newsBriefsOman headlines revived with WebPartner
With the help of a technological solution from WebPartner, I have been able to revive my original news headline service from Oman, which I began compiling in 2001.
When I set up newsBriefsOman all those years ago, the task was very laborious. Every title and every link had to be pasted by hand, even after the revision of the website in 2005.
Because if there's one thing that I'm wary about, it's automated news scraping. Not all relevant stories are discovered, and irrelevant stories get included. This means that I vet all links personally.
But I've been very pleased about WebPartner, which has taken away a lot of the tedium. AND, I can annotate the stories as I go. So you get a mini-blog with most of the stories.
I've also been able to put watch points on the Headlines, Local headlines, Business headlines and Feature pages of the Oman Observer, making it easier to track the Observer on a daily basis. The links are only good for the day of publication though.
WebPartner can feed Twitter accounts. Thus you will find a Twitter feed on the Headlines page of this website.
For the complete listing, visit my newsBriefsOman WebPartner page.
When I set up newsBriefsOman all those years ago, the task was very laborious. Every title and every link had to be pasted by hand, even after the revision of the website in 2005.
Because if there's one thing that I'm wary about, it's automated news scraping. Not all relevant stories are discovered, and irrelevant stories get included. This means that I vet all links personally.
But I've been very pleased about WebPartner, which has taken away a lot of the tedium. AND, I can annotate the stories as I go. So you get a mini-blog with most of the stories.
I've also been able to put watch points on the Headlines, Local headlines, Business headlines and Feature pages of the Oman Observer, making it easier to track the Observer on a daily basis. The links are only good for the day of publication though.
WebPartner can feed Twitter accounts. Thus you will find a Twitter feed on the Headlines page of this website.
For the complete listing, visit my newsBriefsOman WebPartner page.
Oman and Iran have second thoughts about the Kish gas field
Earlier this week, Upstream Online announced what seemed to be a turnaround in Omani policy towards joint development with the Iranians of Iran's Kish gas field.
An Omani source was quoted as saying that the Sultanate was finding it hard to obtain credit in order to proceed with financing the operation in the current economic situation. The development would be put on hold for at least a year.
Just last November, Oman's Oil and Gas minister, HE Mohammad bin Hamad bin Seif al-Rumhy, told Reuters that Oman would have to slow down some of its oil and gas developments.
Oman had been in discussions to develop the Iranian gas field and to build a 200km pipeline to the LNG gas refining plant at Sohar
This idea came to the fore, when, back in 2007, Oman was seeking to extend its access to gas sources following Qatar's announcement that it would have no gas to spare for export to its Gulf cousin. Thus Oman was intensively seeking other energy sources to power its other industrial projects.
Simultaneously with the announcement of the delay in the Kish venture, Upstream Online also published news that Oman was seeking to buy more gas from UAE's Dolphin Energy. Dolphin Energy processes gas from Qatar's offshore North Field, which is probably contiguous with Iranian gas fields.
Essentially, Oman has switched back to its original, favoured supplier. Prices are likely to be more favourable too, since there is currently a glut of gas on the market.
The Iranians were always likely to ask for a higher price for their gas, dependent on the use to which the gas was put. and it's been suggested that the price per thousand standard feet that Iran was asking was 14 times that currently being paid by industry in Sohar.
Two days later, Energy Intelligence Group (subscription only), published another version of the story. Allegedly according to Omani sources, it's the Iranians who are dragging their feet. It seems that there are elements within the Iranian government who want to keep the gas for Iran rather than sending it to Oman. Iran has its own energy supply shortages. Naturally, the Omanis would be loath to finance development of a gas field when the gas might not be sent to Oman after all.
The gas field would also be technically difficult to develop. The project would need a foreign partner with the appropriate technical expertise.
Negotiations are said to be continuing.
Of course, it must be entirely coincidental that Oman's foreign minister has recently held discussions in Washington with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while HM Sultan Qaboos received George Mitchell, US Special Envoy to the Middle East, in Muscat. It is conceivable that the Americans reminded Oman that they might be uncomfortable about Oman having substantial trade relations with Iran, particularly now that the Sultanate and the USA have a bilateral free trade agreement, and also because of the Americans' own strained relations with Iran.
An Omani source was quoted as saying that the Sultanate was finding it hard to obtain credit in order to proceed with financing the operation in the current economic situation. The development would be put on hold for at least a year.
Just last November, Oman's Oil and Gas minister, HE Mohammad bin Hamad bin Seif al-Rumhy, told Reuters that Oman would have to slow down some of its oil and gas developments.
Oman had been in discussions to develop the Iranian gas field and to build a 200km pipeline to the LNG gas refining plant at Sohar
This idea came to the fore, when, back in 2007, Oman was seeking to extend its access to gas sources following Qatar's announcement that it would have no gas to spare for export to its Gulf cousin. Thus Oman was intensively seeking other energy sources to power its other industrial projects.
