Oil Prices At Its Best

Boursa Kuwait has announced its membership with the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS), which facilitates its integration with global financial markets and exchanges.

Through this membership, Boursa Kuwait will be a member of a federation that gathers exchanges from Europe, Asia and the Mediterranean and allows Boursa Kuwait to benefit from FEAS scope of activities, which will bring invaluable benefits to its members including awareness sessions, access to research, analysis and data, as well as widening the network.

Commenting on the earned membership, Boursa Kuwait CEO Khaled Abdul Razzaq Al Khaled stated: “Today’s significant announcement gets us a step closer towards fulfilling our key objective to become a leading regional stock exchange, and refl ects Boursa Kuwait’s commitment to implementing the highest standards of international best practices and its efforts to establish a sound regulatory and technological infrastructure, to meet global standards, as well as position Boursa Kuwait for future growth.”

FEAS Chairman Mohamed Farid Saleh stated: “It is our pleasure to announce during FEAS’s 25th Extraordinary General Assembly that Boursa Kuwait’s application is approved and awarded full membership. We would like to congratulate Boursa Kuwait for joining FEAS community as a full member. We look forward to beneficial and prosperous collaboration.”

Since its establishment in 2014, Boursa Kuwait has been committed to raising the standards of the Kuwaiti capital market, facilitating the development of a sound, internationally recognized, leading regional stock exchange. Boursa Kuwait was founded by a decision of the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Commissioners’ Council, under resolution No. 37/2013, dated 11/20/2013.

OIL prices are beginning to stabilize at a comfortable level within the $70 range, which is making everyone happy including the American administration.

It was because of the combined efforts of all producers that oil prices were brought to a stable acceptable range, with USA hinting about using its oil reserve in case of emergency if oil price hits $80 level, which currently seems unlikely. However, on the long run, international oil companies should be investing more in exploration activities in search of more oil instead of sitting back and focusing on USA’s shale oils.

The level of expenditures for oil explorations has been drastically cut back from its peak of slightly below $36 billion in 2014 by ExxonMobil and Chevron to current level of $12 billion focused on certain areas. Such low investments should be challenged and addressed by oil-consuming countries, as the world cannot rely on OPEC alone despite its effort in meeting the global demand, as seen recently. The world should not be at the mercy of OPEC, as it has its own limitations and capacity when it comes to assured stable income.

The oil organization today does not have enough spare capacity — maximum of three million barrels combined but mainly from Saudi Arabia — which is not sustainable. Such being the case, international oil companies, which are making billions of cash annually, should contribute to easing the pressures on global markets and pushing for further downstream investments. The collapse of oil prices in 2014 will not be repeated — a lesson earned and learned.

However, cutting down on investments by more than 50 percent is not the right direction and decision. The growth of demand from Asia such as India, China and other rising Asian countries can surprise us.

The current tight oil situation is a clear sign, and the USA administration is reluctantly agreeing to waive its boycott conditions on countries like China, India and Turkey to continue importing Iranian oil. Investments in oil must be made but OPEC cannot do it alone. Our message is clear for the oil-consuming nations to observe.

 

SOURCE : ARABTIMES

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