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As flights to the Middle East cease, governments plan to repatriate their citizens
Commercial flights have been grounded in some parts of the Middle East due to an escalating conflict after U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. This has left foreigners stranded and prompted?governments' to plan repatriations. In alphabetical order, here is what government officials and representatives have said about the repatriation plan: AUSTRIA Austria's Foreign Ministry said that it has assisted?117 citizens who were vulnerable to leave the UAE or Israel via neighbouring countries. It is planning a charter flight for 170 passengers from Muscat tomorrow, but warned that travellers would be leaving on their own risk. BULGARIA GullivAir (Bulgaria Air), State Aviation Operator and GullivAir will return Bulgarian citizens to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Oman - on Wednesday and Thursday. This includes a GullivAir flight with 326 seats from Dubai and a Bulgaria Air Boeing 737 via Oman. Also included is a 90 seat government aircraft that flies from Abu Dhabi. CZECH REPUBLIC According to the CTK news agency, government officials and Czech government officials, three flights have been organised so far from Oman, Jordan, and Egypt in order to evacuate 175 people who were stranded. ESTONIA The Estonian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that it had booked a flight from Muscat to Oman or the United Arab Emirates for Thursday. Each passenger would pay 400 euros. FINLAND The Finnish foreign ministry announced that Finland would organize a single flight to bring home the approximately 3,000 Finns currently living in the United Arab Emirates. The flight is scheduled to depart Muscat, Oman this weekend. The tickets will cost 2300 euros each, plus any travel expenses to Muscat. FRANCE On Wednesday, the French Foreign Minister announced that several flights were scheduled to bring home French nationals who are currently in the area. Around 400,000 French citizens live in this region. France has deployed consular teams to Israel's border with Egypt and Jordan in order to facilitate the land exits of people so they can continue their journey by air. A similar mechanism has been implemented in the UAE, at the borders with Oman, Saudi Arabia and Oman, where there has been no restriction on airspace. GERMANY Berlin plans to charter two Lufthansa?flights from Riyadh, and one from Muscat to bring back particularly vulnerable citizens, such as children and pregnant women, and people with disabilities. Emirates Airline flight departures to Dusseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt were scheduled for Wednesday. Lufthansa will fly a plane from Muscat to Germany at noon local time. The plane should arrive in Frankfurt early on Thursday. GREECE Aegean Flight carrying Greek Nationals from Oman requested by the Foreign Ministry will land in Athens Wednesday afternoon. Prime Minister KyriakosMitsotakis stated that Greece had a plan for repatriating thousands of its citizens stranded across the Middle East. HUNGARY The Hungarian Foreign Minister said that repatriation flights would be operated from Amman and Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday and Friday, each aircraft carrying 90 passengers. The Italian foreign ministry reported that about 2,500 Italians had returned from Abu Dhabi and Riyadh on commercial flights supported by the ministry. It added that additional departures will be made from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Muscat and Riyadh in the next few days, as well as Male and Colombo. Netherlands On Wednesday, the Dutch government announced that it would be organising several repatriation flight with Dutch tour operators in the next few days. On Wednesday, a first KLM flight was used to bring back 85 Dutch citizens who had been in Oman. POLAND On Wednesday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that a plane dispatched for the pick-up of Poles in need of medical assistance was expected to land on Oman at the same time. ROMANIA The Romanian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that FlyDubai had scheduled two flights from Dubai to Bucharest on both Wednesday and Thursday. The ministry has received over 3,000 requests for repatriation and around 16,000 Romanians are registered in the area. SERBIA Air Serbia's flight from Sharm el-Sheikh landed at Belgrade early Wednesday morning with 67 passengers evacuated from Israel. SLOVAKIA The Slovak Foreign Ministry announced that two evacuation flights from Jordan, organised by Slovakia, landed in the country on Tuesday. They carried 127 people, mainly Slovaks. There are more flights planned. SLOVENIA The Prime Minister's Office announced in a statement that on Tuesday four buses were organized by Slovenia to transport Slovenians and families with young children from Dubai airport to Muscat Airport in Oman. Two more flights are scheduled for late afternoon or evening on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Jose Manuel Albares, Spain's Foreign Minister, announced that the country had begun to evacuate its citizens. On Tuesday night, more than 175 Spanish citizens arrived in Abu Dhabi via Istanbul. Further flights are expected to arrive from the UAE. Albares said that Spain would also reinforce its embassies located in the UAE and Saudi Arabia to support and facilitate future repatriations. THAILAND Thailand will evacuate its citizens from Iran by land into Turkey between March 7 and 10 while those stranded are either returning to their home countries or will do so once the airspace is reopened. