On 23^rd June 2017, Saudi Arabia and its allies issued a list of demands giving Qatar 10 days to respond to their ultimatum. It has now been just over a month since seven countries announced that they will be cutting all diplomatic ties with the Gulf nation
5^th July saw the leaders of the four countries seeking to isolate the tiny Gulf nation met in Cairo, the capital of Egypt and advised they have received a response from Qatar and will be looking to respond to their response in a timely manner.
Here is the full list of the demands put forward by Saudi Arabia and its allies –

• Limit diplomatic ties with Iran and close their diplomatic missions there
• Stop all ties with terrorist organisations
• Shut down the Al Jazeera and its affiliates
• Shut down news outlets funded by Qatar
• With immediate effect terminate all Turkish military presence in Qatar and end any joint military cooperation with Turkey inside Qatar
• Stop all means of funding for individuals, groups or organizations that have been classed as terrorists
• Hand over all ‘terrorist figures’ and wanted individuals from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain to their countries of origin
• End interference in sovereign countries internal affairs and stop granting citizenship to wanted national from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain. Revoke Qatari citizenship for existing nationals where such citizenship violates those countries’ laws
• Stop all contacts with the political opposition in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain. Hand over all files detailing Qatar’s prior contacts with and support for those opposition groups
• Pay reparations and compensation for loss of life and other, financial losses caused by Qatar’s policies in recent years. The sum will be determined in coordination with Qatar
• Align itself with the other Gulf and Arab countries militarily, politically, socially and economically, as well as on economic matters, in line with an agreement reached with Saudi Arabia in 2014
• Agree to all the demands within 10 days of it being submitted to Qatar, or the list becomes invalid. The document doesn’t specify what the countries will do if Qatar refuses to comply
• Consent to monthly audits for the first year after agreeing to the demands, then once per quarter during the second year. For the following 10 years, Qatar would be monitored annually for compliance

This has had an overall effect on the market, we have seen the oil prices plummet in the recent weeks (red vertical line – the day other countries announced cutting all diplomatic ties with Qatar), of course this is not directly linked with the situation  with Qatar as there are  other factors that can affect the price of oil.
The two major being Geo political risk particularly with what happening in other parts of the Middle East such as Syrian Crisis and global supply and demand (mainly from developing countries). This may still have an impact on the price as the dialogue with the countries involved continues.
 
 
 
 

Top 30 countries by oil production

 

QIG (Qatari Investors Group)

It’s worth noting that the Qatari stock market lost around 15 billion dollars in market value (10%) since all diplomatic ties were cut off by the other countries involved.

By: Klavs Valters
GO Markets