In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
The race by food-importing countries to secure farmland overseas to improve their food security risks creating a "neo-colonial' system, the United Nations' top agriculture official has cautioned. The warning by Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, comes as countries from Saudi Arabia to China plan to lease …
Saudi Arabia has no permanent rivers or lakes. Rainfall is low and unreliable. Cereals can be cultivated only through expensive projects that deplete underground reservoirs. Dairy cattle must be cooled with fans and machines that spray them with water mists. This is not, in short, a nation that would normally …
Opec pushed its oil production to the highest level in its 48-year history last month, even as demand was slipping in the US and Eur-ope, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday. The combination of surplus supply and weaker demand has pushed oil prices to $113.50 a barrel, down 24 …
Oil prices plunged below $130 a barrel yesterday, extending a sharp three-day decline and fuelling a second day of big gains in stocks that lifted Wall Street out of bear market territory. The continued fall in oil, which last week reached a record high of $147.27, combined with the rally …
Madrid: Iran on Wednesday refused to follow Saudi Arabia in raising its crude production to calm volatility in the international oil markets, even as it remained ambivalent on whether Tehran will use oil as a weapon to retaliate if its nuclear installations came under attack from Israel. "We have some …
Amid demands from oil consumers across the world, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah announced on Sunday that his country had increased its output to 9.7 million barrels a day and could do more if necessary.
Jeddah: Two days after inflation figures threw up a 13-year high of 11.05%, largely attributed to the hike in fuel prices, finance minister P Chidambaram cautioned oil producers that they would also suffer in case the global economy slows down or slips into recession due to high oil prices. India, …
Jeddah: Finance minister P Chidambaram on Sunday made a case for oil producing nations to step up output and regulate prices failing which developing nations stood to lose their hard-earned
Jeddah : The world's energy powers embarked on a new level of dialogue to rein in runaway oil prices at an emergency meeting in this Red Sea city, but were unlikely to come up with a quick fix. While British prime minister Gordon Brown said there was a consensus that …
Why the Saudis are worried about the high price of crude WITH oil prices nudging $140 a barrel, Saudi Arabia stands to receive a windfall this year of up to $400 billion, double what it earned from selling oil last year. Gloom at the world's petrol pumps, it may be …
BY ANDREW HAMMOND AND SIMON WEBB Leading oil exporter Saudi Arabia has summoned consumer nations and fellow producers to an urgently convened meeting to thrash out a solution to oil prices, which it says are unjustifiably high. Producers and consumers have long blamed each other, but the Saudi Cabinet, chaired …
Abu Dhabi is preparing to launch a large-scale agricultural project in Sudan to develop more than 70,000 acres of land as part of the oil-rich Gulf emirate's efforts to secure food supplies. The project comes amid growing interest from Middle Eastern states to use land overseas to ensure food security. …
Rising oil prices is forcing Gulf states to invest in gas production. Some analysts estimate that the cumulative supply shortfall for the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council up to 2015 will reach at least 7,000bn cubic feet. To put the number into perspective, according to BP the UK's …
Crude oil prices on Friday hit a fresh record high of almost $128 a barrel boosted by a bullish forecast from Goldman Sachs and as US President George W. Bush asked Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, for help to lower skyrocketing energy prices. Bush, on his second visit …
For years, food policy in the Middle East and North Africa was very simple: hydrocarbon exports paid for carbohydrate imports. Rising agricultural commodities prices and a large population increase mean that the traditional policy is now untenable even if crude oil trades at about $120 a barrel, forcing countries in …
It is great to see that we Americans finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead the United States, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in …
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, has put on hold any plans to further increase long-term production capacity from its vast oil fields, its most powerful policymakers have said. In a series of statements, including one by the king himself, the kingdom has warned consumers it does not believe …
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has begun a new round of engagement with Saudi Arabia, aimed at bolstering energy, security as well as trade and investment ties. During his two-day visit, he will hold talks with his Saudi counterpart Saud Al Faisal. Maritime security Saudi Arabia is seeking partnership in …
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has quietly begun to reduce its oil production despite calls from the US and Europe for the group to pump more so that prices fall. Output from the core countries of the 13-member cartel last month fell to 27.3m barrels a day, down …
What started as an ambitious dream, for a desert nation bereft of rivers and lakes to become self-sufficient in wheat, became a reality with the aid of billions of dollars from the first oil boom in the 1970s. Today, however, Saudi Arabia is preparing to phase out production by 2016. …
