global, in an interview discussing the progress at the project six years on. [Design Boom]
“We cannot afford to give our water away frankly to anyone, let alone the Saudis.”
-Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, discussing Saudi-owned Fondomonte’s water use in the state. Arizona is facing the biggest water crisis in a generation. [CBS News]
“The sheer size of the Red Sea project can be determined with the scale of its battery storage facility, at 1,200 Megawatt-hours and nearly 740,000 solar panels installed at the solar farms, making it the largest in the world. Prioritising sustainability, both destinations will be powered by 100 percent renewables, night and day.”
Saudi’s Red Sea development is the ‘size of Belgium’, says RSG boss [Arabian Business]
These changes reflect “the rise of global multipolarity and mid-level regional powers with international roles. Saudi Arabia and Turkey are good examples of such mid-level powers now helping shape international realities in a way they rarely did during the Cold War.”
Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington [CNBC]
“Only six years after its establishment, SAMI claims to have a backlog of over $10 billion in contracts, and its CEO announced reaching a localization percentage of close to 15%. In 2020, SAMI’s annual revenue was a mere $20 million, which then increased to $690 million in 2021. A few months later, in March 2022, SAMI captured more than half of the $2.9 billion in contracts awarded to local companies during the World Defense Show held in Riyadh.”
-Albert Vidal [Gulf International Forum]
“It appears that the voluntary cuts announced by eight OPEC+ countries in April plus the additional 1 million bpd of unilateral Saudi cut that just started in July are having the desired effect, with sour barrels becoming more scarce.”
Oil inventory drops set stage for higher prices [Reuters]
