Middle East business information

UAE-based Crescent Petroleum has said that a three-person international arbitration tribunal has been formed to settle a longstanding dispute over a gas deal between the firm and National Iranian Oil Company, Reuters has reported. NIOC and Crescent had signed the 25-year gas contract in 2001, with a price linked to oil, but as oil rallied in the following years, some officials and politicians in Iran called for the price formula to be revised and blamed the price dispute for delivery delays. Crescent, however, says the contract with its agreed price is internationally binding.