A Qatari company has agreed to purchase an infamous villa owned by the late Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in one of Italy’s biggest-ever private real estate sales.

Berlusconi’s heirs have agreed to sell Villa Certosa in the Costa Smeralda region on the island of Sardinia to Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al Thani’s Constellation Hotels Holding for about $395 million, Reuters reports.

Often used to host heads of state, billionaires and celebrities, the villa was also the setting for Berlusconi’s notorious “bunga bunga” parties, which were the subject of multiple investigations.

Set on 300 acres overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, the property includes 126 rooms, an amphitheater, a rare cactus collection and a James Bond-style underground grotto for boats to dock.

Saudi Aramco and QatarEnergy are moving oil and natural gas back onto world markets after weeks of war-related disruptions, testing whether the U.S.-Iran ceasefire can keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

Aramco resumed exports from its Ras Tanura terminal, Saudi Arabia’s largest oil port, with two supertankers loading crude while a third waited offshore, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, at least eight LNG carriers have gathered outside QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan complex, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export facility, with additional vessels heading toward the terminal, according to Bloomberg.

The push to restart exports comes despite lingering security concerns after an Evergreen Marine cargo ship was struck by an unknown object in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, prompting the British navy to suspend escort operations while shipping companies reassess the risks of using the waterway.

Each of the tankers at Ras Tanura can carry about 2 million barrels of crude, and the terminal exported more than 5 million barrels a day before the conflict.

Aramco last loaded a China-bound cargo there on March 8 before shifting exports to the Red Sea port of Yanbu after shipping through Hormuz was disrupted.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended a three-day Gulf tour on Thursday, saying all six GCC countries support keeping the Strait of Hormuz free of tolls and restrictions on commercial shipping instituted by Iran.

Subsea cable project delays in the Middle East are expected to persist despite the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, raising risks to the region’s ambitions to become a digital hub.

Analysts interviewed by the Financial Times said security concerns, insurance restrictions and the need for seabed surveys and redeployed cable-laying ships mean disruptions across the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf are effectively indefinite.

They added that the region’s infrastructure now has the reputation of being “a fragile chokepoint,” with past Red Sea cable cuts and geopolitical tensions reinforcing perceptions of vulnerability and deterring new investment.

Affected projects include Meta’s 2Africa Gulf segment, the proposed $700mn WorldLink network, Ooredoo’s Fiber in the Gulf, and Sea-Me-We 6, which links Southeast Asia to Europe, all of which are being slowed or paused as geopolitical risk deters new investment. 

ADNOC has tapped six international energy companies to help it unlock a vast new source of natural gas at one of the UAE’s biggest oil fields.

The concession gives ADNOC a 60% stake, with TotalEnergies, BP, China National Petroleum Corp., China ZhenHua Oil, Japan’s JODCO and Korea GS E&P sharing the remainder, Zawya reports.

It was approved by Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs on Wednesday.

The project will develop natural gas trapped above the Bab oil field, a layer known as a gas cap that ADNOC says represents the world’s largest project of its kind.

The gas has largely remained untapped because operators have focused on producing oil from the reservoir below.

Operated by ADNOC Onshore, the project is expected to produce 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas a day – about 15% of the capacity of ADNOC Gas – making it one of the UAE’s largest new sources of natural gas.

The additional production is aimed at reducing the UAE’s reliance on imported gas while supporting ADNOC’s growing export business in liquefied natural gas.

QatarEnergy expects to restore normal production of liquified natural gas from facilities that were not damaged in the Iran war.

“QatarEnergy is preparing for operations to come back to normal as soon as the situation in the [Strait of Hormuz] normalizes,” Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told the Financial Times, adding “within a few weeks.”

The Prime Minister said that establishing a hotline between the U.S. and Iran was essential to prevent rogue actors from impeding the reopening of the strait.

QatarEnergy suspended output four days after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, following a drone attack on the Ras Laffan LNG plant, then declared force majeure on its contracts.

It faced a further setback this week when an explosion at one of its facilities killed 13 people and injured dozens more. 

The bill for the Iran war’s four-month chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz is starting to arrive.

Allianz, the world’s largest insurer by assets, said it has already received claims tied to ships damaged during the conflict, including cases that could result in total vessel losses, Bloomberg reports.

The Munich-based firm estimated that vessels and cargo worth $125 billion remained trapped in the Gulf as of June 15, exposing container ships, bulk carriers and oil tankers to drone and missile attacks.

War-risk insurance rates surged during the conflict, with some ships paying more than $1 million per voyage to transit the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest energy channels. Allianz said more than 40 commercial vessels were hit during the Iran war, resulting in the deaths of 14 seafarers and generating insurance claims that could include total losses of ships. 

“Clearly, loss of life and property damage – in terms of both vessels and their cargo – are the main causes to date,” said Regis Broudin, global head of marine claims at Allianz Commercial.

Meanwhile, the International Maritime Organization announced a plan on Tuesday to evacuate 11,000 seafarers stranded in the Strait of Hormuz. The operation will be carried out in coordination with Iran, Oman, the U.S. and other Gulf countries.

From sovereign wealth funds to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the UAE’s largest investment institutions came under review this week as officials assessed performance and future investment plans in the middle of a turbulent year marked by the Iran war.

The meeting of the Investment Affairs Council on Monday to review first-quarter earnings, recent deals and projects slated for later this year, was led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Advisor and chairman of some of Abu Dhabi’s largest firms and funds.

Among the entities under review were the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Mubadala, L’Imad and ADNOC, along with major investments executed since the start of the year and ongoing transactions across regional and international markets.

The meeting in Abu Dhabi was attended by Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director and Group CEO of ADNOC; Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Managing Director and Group CEO of Mubadala; Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed, Managing Director of ADIA, and Jassem Al Zaabi, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance.

Also present were Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, and Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. 

A new report by Bain & Co. shows that Middle East sovereign wealth funds face major challenges while expanding their global reach. Over the next decade, the funds will have to adapt to such challenges as higher interest rates, geopolitical fragmentation, technological disruption, and the global energy transition, Arab News reports, citing the Bain report.

An explosion at QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan industrial complex killed 13 people and injured 66 others as workers were restarting operations that had been disrupted during the Iran war.

The government said the blast Sunday night was caused by a “technical accident” at the Barzan gas processing facility and that Qatar’s LNG export operations were not affected, Reuters reports.

QatarEnergy did not disclose the precise location of the explosion or the extent of any damage, while Energy Minister and QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi said an investigation had been launched.

The incident demonstrated the operational challenges facing Gulf energy producers as they bring facilities back online after wartime shutdowns, particularly in Qatar, which depends entirely on the Strait of Hormuz to export its liquefied natural gas.