Michael Lynch: King Abdallah’s Illness, Political Change And The Oil Market

With King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia in serious condition, oil market participants are undoubtedly nervous that this could portend change and even upheaval in Saudi Arabia. Concern that his death could lead to a coup attempt or unrest in the Shi’ite population will no doubt be voiced, but is also likely to prove overblown. The […]

Morgan Stanley Sees ‘More Problems’ for Oil Market on New Supply

The oil market is set for “more problems” this year as increasing supplies from countries includingRussia and Iraq add to the global glut that drove prices almost 50 percent lower in 2014, according to Morgan Stanley. Output may increase from fields in West Africa, Latin America, the U.S. and Canada in addition to more exports […]

Oil, Power, And Psychopaths

Iran has a – very – long running dispute with the US about its nuclear technology. The US wants Assad (Bashar Al-Assad) out of Syria, while Iran and Russia support Assad (Russia’s sole proper base in the Middle East), who’s an Alawite (a Shi-ite branch), a people historically persecuted by Sunni’s. ISIS (or Daesh in […]

The Tragedy of the American Military

The American public and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawk nation in which careless spending and strategic folly combine to lure America into endless wars it can’t win. In mid-September, while President Obama was fending off complaints that he should have done more, […]

Scrap “The Call on OPEC”

Steven Kopits is the President of Princeton Energy Advisors, and has been a guest blogger on The Barrel numerous times in the past.  Seven years ago, when I first turned my attention full time to oil, one of the strangest concepts I encountered was the “call on OPEC”.  The call on OPEC means different things […]

Low Oil Prices in the New Year Are Screwing Petrostates

Low oil prices in 2015 could spark an economic revival in the United States while impoverishing Russians, Venezuelans, and other petrostate citizens. The New Year starts with oil prices at their lowest since 2009. This week they dropped around $1, to $53.11 for West Texas crude and $56.75 for Brent traded in London. Oil prices […]

Iran says Saudi Arabia should move to curb oil price fall

Falling world oil prices will hurt countries across the Middle East unless Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, takes action to reverse the slump, Iran’s deputy foreign minister told Reuters. Hossein Amir Abdollahian described Saudi Arabia’s inaction in the face of a six-month slide in oil prices as a strategic mistake and said he […]

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia hospitalised

Saudi Arabia’s ailing King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, 91, has been admitted to hospital for “medical checks,” the royal court has said. The king, whose age and frequent hospitalisation have raised concerns about the future leadership of the key oil producing country, was admitted to the King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, a court statement carried […]

Suicide bombing targets Libyan parliament

A suicide bomber detonated a car laden with explosives in front of a hotel where Libya’s elected parliament was in session in the eastern city of Tobruk on Tuesday, wounding three deputies and eight others, the assembly’s spokesman said. The bombing is the biggest attack on the parliament since it set up in Tobruk, near […]

US Opens Door to Oil Exports After Year of Pressure

The Obama administration on Tuesday bowed to months of growing pressure over a 40-year-old ban on exports of most domestic crude, taking two steps expected to unleash a wave of ultra-light shale oil onto global markets. The Bureau of Industry and Security, or BIS, which regulates export controls, said it had granted permission to “some” […]

The biggest threat to water security is war

The Middle East and North Africa region accounts for about nine per cent of the planet’s geographic area, has roughly five per cent of the world’s population and just one per cent of the global supply of fresh­water. Unsurprisingly then, freshwater resource stress has grown in the region in the past 25-50 years. It has […]

Russia to add wheat exports duty

Russia will introduce a duty on wheat exports from Feb. 1, the government said, adding to other restrictions with which it is battling a rise in domestic grain prices. Russia, expected to be the world’s fourth-largest wheat exporter this year, has been exporting record volumes from a large grain crop of 105 million tonnes as […]

Lies to block the Saudi population policy paper

The Saudi Shura Council will meet a second time to vote on a recommendation to reject a population policy draft paper drafted by its members to reduce fertility rates. The lawmakers had previously rejected one version of the recommendation. The whole issue is nothing more than a free-for-all debate and it is every member’s right […]

China To Launch Yuan Swap Trading With Russian Rubles On Monday

The world was slow to wake up to the new reality in which China is now the de facto IMF sovereign backstop, as Zero Hedge described two weeks ago in “China Prepares To Bailout Russia” when we noted that a PBOC swap-line was meant to reduce the role of the US dollar if China and Russia need […]

America: Everything Is Awesome!

