Burger King in Oman

Just a quick one today.

According to the Facebook fan page for Burger King in Oman, the first branch in Qurum is due to open "before April 21st", with the Mawaleh branch to open soon after.

They also posted these two funny adverts... worth a look to kill a few minutes!





le fin.

Shell Oman Marketing Co. & the MSM

On Monday, Muscat Daily ran a cover story detailing that Shell Oman Marketing Co. SAOG, along with another Omani registered company has had a legal case filed against it for RO 26 million by an Omani company for the alleged infringement of selling rights within the country.

Rather amusingly, the funniest bit of the story for me was how brokers and share holders were upset that Shell had provided inadequate information pertaining to the case. This did make me smile, because the Muscat Securities Markets requirements for companies trading on it is simply:

Companies must disclose the value of any claims against it, and what they're provisioning for it. In this case, Shell Oman Marketing Co. SAOG have conformed to the letter of the law by saying: "Some other company is trying to sue us for RO 26mn, and we're provisioning bugger all for this claim, because it's totally unsustainable - we even had our lawyers look at it".

Which does amuse me - Ok I took a bit of artistic license in how the boys at Shell said it, but, reading between the lines, thats what they said! haha!

So lets take a look at this magic number of RO 26mn. By looking at Shell Oman Marketing Co. SAOG website, you can easily find their published financial accounts. The total profits for 2008 and 2009 total RO 23.5mn (2007's profits were RO 11.1mn on turnover of RO 248mn). So this claim for RO 26mn is a big chunk of change, and apparently represents a situation that has been on-going for at least 2 years (well, since 2008 - assuming the co-defendant is being sued for a bit too).

However, when reading the report for 2009, you see that Shells' largest turnover centre is retail, taking 48% of their annual turnover. You have to think about potential companies (Omani companies) that would be able to even consider filing a claim for RO 26mn (and have a hope at getting it entertained) against Shell. They'd have to be involved with more than one element of Shell's core businesses (which are Aviation fuel, Commercial Fuel, Retail and Lubricants) - or this is an issue that's been building for more than just 2 years. Except that the statement from Shell said that it was for the "infringement of selling rights" within Oman - The Lubricants division exports a lot of it's finished oil products out of the country (and represents 19% of the company turnover), so perhaps the case revolves around fuels and retail. Hmmm! Suggestions on a postcard please! Oman Oil (BP)? Al Maha (Chevron)?

The share price has held firm at RO 1.950 with very few trades done. One does wonder whether the "market sources" were just trying to manipulate the share price to turn a quick buck? I wonder because a total of 4, yes, 4, trades were made on SOMS on March 28th (no trades yesterday).

The Majority share-holders for Shell Oman Marketing Co. SAOG are (or were, in 2008, the last public data available):

BV Licht en Kracht Maatschappij - 20% (The Hague)
Shell overseas investments BV - 20% (The Hague)
BV Nederlands Internationale Industrie-en Handel Maatschappij - 8.8% (Dutchies again)
Civil Services Pension Fund - 7.7%
MOD Pension Fund - 7.6%

So when you look at it like that, you could say that Shell only hold 20% in this company, or you could say that Dutch companies hold nearly a 50% stake in this company, with Omani interested holding holding a mere 15.3% stake. Certainly an eye-opener for what is touted to be an "Omani" company.

Interesting! Time will tell who the company that is attempting to claim RO 26mn is.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

le fin.

Local news round up

Firstly, Muscato seems to be missing. This guy was a prolific blogger, regularly blogging 2 or 3 times a day. One hopes he's taking a holiday and will be back soon, and not anything worse.

Secondly, tonight the Muscat Rugby Club 1st XV will be playing the Royal Navy ship HMS Enterprise at the ABA ground at 18:30. This is one of the last games of the season and should be an entertaining game. On Thursday night there is a Music quiz being held at the club - it should be pretty good, so if you're looking for something to do and fancy a cheaper night out than any of the hotel bars, check out the Rugby Club. The quiz starts at 8pm.

Thirdly, there are still some tickets left for the upcoming (April 7th) comedy night with Maz Jobrani - but only some. Just like the previous times, make sure you get there early to get a decent seat.


Fourthly, the Autumn Trade Fair at the Oman International Exhibition Centre is currently on-going, finishing on April 2nd. According to the OITE website, the ATF is Oman's largest family shopping event of the year. Try going to Lulu's on a Friday afternoon! Anyway, there's more information here if you're interested in going to it.

And finally. New local blogger English Girl in Oman posted an excellent post on expat life here last night. You should all go and read it, and post comments of your experiences here (in Oman) too. I couldn't agree more with her comments and wish I had the ability to sum things up the way she has just done so in her latest post. I'm glad I've finally figured out how to make the coffee pushers stop... I never realised that just shaking the cup makes them stop! Thanks EGIO!

le fin.

The UAE and Saudi get their handbags out.

Reports originating in The Telegraph a few days ago detail a Naval battle between Saudi and the Saudi Lite UAE. Below is an extract from the article, the rest of the article just blabs on about the GCC being unstable again, oil rich, well armed etc etc. But the juicy bit is here:

The United Arab Emirates navy is thought to have opened fire on a small patrol vessel from Saudi Arabia after a dispute over water boundaries.

According to one report, two Saudi sailors were injured in the alleged bombardment.

The Saudi vessel was forced to surrender, and its sailors were delivered into custody in Abu Dhabi for several days, before being released and handed over to the Saudi embassy earlier this week.

The incident has shocked diplomats who hope the countries, both key American allies, will help implement the West's strategy to constrain Iran's nuclear and military ambitions.

