Gas, oil, pipelines: Saudi Arabia signs energy deals with Qatar, Kuwait and Egypt
Riyadh has signed three memorandums of understanding on energy cooperation. With Qatar they cover oil, natural gas, petrochemicals and possible joint pipelines for transport and export.
Symbolic image · Photo: Diego Delso / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Saudi Arabia's energy minister on Sunday signed three memorandums of understanding with Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt to strengthen cooperation in the energy sector, the Saudi state news agency reported, according to The Jerusalem Post. The agreement with Qatar sets a framework for collaboration in petroleum, natural gas and petrochemicals. It also includes exploring joint opportunities to develop pipelines for transport and exports. Details of the agreements with Kuwait and Egypt were not initially disclosed.
The agreements come at a time of great uncertainty for energy supplies from the Gulf region. The US-Israeli war against Iran, under way since February, has caused the largest disruption to global energy supplies on record, Thai newspaper The Nation reported. According to the paper, the G7 agreed to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from emergency reserves. On the same Sunday, Syria's central bank opened a letter of credit for petroleum product supplies from Saudi Aramco.