For all the people who dared to dream that some kind of deal could be realised at Copenhagen comes the cold reality that time is basically running out.  Fast. And there is less than sixty days to go.
The Bangkok talks have ended in failure. The gap between what is needed and what the current negotiationing [...]

When the final chapter of the dying days of the hydrocarbon age is written, the petro-politics of one nation will probably have more bearing on the outcome than any other.
Whether you are reading about Africa, Canada or the Middle East -  the country of concern will be China. (Also see Friday’s blog about the Chinese [...]

So the great Iraqi oil sell-off continues. The embattled Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani will today unveil the next round of oil contracts at a conference in Istanbul.
Al-Shahristani is under pressure to pull in investment after the Iraqi government’s first round only secured one deal for the vast Rumaila field: BP and China National Petroleum [...]

After its offer was accepted last month to develop Iraq’s vast Rumaila oil field, BP may have thought it had won the biggest prize in the country’s oil race. But it may not be over yet and BP now faces industrial action.
The trade union representing workers of Iraq’s state-owned Southern Oil Company (SOC) yesterday threatened [...]

This was not meant to happen. In the post-invasion planning of Iraq it was meant to be the American and British oil companies that enjoyed the spoils of war and access to the country’s lucrative oil reserves.
But the Kurds keep putting a proverbial spanner in the works. Iraq’s Kurdish leaders adopted a new constitution two [...]