Dubai. The UAE boosted public spending to its highest-ever level of Dh289 billion in 2009 despite a sharp decline in oil revenues resulting from lower prices and production, the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) said yesterday.

Iraq - Iraq has extended a memorandum of understanding with Royal Dutch Shell on a natural gas venture around the southern oil hub of Basra for six months from March 2010, Iraq’s oil minister said yesterday.

Azerbaijan - A $6 billion infrastructure project to recover an extra 360 million barrels of oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields in Azerbaijan has been given the go-ahead, said the field's operator BP PLC (BP) Tuesday.

Iran - Iran and China have signed an agreement to allow China to set-up an oil rig in the Gulf despite increasing international calls to enforce tougher sanctions against Iran.