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.

MGX is exploring the potential acquisition of Singapore-based data center operator DayOne, a deal that would mark the Abu Dhabi-backed investor’s first takeover in Asia if completed.

The company has been working with an unidentified investment bank on preparations for a possible transaction, Reuters reports, citing three confidential sources. DayOne is also considering a U.S. IPO that could target a valuation of about $20 billion and may also list in Singapore, the news agency said. MGX declined to comment.

DayOne, which is affiliated with China’s GDS Holdings, develops and operates data centers across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Japan and Finland, and could still pursue an IPO if a deal does not materialize.

Founded just over two years ago by Mubadala and G42, MGX is targeting more than $100 billion in assets and investments across artificial intelligence infrastructure, including data centers and semiconductor technology.

MGX’s investments include OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, while its infrastructure portfolio includes Aligned Data Centers through a $30 billion AI infrastructure fund with BlackRock and Nvidia.

The firm has also acquired a 15% stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations and invested $2 billion in Binance.

ADNOC is telling oil buyers it’s time to come back to the Gulf.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has instructed customers to resume loading cargoes from terminals inside the Strait of Hormuz and warned that failing to lift scheduled shipments could constitute a breach of contract, Bloomberg reports, citing notices from the company.

The move follows the reopening of the narrow waterway under the U.S.-Iran agreement, with tankers and LNG carriers returning to the route that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supplies.

Saudi Aramco, ADNOC and other Gulf producers are all working through a backlog of delayed cargoes while ramping up exports through the strait, the news agency reports in a separate story. Iraq’s exports and oil bound for China and Japan are among the shipments most affected by the disruption.

The shipping industry still faces a cleanup operation, with about 80 naval mines remaining in parts of the channel that must be removed before traffic returns to normal levels, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports.

Aramco is planning to expand its global oil stockpile network after the Iran war exposed the risks of moving crude and other fuels through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are thinking seriously of having larger storage facilities all over the world,” Aramco Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan said Thursday at the FII Priority Europe summit in Rome, pointing to existing storage hubs in Japan and South Korea.

Al-Rumayyan, the Governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, used the forum to call on European regulators to ease restrictions on foreign investment. He said the Saudi sovereign wealth fund invested 98 billion euros ($113 billion) across Europe and the U.K. between 2017 and 2025, while Aramco spent roughly 80 billion euros with European suppliers.

Reflecting on the growing use of alternative energy sources, Al-Rumayyan said the conflict reinforced the world’s recognition that industry still largely relies on oil and gas.

“In the last decade or so, a lot of push came from the new energy, which is fine,” Al-Rumayyan said. “I think it’s a great addition, but it’s not going to be a substitute for fossil fuel.”

Meanwhile, Mohamed Alabbar, the Emirati businessman who founded Emaar Properties and built Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower, said that European countries with unruly governments might learn something from how Gulf countries have prospered. “We are losing trust in democracy,” Alabbar told the FII audience.

“Why are these people so upset with us in the Middle East?” he asked. “They have two political parties; we only have one, so that’s okay. There is not much difference. The only difference is that even if you have two political parties, say 51% get the vote, and nobody gives a sh*t about the 49%.”

Digital bank Revolut is launching its services in the UAE after gaining key authorization following a protracted approval process.

The London-based firm said that the UAE’s Central Bank had okayed its application for so-called stored value facilities and retail payment services, Bloomberg reports.

It now plans to build out its local operations before going live. Revolut has been planning to launch since it secured “in-principle” approvals in September last year.

Historically, it has been complex for so-called neobanks to enter the Gulf market, where traditional banks have dominated.

However, since the emergence of homegrown digital banks including Wio, Mashreq Neo and Liv — all tied to major UAE lenders — the market has started to open up.

London-based money transfer company Wise also recently secured approvals, and homegrown Islamic digital finance startup Fasset has been expanding its services.