The clash happened in disputed waters between the coasts of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and the peninsula on which the gas-rich state of Qatar sits.

The seabed is rich with oil deposits, while the Dolphin pipeline project to carry natural gas direct from Qatar to Abu Dhabi has provoked irritation in the Saudi authorities. Nevertheless, direct conflict between the two countries' armed forces is highly unusual.

So, that seems a bit strange. I wonder what the Qatari's though of all of it. Of course, what is more alarming about this entire situation is that Saudi are disputing the waters here (between Qatar and the UAE/Saudi area). Yet here's the problem: in 1974, Saudi enacted the Treaty of Jeddah, which depicted the borders of the UAE in this disputed area to look like this:
However, the UAE have never signed this treaty, because they feel that their borders should look like this:
Spot the difference? The UAE believe that they should have a land-link to Qatar (as do Qatar by the way). Yet Saudi have said no, we have a treaty that says the lands ours. Slight problem with that, the UAE have never agreed to it, and this thing's been festering un-agreed for 36 years so far. Now I knew things sometimes take a long time to get done in this part of the world, but this takes the cake!

For old timers here in the GCC, they will remember that you could drive to Qatar from UAE until pretty recently, when Saudi promptly closed their borders and refused to let people drive across (that is, of course unless your a GCC citizen or have a valid visa to do so).

And it does get even more important. The Dolphin gas pipeline runs through this disputed area, and now Oman is buying into this project and taking delivery of this Qatari gas here in Oman. So it'd be pretty obvious who Oman would back in such a situation. So it's a case of Qatar, UAE and Oman all saying to Saudi to get stuffed. But of course nothing like that will ever happen. But something will have to be resolved because eventually someone is going to want to drill that area for oil (which I understand is very rich in oil deposits). Oxy and Total each have 24.5% stakes in the Dolphin pipeline, with Abu Dhabi's investment fund Mubadala controlling it with a 51% stake.

Of course, both officials from the UAE and Saudi are remaining silent on this issue, preferring to keep their dirty laundry out of the spot-light. Given the ability for media to flare things up, that's probably a good idea then,

le fin.

F1 in Muscat

Congratulations to British driver Jenson Button winning Down Under. The Australians lived up to their heritage by deciding to "go down fighting" and subsequently taking out the other British driver in the points, Lewis Hamilton in a driving manoeuvre that you might be forgiven for thinking you saw on the Qurum Heights road during rush hour.

In the second F1 race of the new season 2 weeks after the season opener in Bahrain, it's been a considerably more entertaining race to watch than F1 has been for the last half decade or so. Well, in my opinion anyway.

Locally, you can watch the races live on the Abu Dhabi sport channel but the commentary is in Arabic, so then you can either tune into the BBC's radio 5 live, or your sport radio channel of choice. Naturally, the South African DSTV Multichoice Super Sports network also broadcast the race live, but most people do not have the ability to receive that station here. In case you do, and you were working, they are re-showing the race at 20:30 tonight local time on SS5. Interestingly, the newly merged OSN (Orbit Showtime Network) does not have any coverage of the F1 this season. It didn't have any coverage of the Six Nations rugby tournament either (having lost that to Jazeera Sports +3).

Last year, the F1 Club used to screen the races at 18:30 in the room opposite the Dukes bar in the Crowne Plaza here, but when I rang the bar to ask about it, they didn't know anything about it. That doesn't mean that they're not showing the races, it just means that that particular person didn't know anything about it. If some nice person reading this knows any more about it, please do post a comment.

Now, if only those Pom's could teach those criminal Aussies how to loose at rugby....

le fin.

Whats in the cost of a ticket to a Ball here?

Just a few items today, but I did want to ask the question to anyone that's been here for more than a couple of years and get their take on things.





RO 50, for a ticket to a ball seems to be the standard going rate these days. The WGO's Crystal Ball kicked off the ball season late last year, and was RO 50. But for your RO 50, you got a boat load of goodies, and of course an open bar and what I'm beginning to call "Ball Quality" food. By that I mean, it's good food, but not spectacular - but then again, when you're cooking for a few hundred in one go, it's got to be spectacularly difficult and the standard they get to is great, but I'm always left thinking a similar thing at the end of a night out at a ball.

Was it worth it? 2 ball tickets = RO 100 (US$ 258). Yes there are other balls that are less money (the Oranje ball was RO 35 I think a ticket) and the food there was great (but a buffet) (the cheese table was excellent!) and of course unlimited piss all night as well.

How much were these balls 3 years ago? 5 years ago?

It'd be interesting to see how much these prices have risen.

In other news, the tennis coach Piras has now been fired (quite rightly so) for being an ex-con from the USA. He was here coaching kids in tennis, but was jailed in the USA for having a sexual relationship with a 15 year old girl (I don't know how old he is, but in his photo he looks 40+). To add to the story, the then 15 year old girl is now married to him and is with him here. The guy did 3 years in jail before being deported from the USA back to his native Italy. Well done to Muscat Daily for that one, a nice piece of journalism.

Don't forget that tonight is Earth Hour, locally between 8.30 and 9.30. So do your bit and go out for a walk or something, and turn off everything in your house (except of course your fridges)! Every little helps.

le fin.

Tom Jones - Update

Tickets will go on sale tonight, or tomorrow morning, for RO 25.

You can buy them from 1 of 3 locations:

1/ Intercontinental Box Office (I presume that means the Concierge desk)
2/ OUA MQ Retail location
3/ The Bose store in QCC

For more information, call 95555699


Better buy them sooner rather than later, there will only be 3500 tickets available for this concert.

le fin.