Simultaneously with the announcement of the delay in the Kish venture, Upstream Online also published news that Oman was seeking to buy more gas from UAE's Dolphin Energy. Dolphin Energy processes gas from Qatar's offshore North Field, which is probably contiguous with Iranian gas fields.
Essentially, Oman has switched back to its original, favoured supplier. Prices are likely to be more favourable too, since there is currently a glut of gas on the market.
The Iranians were always likely to ask for a higher price for their gas, dependent on the use to which the gas was put. and it's been suggested that the price per thousand standard feet that Iran was asking was 14 times that currently being paid by industry in Sohar.
Two days later, Energy Intelligence Group (subscription only), published another version of the story. Allegedly according to Omani sources, it's the Iranians who are dragging their feet. It seems that there are elements within the Iranian government who want to keep the gas for Iran rather than sending it to Oman. Iran has its own energy supply shortages. Naturally, the Omanis would be loath to finance development of a gas field when the gas might not be sent to Oman after all.
The gas field would also be technically difficult to develop. The project would need a foreign partner with the appropriate technical expertise.
Negotiations are said to be continuing.
Of course, it must be entirely coincidental that Oman's foreign minister has recently held discussions in Washington with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while HM Sultan Qaboos received George Mitchell, US Special Envoy to the Middle East, in Muscat. It is conceivable that the Americans reminded Oman that they might be uncomfortable about Oman having substantial trade relations with Iran, particularly now that the Sultanate and the USA have a bilateral free trade agreement, and also because of the Americans' own strained relations with Iran.
What Google Trends might reveal about Oman holidays and Oman Air
The Economist published an item a couple of weeks ago, suggesting that Google Trends could help in forecasting economic trends. The argument hinges on whether the frequency of searches for specific keywords or phrases indicates changing patterns of consumer behaviour.
No less a person than Google's chief economist, who is also an economics professor at the University of California Berkeley campus, together with a fellow Google colleague, propose that because Google updates the data on searches daily, the frequency of search terms can be used to refine econometric models before official data is released.
Amongst other illustrations, it seems that searches for Hong Kong made in different countries predicted eventual arrivals in the territory from these countries rather well.
I thought I'd try out Google Trends to look at the pattern for searches on 'Oman holidays.'
The image shows that usable data was available to Google only from the end of 2006, with a flat period in the first half of 2007. Searches using the expression 'Oman holidays' peaked around Christmas time in 2007, declined towards late Spring and early Summer 2008, before rising again towards December 2008. If you recall, all five star hotels in Muscat were closed for the AGCC conference between 23rd-30th December, effectively cancelling all Christmas and New Year bookings.
Searches on 'Oman holidays' have declined since then, although whether they will rise later in the year remains to be seen. Perhaps not, given the December 2008 experience and current economic restraints.
Then I examined the locations from where the search term 'Oman holidays' had originated. This was puzzling. The overwhelming number of searches seem to have been made in Oman itself, followed by the UAE.
So I looked for Hong Kong on Google Trends and discovered the same characteristic. Most searches on Hong Kong are made in Hong Kong itself. Which probably means that most searches for Oman do originate within Oman.
How about a comparison between 'Oman holidays' and 'Dubai holidays'? Perhaps unsurprisingly, there has been a much greater proportion of searches for 'Dubai holidays' (the red line on the graph) than 'Oman holidays' (the blue line on the graph). Incidentally, we're looking at relative results here rather than absolute numbers of searches, so don't take too much notice of the left hand axis of the graph.
When looking at the provenance of searches on 'Dubai holidays', notice the greater volume originating in UK and Ireland for 'Dubai holidays' compared with 'Oman holidays.'
Overall, there is no doubt that people are looking for Dubai holidays much more than they are for Oman holidays. Oman will have to work much harder at raising its public profile to obtain the same level of interest.
Given that Oman Air has been tasked with boosting tourism in Oman, I thought it might be instructive to compare trends for Google searches on 'Oman Air (the blue line on the graph below), 'Gulf Air' (the orange line on the graph below) and 'Emirates Airlines' (the red line on the graph below).
The graph shows a small rise in searches for Oman Air beginning in 2007 at about the time that Oman left Gulf Air to focus on its national airline. The concomitant drop in searches for 'Gulf Air' from early 2007, is much steeper. But note that the number of searches for 'Emirates Airlines' increased sharply from the same time. The patterns on the graph suggest that Oman's withdrawal from Gulf Air rewarded Emirates Airways rather than Oman Air, always assuming that the trends on the graph in any way reflect numbers for passenger travel.
