Paper Title
The Impact of Oil Prices on Firm Performance in GCC Countries

Abstract
This paper examines the impact of the oil price on firms’ performance in GCC countries. GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates) rely heavily on oil income, which accounts for about 80% of their revenues and more than 50% of GDP. This region contributes more than 25% to global oil production, and it holds about 30% of the world’s crude oil reserves. Performance is measured using accounting and market performance indicators. The ROE is a proxy accounting performance, while Tobin’s Q is employed as a proxy for market performance. The study takes a sample of listed non-financial companies. The sample is divided into two subgroups. The first subgroup includes companies in oil-related sectors, such as oil, gas, and chemicals. These sectors are affected directly by the oil price. The second subgroup contains all other sectors.The results show a significant and positive relationship between the oil price and companies' accounting performance in GCC countries. This implies that the higher the oil price, the better the operating performance of companies in general. The results of the whole sample as well as of subgroups are consistent. However, when the market performance measure (Tobin’s Q) is used, oil-related sectors show a positive and significant relationship, while companies from other sectors don’t have a significant relationship. This implies that market participants perceive the positive impact of the oil price on oil-related sectors, but not on other sectors. Keywords - Firm performance, Gulf cooperation council (GCC), Market value, Oil prices, Profitability.