Good news! The U.S. economy grew at a rollicking 5 percent rate in the third quarter. Oh, and it added 320,000 jobs in November, the best of its unprecedented 57 straight months of private-sector employment growth. Just in time for Christmas, the Dow just hit an all-time high and the uninsured rate is approaching an […]

Saudi 2015 budget based on oil price around $60

* Government doesn’t publish oil price assumption in budget * But finance minister indicates it’s close to current levels * Budget cuts oil price assumption for first time since 2009 * Disagreement over when oil will rebound – minister   Saudi Arabia’s 2015 state budget assumes an oil price close to current levels of around […]

The Economy Isn’t Going To Recover, U.S. Government Preparing for Collapse

The Economy isn’t going to recover. The government knows this and is getting ready, but in ways that are very disturbing. Investment Watch

Rocket hits tank at Libya’s biggest oil port

A rocket set a storage tank at the eastern Libyan oil of port Es Sider on fire as armed factions allied to competing governments fought for control of the country’s biggest export terminal, officials from both sides said on Thursday. Clashes were also reported from Sirte, a city west of Es Sider, killing up to […]

Russia called on to suspend arctic oil ambitions

The Russian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature said Russia needs to suspend exploration and production efforts in the arctic because of low oil prices. At a press summit organized by the Russian Natural Resources Ministry, WWF Director Igor Chestin said it was time to halt ambitions in the Russian arctic. “We need […]

Everything’s Coming Together While Everything Falls Apart

It was the most thrilling bureaucratic document I’ve ever seen for just one reason: it was dated the 21st day of the month of Thermidor in the Year Six. Written in sepia ink on heavy paper, it recorded an ordinary land auction in France in what we would call the late summer of 1798. But […]

Will The Fed Intervene In The Oil Market?

In a larger sense, the Fed is already intervening in the oil sector via its zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) and its unlimited liquidity for financial speculation. The problem with financializing a critical sector of the economy is the financialization process transforms it into a systemic risk. The trajectory of every financialized sector is the same: […]

The World Is Not Falling Apart

Never mind the headlines. We’ve never lived in such peaceful times. It’s a good time to be a pessimist. ISIS, Crimea, Donetsk, Gaza, Burma, Ebola, school shootings, campus rapes, wife-beating athletes, lethal cops—who can avoid the feeling that things fall apart, the center cannot hold? Last year Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of […]

Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi: We’ll never cut production despite plunging prices

The Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali al-Naimi has declared that the country will “never” cut oil production despite prices hitting five and a half year lows on over-supply and weak demand. Al-Naimi added in a CNN interview that Saudi Arabia was also “not conspiring” to target US and Russian oil producers by not cutting supply and […]

What the US Should Learn from Russia’s Collapse

After months of whispered warnings, Russia’s economic troubles made global headlines when its currency collapsed halfway through December. Amid the tumbling price of oil, the ruble has fallen to record lows, bringing the country to its most serious economic crisis since the late 1990s. Topping most lists of reasons for the collapse is Russia’s failure […]

Saudi Oil Minister Naimi says oil price drop temporary

Saudi Arabia’s powerful oil minister said on Thursday that OPEC could not cut output without the support of other big producers and attempts to get them on board had not worked. Ali al-Naimi said it was impossible for OPEC to cut alone to reverse the oil price slump — which he called temporary — when […]

Gulf braces for tough times over oil price plunge

Gulf countries are bracing for tough times as vital oil revenues fall and after they missed a golden opportunity to diversify their economies in a decade of unprecedented windfalls, analysts say. The six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – could soon […]

Don’t expect a Cuban oil bonanza

More U.S. travelers may soon start flocking to Cuba, but don’t expect oil executives to follow them. Cuba is believed to hold sizable oil and gas resources off its northwest coast, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico — raising speculation that the Communist nation could become an attractive target for energy companies if Wednesday’s diplomatic […]

Saudi Arabia’s Oil Strategy Is About More Than Destroying The US Shale Business

Saudi Arabia may not be aiming at the US in its hands-off policy toward falling oil prices. At a panel discussion Wednesday hosted by the Overseas Press Club and Control Risks (the latter a global risk consultancy), the speakers seemed skeptical of the idea that Saudi Arabia was refusing to prop up oil prices because it […]

New York Bans Fracking After Health Report

New York state will ban hydraulic fracturing after a long-awaited report concluded that the oil and gas extraction method poses health risks, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration said on Wednesday. New York Environmental Commissioner Joseph Martens said at a cabinet meeting he will issue an order early next year banning fracking, which has been under a […]

Pillaging the World. The History and Politics of the IMF

The following text is the forward to Ernst Wolff’s book entitled : Pillaging the World. The History and Politics of the IMF, © Tectum Verlag Marburg, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8288-3438-5, www.tectum-verlag.de. The book is available in English and German No other financial organization has affected the lives of the majority of the world’s population more profoundly […]

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