Front Page

In Brief

EU Green Deal challenge for GCC

MANAMA: GCC companies need to prepare themselves for a wave of new 'green' rules in the European Union (EU), creating challenges and opportunities for their exports to the EU and other export markets, as other countries may follow the EU's lead and adopt similar rules.

The Green Deal is is about redesigning a broad set of economic policies to achieve the EU's ambitions of becoming a climate-neutral and resource-efficient sustainable economy.

Given the breath of the Green Deal, GCC exports to the EU will most likely be affected by new 'green' rules over the coming years. Indeed, the policies subject to review are wide-ranging, with close to 48 initiatives covering sectors such as energy, transport, textiles, plastics, chemicals, metals, automotive, electronics and agriculture.

Full report on Page 22



Oil and gas industry pays $45bn in fines

MANAMA: The oil and gas industry was in third place behind financial services and pharmaceuticals to have received the most penalties for delinquencis.

It was slapped with over $45 billion in fines. And if we were to consider the entire energy sector along with its allied services, the financial penalties then surge by another over $33 billion easily, writes Abdulaziz Khattak for OGN.

In the industry, BP has incredibly single-handedly endured nearly 65 per cent of all oil and gas industry fines. Most of it was what BP paid in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Other penalised companies include Occidental Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, CVS Health, Valero Energy, and Chevron.

Itís unfortunate that most of these companies, including BP, were fined for environment-related offences, which made up over 90 per cent of their penalties.

Full report on Page 2