Crescent Group

ABOUT THE FOUNDER

Hamid Jafar was born in 1947 in Baghdad, Iraq, to a well-known family from Al-Kazimyyah, with a history in trade and politics.^[8] Hamid’s grandfather was a prominent trader in Baghdad,^[9] and his father, Dhia Jafar, was a mechanical engineer^[10] and a politician, who served as minister of transport, economy, development, and finance between 1947 and 1958 toward the end of Iraq’s monarchy.^[11] After attending St. Paul’s School in London, Hamid obtained a BSc. in engineering in 1967, followed by a masters’ degree in thermodynamics and fluid flow, both from Cambridge University.^[12]

FOUNDING STORY

In 1969, Hamid’s father moved to the Emirate of Sharjah. His expertise in the oil industry and city planning, combined with his experience in economics, helped him to build relationships with the royal family. That same year, the emir of Sharjah gave a 40-year concession to a pair of small American oil companies in the offshore area known as the Mubarak Field.^[13] By 1970, the Buttes Oil and Gas Company (BGOC) had assumed the rights to search and drill for, produce, store, transport, and sell oil and gas within the concession area.^[14] Two years later, Hamid Jafar acquired the assets of the US firm and launched a new company, Crescent Petroleum — which would eventually give birth to and become part of the Crescent Group.^{[15] [16]}

In 1973, Crescent Petroleum undertook its first international venture when it was granted the exploration rights for Block 1, an offshore area of present-day Montenegro, then part of Yugoslavia.^[17] In 1979, Crescent Petroleum discovered the offshore Zora Field, located in Gulf waters shared by Sharjah and Ajman.^[18]

Growth Phase

The mid-1980s saw the international expansion of Crescent Petroleum into Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, and Tunisia, and even further afield in such countries as Canada and Argentina.^[19] Amid the following decade’s downturn in the energy sector, however, Crescent Petroleum divested from many of its far-flung international positions and refocused attention on opportunities in the MENA region.^[20]

In 2002, Crescent Petroleum became the technical services provider for the Bukha Field,^[21] located in Omani territorial waters off the Musndam Peninsula.^[22] Crescent Petroleum also served as the technical operator for concessions in Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, and Ras Al Khaimah through 2004.^[23] In 2005, the company established Dana Gas, the Gulf’s first privately held gas company.^[24]

In 2010, Crescent Petroleum signed an agreement with Rosneft for joint exploration of the Sharjah Onshore Concession.^[25] In 2017, the company announced plans to invest up to $150 million over three years, making it one of the largest corporate venture firms in the Middle East and North Africa.^[26]

TODAY

Today, the Crescent Group continues to build on its five-decade-long legacy playing a pioneering role in the oil and energy sector in the UAE and across the Middle East. The group, with over 7,000 employees, operates in more than 22 countries under the leadership of founder and chairman Hamid Jafar. ^[27] Its portfolio of more than 25 diversified companies operate through the group’s two main subsidiaries, Crescent Petroleum and Crescent Enterprises,^[28] which are respectively led by Majid^[29] and Badr^[30] and Razan who is the Director of Crescent Petroleum. ^[31]