Things are certainly hotting up for foreign oil companies in Yemen. A blast shook an area near the headquarters of Canadian oil company Nexen in the capital Sanaa yesterday. The blast followed Sunday’s mortar attack by an Al Qaeda terrorist organization on a residential complex in Yemen that houses executives and the headquarters of Safer … Read More
Middle East
World Oil Output Struggling, Say Arab Experts
Leading figures from the Middle East oil industry have added their voices to those warning that the world is struggling to sustain rising oil production. “There is a real problem — that supply may not be possible to increase beyond a certain level, say around 100 million barrels,” Libya’s National Oil Corporation chairman Shokri Ghanem … Read More
Kuwait: We have 100 Billion Barrel Oil Reserve
OPEC-member Kuwait has reconfirmed that its oil reserves are 100 billion barrels, disputing a report that the figure was around half that amount. “We confirm that Kuwait’s oil reserves are 100 billion barrels,” acting oil minister Mohammad al-Olaim told reporters after briefing parliament in a closed-door session about the levels of reserves in the Gulf … Read More
Trouble in the Colonies
The Fourth of July was cool and rainy in Vermont, as it seems to be with surprising regularity. I suppose that’s why my town sets off its fireworks on the evening of July 3rd, which was perfect for pyrotechnics this year. