With Gulf tensions still rising, and culminating with last night's report on Arabia CNN that Qatar has put its armed forces on the highest military preparedness level, the small nation may be preparing to unveil its "Eastern pivot": moments ago Russia's RIA news agency reported that the Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani will Visit Moscow on Saturday where he will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Negotiations will be held on Saturday," a Russian foreign ministry official said. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Vladimir Putin does not yet plan to meet with al-Thani.
Meanwhile according to a Nomura research reports, Russia and the U.S. may become the biggest beneficiaries among LNG producers from the dispute between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors. Nomura's Gordon Kwan writes that a big part of Qatar’s finances come from international investors, indicating the spat in Mideast may negatively affect sentiment of new projects or expansions based in Qatar.
That may put some Qatar LNG projects on hold as foreign investors may opt to put their finance on hold, as reported by Bloomberg.
At the extreme, Egypt can shut off the Suez Canal and allow only some ships to pass through, impacting Qatar vessels loaded with gas on route to Europe, at a time when consumption is picking up for gas in the region.
As demand rises in Europe, the region will likely need to buy more gas from other nations, with Russia and U.S. likely to become biggest beneficiaries as the two nations are more reliable suppliers of gas.