Saturday 10 July 2010

AFP: Saudi probes 11-year oil smuggling operation: report


Saudi Arabia is investigating a smuggling operation that illegally exported discount-priced oil to Europe for more than 11 years, the Saudi newspaper Okaz reported on Saturday.

Unnamed companies had bought discounted oil under the guise of using it to produce chemicals domestically, but instead they shipped it to unidentified destinations in Europe, the paper said.

Okaz did not say how much oil had been smuggled out of the Red Sea industrial port of Yanbu.

Malaysian group buys Dubai Limitless company stake


Malaysian property developer Bandar Raya Developments said its subsidiary has bought 60 per cent of a building company from Limitless, a unit of state-owned conglomerate Dubai World.

Bandar Raya's subsidiary Ardent Heights has entered into a deal to buy Limitless Holdings' entire stake in Haute Property for a nominal sum of 1 ringgit ($0.313), the Malaysian firm told the stock exchange.

Ardent will pay Limitless 75 million ringgit which Limitless had advanced to Haute towards partial payment by Haute for the development rights of a building project in Malaysia's southern Johor state.

Abu Dhabi's IPIC ordered to sell Hyundai Oilbank stake - Business Intelligence Middle East - bi-me.com - News, analysis, reports


A South Korean court on Friday ruled in favor of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. to enforce an international ruling that the shipbuilder has a right to repurchase shares of a local oil refiner from Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Co.(IPIC).

In December of last year, Hyundai Heavy, the world's largest shipbuilder, filed a suit against IPIC to enforce the International Court of Arbitration's ruling that confirms its right to buy back shares of Hyundai Oilbank Corp., the country's fourth-largest refiner.

In November, the arbitration court ruled that the Abu Dhabi-based firm must sell back its stake in the refiner to Hyundai Heavy for KRW15,000 (US$$12.5) per share, a transaction valued at around KRW2.6 trillion.