Sanctions will thwart Rosneft’s ambitions to join the ranks of oil’s superpowers

THE close bond between Igor Sechin, Rosneft’s boss, and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, can work both ways. His seat in Mr Putin’s inner circle brings rebuke. Mr Sechin is on an American blacklist, and Rosneft is barred from seeking longer-term finance from American banks, over Russia’s behaviour in Ukraine. But it brings rewards too. This […]

Gaza Crisis: Isis Pledge to Join the Palestinian Fight Against ‘Barbaric Jews’

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) has told the Palestinian people that it is “only a matter of time” before they reach Palestine to join the fight against “barbaric Jews”. The Islamic militant group, who last month announced a “Caliphate” straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border and renamed themselves the Islamic State, released the […]

Beyond oil and reserves, Russia running on empty

* Russian economy at zero growth despite high oil prices * Sanctions hinder investment in oil production * Drop in crude prices could shake Putin’s reign   For all the sanctions Western leaders can throw at Russia, the biggest threat to President Vladimir Putin’s ability to back separatists in east Ukraine is something beyond his […]

Russia And India Begin Negotations To Use National Currencies In Settlements, Bypassing Dollar

Over the past 6 months, there has been much talk about the strategic proximity between Russia and China, made even more proximal following the “holy grail” gas deal announced in May which would not have happened on such an accelerated time frame had it not been for US escalation in Ukraine. But little has been […]

Orlov: Saving Face

The Americans are finding out the hard way that a fact-free zone is not a comfortable place to inhabit. The initial knee-jerk allegations, voiced by Obama, by the screechy UN representative Samantha Power, by John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and any number of talking heads, were that the downing of flight MH17 was all Putin’s fault. […]

New Russia Sanctions: Washington, Delusional About US Energy Capacity, Lashes Out

The New York Times reports that “The United States and Europe kicked off a joint effort on Tuesday intended to curb Russia’s long-term ability to develop new oil resources.” The new sanctions would deny Russia access to western technology needed to access polar oil and deepwater oil, as well as tight oil produced by hydrofracturing […]

Is Economic Migration Still Sustainable?

Migration has always been part of the human experience. As the world’s population has grown, so too has the number of people migrating. But have we reached the point where the developed world is no longer seeing a benefit from the economic migration of people from the developing world? From the 18th Century onwards, 55 […]

Why Hillary Clinton is Right about Putin

Both energy companies and consuming countries who still think appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin will solve their long term problems need to think again. Hillary Clinton’s tough talk about why we must stand up to energy fascism is spot on and needs to be carefully heeded. The West and China have undoubtedly benefited from cheap […]

Iraq Gets Court Order Seizing Kurdish Crude Off Texas

Iraq persuaded a U.S. judge to order the seizure of $100 million of oil inside a tanker anchored off Galveston, Texas, that it claims was illegally pumped from wells in Kurdistan. Kurdish officials “misappropriated” more than 1 million barrels of oil from northern Iraq and exported them through a Turkish pipeline, according to a complaint […]

China struggles to open its energy sector to more non-state entities

As China forges ahead toward the end of its 12th Five-Year Plan in 2015, the path toward reform in the energy sector for easier market entry and more competition—outlined as a main target in the plan—remains long and winding. State-owned enterprise reform was only made a priority this year, with the government pledging to introduce […]

As US kicks off crude exports, Iran casts a shadow in Asia

The United States faces an awkward rival in its first attempts in 40 years to export crude oil – Iran. Iran, whose economy has been throttled by Western sanctions that have halved its crude shipments, is now selling higher quality and cheaper oil to China that leaves little room for the U.S. crude to enter […]

‘NYT’ Op-Ed Militates for Higher Oil Prices and Fewer American Jobs

The NYTimes Op-Ed Militates For Higher Oil Prices and Fewer American Jobs in Thursday’s NYTimes Op-Ed “Let Our Oil and Gas Go” Mr. Steven Rattner demonstrates that he lives in an oil industry induced fantasy whose preachments have seduced the public, our government, our press in the misguided belief that the price we are paying […]

One Hundred Thirty Nine Square Miles of Sand, Part II: The Road to Zion

” Gaza is the largest and oldest contiguous Arab enclave in Palestine, but it has become a concentration camp — 139 square miles of sand — where 1.8 million Palestinians have been herded into a cul de sac to make way for Zion.“ Buchenwald survivors arrive in Haifa, 1946 (source: Life) “If a path to […]

Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas and Natural Gas

Natural gas is falsely promoted by the Obama Administration and energy corporations as a “bridge fuel” that will allow American society to continue to use fossil energy over the coming decades while emitting fewer greenhouse gases than from using other fossil fuels such as coal and oil. On this basis, President Obama is providing total […]

Will Expanding Mideast Turbulence Weigh on Global Oil Prices?

