| Date: | June 07, 2012 | Time: | 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM | |
| Speaker(s): | Professor Jean-François Seznec McDonough School of Business Georgetown University |
Venue: | Middle East Institute (Seminar Room) Tower Block Level 2, Bukit Timah Campus National University of Singapore 469A Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259770 |
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Abstract
The National Oil Companies of the Gulf are increasingly developing their activities in the Far East. Saudi Aramco and KPC are investing in large refineries. SABIC is investing in a major chemical complex, etc. In return the Far East NOCs are seeking to develop their activities in the Gulf. They have been barred from the upstream in most places, but still find opportunities in refining, dry gas exploration and in some chemical ventures. China is also used increasingly for building a railroad infrastructure in the Gulf. A fly in the ointment is the advanced relations which China has with Iran and Syria. These are unlikely to change the course of cooperation with the GCC, but could slow it down.
About the Speaker
Jean-François Seznec is an adjunct professor at the McDonough School of Business at 
Georgetown University. Prior to May 2012, he was Visiting Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. Dr. Seznec has 25 years experience in international banking and finance of which ten years were spent in the Middle East, including two yea rs in Riyadh at SIDF and six years in Bahrain covering Saudi Arabia. Dr. Seznec is a founding member and Managing Partner of the Lafayette Group LLC, a US based boutique consulting company. He uses his knowledge of business in the Middle East and the United States to further his analysis of the Arab-Persian Gulf. His research centers on the influence of the Arab-Persian Gulf political and social variables on the financial and oil markets in the region. He is focusing on the industrialization of the Gulf and in particular the growth of the petrochemical industry.
