Saudi c.bank: China yuan good diversifier, but far from reserve currency

Saudi Arabia thinks that the Chinese yuan is a good option for diversifying foreign currency reserves but it is still far from being a reserve currency, its central bank governor Fahad al-Mubarak said on Sunday. Asked whether it made sense to consider diversifying the central bank’s reserves to include the yuan, also known as the […]

Saudi Arabia: besieged and fearful

The Saudi regime has long been considered a pillar of political stability in the Middle East, a country that commanded respect and prudence from all its neighbors. This is no longer true, and the first ones to recognize this are those who are important internal players in the regime. Today, they feel besieged on all […]

Kunstler Chatting with Charles Hugh Smith

JHK and Charles Hugh Smith, author and blogger at OfTwoMinds.com, yak about the Deep State, our favorite new word for what used be be known as the Establishment. We also touch on Charles’s theory that the Deep State will be willing to “throw Wall Street under the bus” to save itself, if it felt threatened. […]

16% of Natural Gas Consumed in Europe Flows Through Ukraine

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, IHS EDIN, and International Energy Agency Note: Representations of international boundaries and names are not authoritative. Europe, including all EU members plus Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, and the non-EU Balkan states, consumed 18.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas in 2013. Russia supplied 30% (5.7 Tcf) of this volume, with […]

The World Is Screaming For A New Financial System

One of the key lessons we can take away from history is that the global financial system changes… frequently. [12]   In ancient times, Roman coins were used across the region by Romans and non-Romans alike who engaged in trade and commerce. Given how destructively successive Roman governments debased their coins, however, the reserve burden […]

Natural Gas: A Geo-Political Tool Or Modern Weapon?

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a formidable maneuver that launched a 10+ year conflict. Today, President Obama is on the verge of another conflict in the Ukraine that involves Russia’s occupation of Crimea. Unlike Bush, however, Obama and Congress are eyeing natural gas exports as their weapon of choice to rein in Vladimir Putin […]

Russia, Gazprom Should Take Care of Crimea’s Oil, Gas Production

Russian companies such as Gazprom should be involved in Crimea’s oil and gas production, the speaker of Crimea’s Moscow-backed parliament told Russia’s RIA news agency on Thursday. Vladimir Konstantinov also said the Ukrainian region, which wants to join Russia, was guarding oilfields and rigs. “Russia, and Gazprom, should take care of the oil and gas […]

SPR oil put up for sale on the day Ukraine’s new chief is in town

One trader speaking to a Platts reporter had this to say about the decision by the Department of Energy today to sell 5 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. “The Gulf Coast market has plenty of barrels,” he said. “They should have done it a few weeks ago when the Gulf Coast […]

Saudi Arabia Threatens to Blockade Qatar Over Terrorism

Saudi Arabia has threatened to blockade neighbouring Qatar by air, land and sea unless Doha cuts ties with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, closes global channel al-Jazeera, and expels local branches of the US Brookings Institution and Rand Corporation think tanks. The threat was issued by Riyadh before it withdrew its ambassador to Doha and branded as […]

Ukraine: Challenging the pipelines narrative

As a former correspondent in Kiev, Moscow and Georgia at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and as someone who has an ongoing interest in events in the former Soviet space, I would maintain that the attempt to link the Ukraine conflict with pipelines and natural resources is highly debatable. There are […]

Ukraine, Russia and the nonexistent U.S. oil and natural gas “weapon”

Commentators were falling all over themselves last week to announce that far from being impotent in the Ukraine crisis, the United States had a very important weapon: growing oil and natural gas production which could compete on the world market and challenge Russian dominance over Ukrainian and European energy supplies–if only the U.S. government would […]

Ukraine is About Oil. So Was World War I

Pro-Russian supporters wave Russian flags to welcome the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship, the missile cruiser Moskva, entering Sevastopol bay in September 10, 2008. (Photo: AFP)Ukraine is a lot more portentous than it appears. It is fundamentally about the play for Persian Gulf oil. So was World War I. The danger lies in the chance […]

Iran, world powers hold ‘substantive and useful’ nuclear talks

Iran and six world powers held “substantive and useful” expert-level talks over Tehran’s nuclear program this week, they said on Friday, ahead of a new round of political negotiations later this month. Seeking to build on an interim agreement reached late last year in Geneva, Iran and the major powers aim to hammer out a […]

Loophole Makes Hilarious Mockery Of US Crude Oil Export Ban

Washington is tangled up in spirited bouts of mudwrestling over exporting US-produced crude oil, which has been prohibited since the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Oil companies, environmentalists, consumer groups, lobbyists, lawmakers – they’re all at it. Oil companies, faced with lackadaisical consumption and ballooning production in the US, are desperate. They have visions of […]

Can The United States Rule The (Energy) World?