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES State news agency WAM reports that the UAE Civil Aviation Authority will start operating "special flight" across all of the country's international airports in order to assist some of the tens and thousands of passengers stranded within the region. UNITED KINGDOM The British Foreign Office announced that British chartered flights would leave Oman Wednesday evening and on Thursday morning. Priority will be given to vulnerable UK citizens who wish to "leave" the region. Announced: Limited or no government evacuations Australia has said it will not evacuate its citizens as long as regional airspace is closed. With 115,000 Australians currently in the Middle East the government plans to focus on commercial flights when normal services resume. Switzerland announced that it will not organize evacuations for 4,400 travellers and 35, 000 residents of the region. The U.S. State Department advised Americans to immediately leave more than 12 Middle Eastern countries using commercial options.
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Milei appoints chief Buenos Aires prosecutor as new justice minister
Argentine 'President Javier Milei announced on 'Wednesday that he had appointed chief Buenos Aires prosecutors Juan Bautista Mahiques to the position of?the newest justice minister for Argentine. Milei announced on X that Mahiques will replace Mariano Cuneo Libarona who was the?justice ministry since December 2023. La Nacion, a local newspaper in Mexico City, reported that Libarona cited personal motives for his departure. Mahiques stated in a separate X post that he assumed this role with the conviction that there can be no investment without 'legal certainty,' no development without stable rules, and no republic without independent judges. Milei said in a speech to Congress on Sunday that he would seek to pass more reforms this year to the 'penal code' to implement harsher sentences for criminals. Last week, the government achieved several legislative victories when Congress passed a controversial labor reform as well as a change in the penal code that reduces the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14 years old. (Reporting and writing by Lucila SIGAL; Editing and proofreading by Nicolas Misculin, Paul Simao).
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MOL informs EU watchdog of Croatian pipeline operator in dispute over Russian oil transit
On Wednesday, the Hungarian oil company MOL reported Croatian oil pipeline operator JANAF to EU Competition Watchdog for refusing to allow Russian seaborne oil imports to be transited. Since the end of January, the?Hungarian Oil and Gas group has been struggling with a disruption of Russian crude supplies through the Druzhba pipe transiting Ukraine. They have had to rely on the Adriatic Pipeline from Croatia. Hungary and Slovakia were exempted from EU restrictions on Russian oil in order to allow them to diversify their supplies. MOL said that under EU sanctions, countries could source Russian crude through maritime routes if Druzhba was inoperable. Croatia has shown a willingness to help but has been reluctant to allow Russian crude oil through the JANAF operated pipeline. MOL and refiner Slovnaft reported JANAF on Wednesday to the European Commission’s antitrust watchdog for alleged?abuse a monopoly situation. MOL Group said that since the shutdown of Druzhba, it has asked JANAF repeatedly to confirm whether or not they would accept a shipment from Russia that was legally imported under EU and U.S. sanctions rules. JANAF used its control of the essential infrastructure to limit access. The supply uncertainty, which was already high due to wartime conflict, is further exacerbated. JANAF didn't immediately respond to a comment request. In a statement released on Wednesday, the 'company' denied MOL’s claims that it had 'engaged in unfair pricing and raised security risks for supply. JANAF stated that, prior to MOL's announcement of Wednesday: "JANAF has played a key role in maintaining stable supplies?to Hungary?and Slovakia?when eight tankers containing non-Russian crude oil were accepted in order to maintain continuity of delivery." The Druzhba outage, caused by what Ukraine claimed was a Russian strike, has also sparked a dispute between the Hungarian and Slovak government. Both have accused Ukraine of not restoring flow quickly because it is political. Kyiv said that repairs would take time.
