Umar Khan, Co-founder of the Saudi Arabia /T&T Business Chamber believes that T&T should be “concerned” about the growing escalation between Iran and the United States in the Middle East.
On Friday the American President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike that killed Iran’s top military commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Trump said Soleimani was plotting to kill Americans and he ordered the deadly drone attack which killed Iran’s second most powerful person in Iran, to “save many American lives.”
Khan told the Guardian by phone yesterday that it is still “uncertain” how the situation will develop and there may be a possibility that Iran could hurt Western business interests through attacks on Western companies.
This could indirectly impact T&T as this country has many Western energy companies based here.
He also said that a war between the United States and Iran could lead to a depressed global economy and this would impact negatively on T&T’s already struggling economy.
“Hopefully it will not reach that point where they do target major energy players. So if they attack major energy installations worldwide then obviously T&T will be impacted as these Western companies have operations here.”
He also called upon the local business community to consider deepening business ties with Saudi Arabia as that country is one of the Middle East’s rapidly growing countries.
He said since 2019, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to T&T has been fully accredited and so that opens doors to better ties between the two countries.
Oil prices have risen sharply after the killing of a top Iranian general in Iraq.
Analysts warned the action could escalate tensions in the region and affect global oil production.
The price of Brent crude jumped by more than 3 per cent and at one point hit $69.50 a barrel, the highest since September.
Former Energy Minister, Kevin Ramnarine told the Guardian that T&T would not be impacted in any major way by the hike in the price of oil over the last few days following the death of the Iranian Military leader.
He said there are five factors that affect the price of oil and geopolitics risk is a major one.
“We have seen a four per cent increase in the price of oil. There has been a slight reduction in the price for the last couple of hours. The oil prices have responded to the geopolitical risks. I do not see oil prices going further than where they know unless there are further incidents related to this assassination.”
He said at the moment T&T produces around 58,000 barrels of oil a day, and this is merely a half of what the country produced 12 years ago so there will not be a major impact.
“Even if there is an increase in oil prices, it will not benefit T&T because our production is in the doldrums at this time.”
