True to form, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) generated headlines worldwide in December 2016 when it helped close one of the biggest oil deals of the year through its strategic acquisition in Russia’s Rosneft – the world’s largest listed oil producer whose current oil output is over 4mn b/d.

Though it was not as seismic a deal as Russian President Vladimir Putin would have liked (he referred to it as “the largest sale and acquisition in the global oil and gas sector in 2016,” thereby forgetting Shell’s $70bn takeover of UK gas firm BG in February), it bore the hallmark of the QIA’s bold and game-changing acquisitions. (CONTINUED - 2101 WORDS)