Etihad Rail’s passenger service, one of this year’s most anticipated infrastructure projects,soft-launched this week with little of the fanfare planned for its official debut, as it was thrown into action to help ferry travelers stranded by the conflict with Iran. 

With tens of thousands of passengers marooned by the closure of Middle East air spaces, many are scrambling to find alternate routes home.

Some wealthy travelers are paying private security and charter jet companies to whisk them overland to airports in Muscat and Riyadh. 

Etihad Rail, which will eventually carry travelers across the Emirates at up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) an hour, ran three trains ferrying more than 350 residents of the UAE back to Abu Dhabi from the Al Ghuwaifat border crossing with Saudi Arabia. It appears likely to continue running similar rescue operations until commercial flights resume.

“Operations will continue as required, in close co-ordination with the competent authorities, until air traffic resumes and flights return to their regular schedules,” Mohammed Al Shehhi, Chief Projects Officer at Etihad Rail, said. 

While Etihad Rail was scheduled to launch passenger services this year, with 11 stations announced so far, the official launch date has yet to be announced. It is expected to carry 36 million passengers by 2030, with a journey from Abu Dhabi to Dubai taking less than an hour. 

U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, coupled with Iranian missile assaults on the Gulf, are playing havoc with world markets as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has practically ground to a halt. 

Oil prices, though, have risen only modestly compared with past crises, suggesting traders are betting on a short-lived conflict, Bloomberg reports.

The effective stoppage of about 20% of global seaborne oil flows has pushed the price of Brent crude to its highest since mid-2025, but the scale of gains remains limited partly because major producers still can redirect some supply and spare capacity cushions the market.

Natural gas prices have spiked far more sharply than crude, reflecting the fact that disruptions to LNG infrastructure in the Gulf have a more punishing impact than on oil, the news agency said.

​​QatarEnergy announced on Monday that it ceased LNG production after military attacks on its Ras Laffan complex, the world’s biggest natural gas export facility.

Undeterred from pursuing its long-term investment objectives amid Iranian bombardment, the UAE signed a trade pact with Ecuador on Sunday, with more than $3 billion in potential deals on the table.

Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of Foreign Trade, signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement at a ceremony in the capital city of Quito on Sunday.

It followed a visit to Ecuador by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Khaled bin Mohamed, who met with President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa on Sunday ahead of the pact signing.

Among the potential deals is a $250 million collaboration between the UAE’s EDGE Group and Ecuador’s Ministry of National Defense. Ecuador is the fourth Latin American country to sign a CEPA with the UAE, joining Costa Rica, Chile and Colombia.

Al Zeyoudi said the UAE is Ecuador’s largest trading partner across the Arab world and Africa, accounting for about 30% of total trade with the regions combined.

Insurance companies are telling ship owners they may cancel policies and raise coverage prices as much as 50% for vessels traveling through the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, the Financial Times reports.

Cargo war risk insurers – which cover commodities carried on tankers, such as grain and oil – said that they were preparing to cancel policies and renegotiate coverage at higher prices, rather than denying coverage for ships sailing into the region, the newspaper said.

Danish container shipping line Maersk, meanwhile, halted sailings through the Suez Canal and Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, citing escalating regional security risks.

The move is expected to lengthen shipping times and raise freight costs.

Financial firms in the UAE shifted into contingency mode after Iranian missile and drone strikes shook Dubai and Abu Dhabi, prompting banks, hedge funds and investment houses to activate remote-work plans and reassess operational risks.

Authorities urged residents to limit movement and work from home while flights were disrupted across the Gulf, leading some companies and wealthy clients to organize evacuations by land to neighboring countries.

“The majority of our staff are currently working remotely, with only a few operating on-site where necessary,” Vijay Valecha, Chief Investment Officer of Dubai-based Century Financial, told The Circuit. “Despite this shift, our operations continue to run smoothly without disruption.”

Banks including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup instructed employees to work from home or shelter in place while executives began to evaluate their regional exposure, Bloomberg reports.

If they continue for more than a few days, the Iranian attacks could threaten the UAE’s rise as a hub for hedge funds, which was built on a reputation for stability that had drawn global capital in recent years.

Traders said some of their clients were moving their assets into gold and oil, which are typically among the most affected by geopolitical tensions. “Rather than reducing their risk appetite, many clients are actively looking for short-term trading opportunities,” Fadi Al Kurdi, the founder and CEO of market analysis-firm FFA Kings in Dubai, told The Circuit.

Oil prices jumped about 10% as the Iran conflict intensified, with analysts warning crude could spike toward $100 a barrel if supply disruptions worsen.

Masdar, the UAE’s sustainable energy company, will sell a 60% stake in its portfolio of nine wind farms in Portugal to Exus Renewables, while retaining a 40% holding.

The projects have entered the final stage of repowering and are due for completion by 2027, the companies said in a statement on Thursday.

Once fully operational, the upgraded sites are expected to supply clean electricity to more than 200,000 households and cut carbon emissions by about 41.7 kilotonnes a year.

Masdar is seeking to expand across the Iberian peninsula and wider Europe, targeting a global portfolio capacity of 100 gigawatts by 2030. 

A $111 billion Gulf-backed bid for Hollywood studio Warner Bros. Discovery appears to have prevailed after streaming giant Netflix dropped out of the fight.

Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav said the $31-a-share offer from David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance would “create tremendous value for our shareholders.”

Paramount has aggressively pursued Warner Bros., launching multiple successive offers backed by various configurations of Gulf sovereign wealth funds, including the Qatar Investment Authority and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

In December the newly-formed Abu Dhabi state investment vehicle L’imad Holding Co. joined the fray by backing a $108 billion hostile offer. L’imad’s total commitment under the revised offer is not yet known.

Netflix said in a statement that it pulled out of the bidding because at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive.”

Paramount will still have to pass government hurdles before the sale can proceed. The US Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing for March 4 to examine the Warner Bros. sale following a hearing earlier this month, with Ellison invited to attend.

Saudi Aramco has begun production from its giant Jafurah shale development, marking the kingdom’s biggest move into unconventional gas as it seeks to expand supplies beyond oil.

The $100 billion project – the largest shale gas field outside North America – relies on fracking and horizontal drilling, the same techniques that helped the U.S. become the world’s top oil and gas producer by unlocking hydrocarbons trapped in dense rock.

Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, said in a statement on Thursday that the development will allow Saudi Arabia to burn less crude at home, helping free up about 1 million barrels a day of oil for export by the end of the decade.

The company is targeting total gas and associated liquids output of about 6 million barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2030, roughly an 80% increase from 2021 levels.

Aramco estimates the expanded gas program will generate about $12 billion to $15 billion in incremental cash flow by the end of the decade.