Note the steep rise in searches for 'Emirates Airlines' in the first months of 2009. I would suggest that this is because people were looking for flights out of the country rather than flying to it. The bar chart below shows that most of the searches were made in UAE, other Gulf countries and Pakistan.
Oman Air has had to rebuild itself from being a small, regional carrier in order to assume its new role as a mainline flag carrier, as admitted by Peter Hill late in 2008 New aircraft are to come into operation over the next two years, and the company has had to lease other aircraft in order to develop its new routes. Earlier this year, the Omani government raised the paid-up capital of the company from RO50 to RO300 in order to cover last year's losses caused by higher fuel costs and the purchase of new aircraft.
Data from Google Trends suggests that Oman Air will require a lot of PR support from its partner, the Ministry of Tourism, in order to promote Oman's tourism industry. At least in the short term, there is likely to be much more interest at the regional, rather than the global level.
Just to show you that the trends shown here are not necessarily diagnostic, try doing an investigation of 'Oman tourism.' You'll get rather different results. But then, 'tourism' does not have the same meaning as 'holidays.'
No less a person than Google's chief economist, who is also an economics professor at the University of California Berkeley campus, together with a fellow Google colleague, propose that because Google updates the data on searches daily, the frequency of search terms can be used to refine econometric models before official data is released.
Amongst other illustrations, it seems that searches for Hong Kong made in different countries predicted eventual arrivals in the territory from these countries rather well.
I thought I'd try out Google Trends to look at the pattern for searches on 'Oman holidays.'
The image shows that usable data was available to Google only from the end of 2006, with a flat period in the first half of 2007. Searches using the expression 'Oman holidays' peaked around Christmas time in 2007, declined towards late Spring and early Summer 2008, before rising again towards December 2008. If you recall, all five star hotels in Muscat were closed for the AGCC conference between 23rd-30th December, effectively cancelling all Christmas and New Year bookings.
Searches on 'Oman holidays' have declined since then, although whether they will rise later in the year remains to be seen. Perhaps not, given the December 2008 experience and current economic restraints.
Then I examined the locations from where the search term 'Oman holidays' had originated. This was puzzling. The overwhelming number of searches seem to have been made in Oman itself, followed by the UAE.
So I looked for Hong Kong on Google Trends and discovered the same characteristic. Most searches on Hong Kong are made in Hong Kong itself. Which probably means that most searches for Oman do originate within Oman.
How about a comparison between 'Oman holidays' and 'Dubai holidays'? Perhaps unsurprisingly, there has been a much greater proportion of searches for 'Dubai holidays' (the red line on the graph) than 'Oman holidays' (the blue line on the graph). Incidentally, we're looking at relative results here rather than absolute numbers of searches, so don't take too much notice of the left hand axis of the graph.
When looking at the provenance of searches on 'Dubai holidays', notice the greater volume originating in UK and Ireland for 'Dubai holidays' compared with 'Oman holidays.'
Overall, there is no doubt that people are looking for Dubai holidays much more than they are for Oman holidays. Oman will have to work much harder at raising its public profile to obtain the same level of interest.
Given that Oman Air has been tasked with boosting tourism in Oman, I thought it might be instructive to compare trends for Google searches on 'Oman Air (the blue line on the graph below), 'Gulf Air' (the orange line on the graph below) and 'Emirates Airlines' (the red line on the graph below).
The graph shows a small rise in searches for Oman Air beginning in 2007 at about the time that Oman left Gulf Air to focus on its national airline. The concomitant drop in searches for 'Gulf Air' from early 2007, is much steeper. But note that the number of searches for 'Emirates Airlines' increased sharply from the same time. The patterns on the graph suggest that Oman's withdrawal from Gulf Air rewarded Emirates Airways rather than Oman Air, always assuming that the trends on the graph in any way reflect numbers for passenger travel.
Note the steep rise in searches for 'Emirates Airlines' in the first months of 2009. I would suggest that this is because people were looking for flights out of the country rather than flying to it. The bar chart below shows that most of the searches were made in UAE, other Gulf countries and Pakistan.
Oman Air has had to rebuild itself from being a small, regional carrier in order to assume its new role as a mainline flag carrier, as admitted by Peter Hill late in 2008 New aircraft are to come into operation over the next two years, and the company has had to lease other aircraft in order to develop its new routes. Earlier this year, the Omani government raised the paid-up capital of the company from RO50 to RO300 in order to cover last year's losses caused by higher fuel costs and the purchase of new aircraft.
Data from Google Trends suggests that Oman Air will require a lot of PR support from its partner, the Ministry of Tourism, in order to promote Oman's tourism industry. At least in the short term, there is likely to be much more interest at the regional, rather than the global level.
Just to show you that the trends shown here are not necessarily diagnostic, try doing an investigation of 'Oman tourism.' You'll get rather different results. But then, 'tourism' does not have the same meaning as 'holidays.'