Geopolitical crises in Eastern Europe have been met with calls in the United States to use energy as a foreign policy tool. With U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz asking the industry to make a stronger case, however, it’s domestic policies that may inhibit energy hegemony. “The industry could do a lot better job talking about […]

Ukraine crisis is about Great Power oil, gas pipeline rivalry

Pipeline map via BBC Russia‘s armed intervention in the Crimea undoubtedly illustrates President Putin’s ruthless determination to get his way in Ukraine. But less attention has been paid to the role of the United States in interfering in Ukrainian politics and civil society. Both powers are motivated by the desire to ensure that a geostrategically pivotal country with […]

In Defence of Hypocrisy

Do I contradict myself?  Very well then I contradict myself,  (I am large, I contain multitudes.)   The ‘I’ in this passage — from section 51 of Song of Myself, by poet Walt Whitman — stands as a reference to the erratic and self-contradictory ways in which people think and act out their lives.   […]

Natural Gas and International Policy

Recent unrest around the world is making U.S. policy makers to look closely at our nation’s energy policy.  Venezuela, one of the world’s largest oil producers, has seen their oil production fall due to political unrest, bad leadership, and a broken economic system.  Russia, another major energy producer, is rattling sabers and Europe is uncomfortable […]

Vladimir Putin using Russia’s natural gas as a weapon against Ukraine

Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton says Russian President Vladimir Putin is using his country’s energy resources to intimidate his opponents. Concerns over Ukraine’s financial condition mounted this week after Russian state gas company Gazprom said it was cancelling a substantial discount on natural gas granted to the former satellite country in December. Mr. […]

Imperial Conquest: America’s Long War Against Humanity

Worldwide militarization is also part of a global economic agenda, namely the application of the neoliberal economic policy model which has led to the impoverishment of large sectors of the World population. The world is at the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern history. The US has embarked on a military adventure, “a […]

Ukraine Crisis Means Drill Baby Drill

Russia’s invasion of the Crimea is a tipping point event that will further spur the North American oil boom.  The European Union (EU) and United Statesin 2008 threatened toslap economic sanctions on Russia for invading Georgia.  But after a while the criticism faded and sanctions threats were quietly dropped, because the EU is almost entirely […]

Chronology of the Ukrainian Coup

This is a guest post by Renée Parsons, who did a very good job of pulling together the facts. Facts are important, you know, especially in light of the rabidly anti-Russian press coverage in the US. [Wednesday updates: • According to a leaked EU’s Ashton phone tape, the Kiev snipers, who shot both protesters and […]

Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain pull ambassadors from Qatar

Three Gulf states withdraw their ambassadors from Qatar after alleging that the emirate has been meddling in their internal affairs Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have issued a joint statement withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar. “The three states have decided to start taking measures they see fit to protect their security and […]

Energy Risks of the Ukraine Crisis

Russia’s intervention in the Crimean Peninsula poses few risks to Europe’s energy supplies, but escalation or Western sanctions could change that assessment. If the crisis expanded to mainland Ukraine, the integrity of that country’s pipelines and the natural gas they carry to EU members would be the most immediate energy concern. Although Ukraine’s energy assets don’t […]

Save the Ukraine By Exporting Natural Gas

A prescient House Energy and Commerce Committee report released last month, just in time for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, suggested that “by becoming a natural gas exporter, the U.S. can supplant the influence of other exporters like Russia and Iran while strengthening ties with our allies and trading partners around the world.” President Obama does […]

Gazprom Threatens to Disrupt Gas Supplies to Europe

Russian-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom has threatened to disrupt gas supplies to Europe following warnings by John Kerry and others that harsh economic sanctions could be imposed on Moscow, as the Ukraine crisis threatens to spiral into a trade war. “Simmering political tensions in Ukraine, that are aggravated by inadequate economic conditions, may cause disruptions […]

Kunstler: Let’s You and Him Fight

So, now we are threatening to start World War Three because Russia is trying to control the chaos in a failed state on its border — a state that our own government spooks provoked into failure? The last time I checked, there was a list of countries that the USA had sent troops, armed ships, […]

Russia’s Energy Minister Cancels CERA Amid Tensions in Ukraine

Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak has canceled his appearance at IHS CERAWeek, as his country invades Ukraine. Novak was slated to speak Tuesday as part of a panel at the annual Houston conference, but pulled out Saturday, the day after Russian troops moved into Crimea, CNBC reports. A new panel of speakers who are experts […]

U.S. asking Israel to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists

President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Sept. 30, 2013. AFP/Getty Images As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flies to Washington – due to arrive on Sunday (March 2), to prepare for talks with President Barack Obama at the White House […]

Peak Oil Denial: Oil Embargo Nonsense

At the risk of starting a cat fight where truth may too quickly become a casualty, why don’t we more forcefully challenge those who deny peak oil (and global warming) and who do so for reasons that generally ignore reality in favor of narrowly-defined interests? Those motivations will ultimately do nothing but promote more eventual […]

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