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Five injured in Russian attacks on rail infrastructure in southern Ukraine
At least five people have been injured in two Russian attacks on railway infrastructure?in the southern Ukraine?, according to Ukrainian officials. Oleksiy Kulba, the Deputy Prime Minister, said that a?railway? worker was injured in a drone attack, which struck an empty passenger train early in the morning, in the Mykolaiv Region. He said that a second worker and two children were injured later by a Russian missile which 'hit an administrative building in a nearby railway station, Odesa region. The official who first announced the four injured victims of the missile attack later revised the figure to four without revealing the identity of the fourth person. Kuleba stated that there was also a Russian drone attack on a train late on Tuesday between Dnipro in the east-central Ukraine and Kovel, located in the northwestern Ukraine. The train was stopped by rail workers, and the drone struck 'a few metres from the locomotive'. Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian National Railways) said that Russia intensified drone attacks on railway infrastructure and rolling stock was "among the main targets". The report stated that 18 strikes were recorded since the beginning of March, resulting in damage to 41 facilities. The operator said that locomotives, freight cars, and specialised equipment used for infrastructure repair, as well as?railway depots and bridges were also targeted. A?Russian drone strike on a commuter rail in the Dnipropetrovsk Region killed one person, and injured seven others.
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Swiss to fly from Oman in order to assist stranded Omanis
Swiss International Airlines announced on Wednesday that it will operate an Airbus A340 flight out of Oman on Thursday to assist stranded travelers return to Switzerland in the midst of the Middle East conflict. Swiss, an airline unit of Lufthansa said that those who would be on board were?people with Swiss tickets who are unable to travel?to Zurich because of the conflict as well as Swiss nationals registered in Oman by Swiss authorities. Swiss officials said that this measure was intended to give Swiss citizens the opportunity to return to their home country. According to the latest estimates of the Swiss Foreign Ministry, the conflict has left almost 5,000 Swiss travellers stranded in the region. Of these,?over 500 are in Oman. A Swiss spokesperson stated that around 200 seats will be available for passengers on the special flight departing Muscat on Thursday morning and heading to Zurich. The airline did not comment on whether additional flights were planned. The airline said that although the flight was carried out in coordination with the foreign ministry, it was not a subsidised evacuation but an independent Swiss operation. (Written by Dave Graham; Edited by Linda Pasquini & Matthias Williams)
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Swiss to fly from Oman in order to assist stranded Omanis
Swiss International Airlines announced on Wednesday that it would be operating an Airbus A340 out of Oman on a Thursday to 'help stranded travellers return to Switzerland during the Middle East conflict. Swiss, a Lufthansa subsidiary, announced that those who would be on board were people with a Swiss ticket but unable to travel to Zurich because of the conflict. Also, Swiss nationals registered in Oman as their residence will also be allowed to board. Swiss stated that this measure was intended to give Swiss citizens the opportunity to return home. According to the latest estimates of the Swiss Foreign Ministry, the conflict has left almost 5,000 Swiss travellers stranded in the region. Of these, over 500 are in Oman. There was no indication of how many passengers were scheduled to be on a special flight leaving Muscat on Thursday morning for Zurich. Swiss said that while the flight had been carried out in coordination with the foreign ministry, it was not a subsidised evacuation. It was an independent operation. (Writing and editing by Dave Graham)
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Data shows that Russia is diverting its naphtha away from Oman because of the Middle East crisis?