The outburst of Israel’s attempt to crush Hamas, the Libyan econo/political disintegration, and the expansion of the Syrian/Iraqi based caliphate, together with the Russo/Iranian block’s confrontation with the U.S. and European Union puts the OPEC’s Saudi Arabian core swing producer in an increasingly isolated position. With the European Union’s dependency on Russia’s pipeline-connected oil and […]

Keeping Putin’s Hands Off Argentina’s Oil

The White House shouldn’t allow Argentina’s debt problems to impede U.S. energy security. Just prior to the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin was wrapping up a six-day tour of Latin America, including a bilateral meeting with Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on July 12. Kirchner’s meeting with Putin, in […]

Iraqi Kurdish oil may finally be freely for sale as the US seems to be dropping its threats

The United Leadership, a tanker containing about one million barrels of oil from Iraqi Kurdistan, has been stuck at sea for two months. The ship has been mostly anchored off the Moroccan coast, the victim of legal threats against potential buyers. It is mired in a battle between Kurdistan, intent on parlaying the sale of such […]

U.S. Should Do More to Develop Oil, Natural Gas

Large majorities of registered voters, both Republican and Democrat, support producing more oil and natural gas in the U.S. and say they would be more likely to vote for candidates who support development, according to a national poll API released.   “American voters want more oil and natural gas produced here at home but do not see […]

Top 10 Signs of U.S. Empire’s Passing

It’s not fashionable to talk about American empire these days, much less our empire’s coming demise. Our status as the world’s preeminent superpower remains largely unquestioned (at least domestically). Politicians and media pundits still portray our military as the world’s last great hope against tyranny and global terrorism. And yet, despite the U.S. military’s clear […]

EU Says Could Halt Technology for Russia to Develop Arctic Oil, Gas

The European Union should not give Russia technical help to develop Arctic oil and gas fields if Moscow does not help to defuse the Ukraine crisis, EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Wednesday. “If they don’t try for peace in the east of Ukraine … If they don’t decisively try to do something to […]

Iraq rebels storm town near Baghdad

Sunni fighters seize control of official buildings and police station in Dhuluiyah, which army recaptured last month. Sunni rebels led by the Islamic State group have attacked a town north of Baghdad and seized local government buildings, police and witnesses said. The fighters, in 50-60 vehicles, stormed the town of Dhuluiya, about 70km north of Baghdad early on […]

Putin Mulls End To Gazprom Monopoly On Pipeline Gas Sales To China

The Russian government should consider allowing gas producers other than Gazprom to export gas from new fields in east Siberia and Far East, Vedomosti daily newspaper said, citing an order from President Vladimir Putin. Russia’s Gazprom has a monopoly right to export gas via pipelines, clinching a $400 billion deal to ship gas to China […]

Orlov: Fact-Free Zone

The fog of war that has been hovering over eastern Ukraine has now spread to the shores of the Potomac, and from there has inundated ever pore of western body politic. The party line is that pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine have shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17, using a surface-to-air missile provided by Russia, […]

Tech Talk – and things continue to get worse

It is difficult to see any positive interpretation of the changes and conflicts that are increasingly filling the headlines of the press. Fluctuating optimism over the return to credible export production from Libya, to take but one example, is no sooner reported when the news comes of increased fighting in Tripoli, including the international airport. […]

Operation Protective Edge: One Hundred Thirty Nine Square Miles of Sand, Part I

““Mr. Balfour, supposing I was to offer you Paris instead of London, would you take it?” He sat up, looked at me, and answered: “But Dr. Weizmann, we have London.” “That is true,” I said, “but we had Jerusalem when London was a marsh.”“ Operation Protective Edge, 2014 Events in Gaza fill us with deep […]

Iran, six powers agree to four-month extension of nuclear talks

Iran and six world powers on Friday agreed to a four-month extension of negotiations on a long-term nuclear deal that would gradually end sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme, diplomats close to the talks said. Iran, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China had set a July 20 […]

Is Israel’s Operation Protective Edge Really About Natural Gas?

While many articles have debunked the myth that Israel is acting out of “self-defense,” very few have attempted to establish why Israel is continuing its assault on Palestine through Operation Protective Edge, aside from the supposition that Zionists have a fanatic penchant for drawing Palestinian blood. Behind the operation, behind the mass Israeli and U.S. […]

Did the US Commerce condensate export rulings mean nothing?

Two US Commerce Department rulings giving a pair of Eagle Ford players legal backing to export processed condensate have been viewed as a dramatic loosening of America’s 40-year ban on crude exports, or at least a sign that long-awaited export policy changes were near. But what if these private letter rulings really only impact the […]

America should heal itself (and use lots of steel in the process)

US president Barack Obama is spending much of this week pushing his multi-year plan to spend $300 billion on infrastructure and to keep current funding from expiring next month — issues dear to the hearts of the nation’s steel executives. The week started off with the White House release of a new report on “the […]

Chinese Oil Rig Near Vietnam to Be Moved

A Chinese energy company announced Wednesday that a giant oil rig that was deployed in disputed waters off the coast of Vietnam two months ago had completed its exploration work and would be moved. The China National Petroleum Corporation, a state-owned company, said the billion-dollar rig, known as HD 981, would be relocated to an […]

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