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Posts in Middle East

British LNG Imports at Risk in Gulf Crisis
Andy Rowell
Jan16
More on the growing Iranian crisis. Brent crude is rising this morning due to worries over serious disruptions to the supply of crude after Iran warned its Arab neighbours of “consequences” if they raised oil output to replace Iranian loses through international sanctions. As the US has increased diplomatic pressure on countries that import Iranian…
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Oil and Democracy Don’t Mix
Andy Rowell
Nov01
I remember years ago going to a lecture by a senior executive from Premier Oil about operating in Burma and he said that oil men liked working in authoritarian regimes as they were much more predictable than democracies. Ironically they were more stable. Over the last year, the Arab spring has challenged this concept to…
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BP Accused of “Backroom Dealings” in Iraq
Andy Rowell
Aug01
The oil industry watchdog PLATFORM has issued a report which exposes the extent to which the British oil giant BP has gained control over one of Iraq’s most lucrative oil fields, the super-giant Rumaila, near the Southern city of Basra. The report, “From Glass Box to Smoke Filled Room – How BP secretly renegotiated its…
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The High Cost of Keeping Gas Prices Low
Andy Rowell
May16
The subsidy battle raging in Washington at the moment is all about what are known as “production” subsidies. These are subsidies that are paid to the oil majors to keep the oil and gas flowing. But there is also another type of subsidy: this is where governments, often in countries producing oil or developing countries,…
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Libyan Rebels Threaten to Deny Oil to Dithering Nations
Andy Rowell
Mar14
As the West dithers and dallies over whether to support the Libyan rebels, Gaddafi’s forces are rapidly gaining momentum across the country. This morning the dictator’s troops seemed to have taken the town of Brega after seizing control of the strategic oil town of Ras Lanuf on Saturday. They now look like they will regroup…
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OPEC’s “Fictional” Comfort Blanket
Andy Rowell
Mar09
Many people are now getting jittery about Saudi Arabia. Protesters in the Kingdom have called for a “day of rage” his Friday to show their dissatisfaction with King Abdullah’s regime. Meanwhile the King has tried to head off serious unrest in the country by pledging to boost spending on housing, social welfare and education. And…
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“An oilquake that shakes our world to its core”
Andy Rowell
Mar08
The press reports this morning that members of Opec have joined Saudi Arabia in boosting oil output to make up the fall in output from Libya. The countries concerned – Kuwait, UAE and Nigeria – have all promised to boost production. In many ways you could argue that OPEC’s gamble is trying to delay the…
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Saudi Arabia’s “Inconvenient Truth”
Andy Rowell
Feb09
New documents released by Wikileaks reveal that for over three years the Americans have been worried that Saudi Arabia may have overstated its reserves by 40 per cent or some 300bn barrels. The fact that Saudi Arabia may be overstating its reserves its nothing new, but many consider it the elephant in the room for…
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“Trillions” to defend oil supply
Steve Kretzmann
Aug09
Since the 1973 Arab oil embargo, successive US administrations have equated national security with access to, and control of, oil – particularly in the Persian Gulf, which holds two-thirds of global oil reserves. In other words, as long as we need oil, we need the Persian Gulf. Faced with this unpleasant fact, every President since…
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Oil “Dominating” Iraqi Election Campaign
Andy Rowell
Mar02
So seven years later it will come down to this weekend. Whether President Obama can withdraw all American combat troops from Iraq by August will be decided by the Iraqi elections this weekend. If the election passes off peacefully, American soldiers will probably go home on schedule. But if there is a repeat of the…
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