LSEG data and traders' reports indicate that Russia is diverting its naphtha from Oman to Singapore as it searches for new buyers. At least one tanker has now headed for Singapore. Iran's retaliatory?attacks on Gulf countries have caused disruptions in energy production, shipping and naphtha discharges. Since the European Union embargo against Russian oil products came into effect in February 2023 most Russian naphtha is being shipped to the Middle East and Asia. Middle Eastern countries also are the largest suppliers to Asia. The recent disruption has pushed Asia's naphtha price to four-year heights. According to LSEG, the Liberia flagged?tanker Amfitrion halted its navigation last week near the Gulf of Masira, and turned towards Singapore on Tuesday. Shipping data revealed that five middle-sized tanks carrying 180,000 metric tonnes of naphtha left Russian ports in January for a STS (ship to ship) berth offshore near Oman’s Shinas. Unknown is the 'final destination' of these cargoes. According to LSEG data and traders, Russia sent two cargoes containing 190,000 tonnes of naphtha to Oman’s Sohar in November-December, as?its?other markets?dried up. India and Taiwan used to be the two main Asian consumers of Russian naphtha. However, recent U.S. sanction have caused both countries to withdraw. The U.S. President Donald Trump ordered in December a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers that enter or leave Venezuela. This has led to a 'zero' drop in exports to Venezuela this year. Although Asian buyers are facing a naphtha crisis, Western sanctions may force traders to avoid Russian cargoes. Market sources claim that the long journey from Russia's Baltic port to Asia prevents timely shipments. Reporting by Kirsten Donovan (Editing by Kirsten Doovan)
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ADNOC subsidiaries report normal operations, with no impact on regional developments
Six listed subsidiaries of Abu Dhabi's state oil giant ADNOC said that their operations were continuing as normal on Wednesday, with no material impact from recent regional events on their finances or businesses. The statement did not mention the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran or Tehran's response of attacking its neighbours. Separate, almost identical disclosures were made to 'the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange by ADNOC Gas, ADNOC Drilling & Services, ADNOC Distribution, ADNOC Logistics & Services, Borouge and Fertiglobe. They said they are 'closely monitoring the situation in the United Arab Emirates and broader Gulf Region, and coordinating the relevant UAE authorities. The parent company, the 'Abu Dhabi National Oil Company', hasn’t made a public statement since Saturday, when a spokesperson said that operations continued without interruption. Fertiglobe was the only stock that remained unchanged. ADNOC Distribution, L&S and ADNOC Gas all saw steepest declines of?about 5%.
Buyer interest in Russian Oil is up in Asia but prices are stable, traders say
Five traders said that concerns about Middle Eastern oil supply are causing buyers to be more interested in Russian oil. However, prices haven't yet responded.
Analysts and traders said that disruptions to the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, at the southern tip of Gulf, have led to a tightening of Middle Eastern grades.
Two traders and a source in the industry report that Indian refiners are contacting Russian suppliers about March and April deliveries.
Sources claim that Indian refiners have begun consulting the government on the possibility of "additional Russian exports".
Chinese buyers also show interest in the product, despite recent purchases leaving them with a surplus.
One trader stated that China "bought large quantities at low prices before the Lunar New Year so it could afford to wait until the outlook for the war in Iran became clearer."
One trader said: "Buyers are expecting the conflict in Iran to be resolved'soon, and they are unwilling to pay more for Brent at its current levels."
In recent months, China has taken in barrels that India had displaced, resulting in a multi-month increase of its seaborne purchase at deeply discounted rates, traders reported.
According to the latest LSEG data, the discount for Russian Urals crude loaded from the port Primorsk, free on board (FOB), was $25-26 a barrel to dated Brent. This is in line with recent estimates.
The discounts in Chinese and Indian port on a delivery-basis were also not much different from the levels before the start of conflict in Iran.
China and India have been the largest buyers of Russian crude oil, although India has recently reduced its purchases under pressure from Washington.
Indian imports are expected to drop sharply in April due to scheduled major maintenance at Nayara Energy, which is owned by Rosneft of Russia and a leading buyer.
The traders reported that other Indian refiners are also planning to reduce their purchases, though the turmoil in the Middle East has forced a few to re-evaluate their plans.
Interfax reported that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak stated on Wednesday Moscow was ready to increase oil supply to China and India. (Aizhu Chen and Siyi Liu in Singapore; Nidhh Verma in New Delhi, editing by Jason Neely.)
(source: Reuters)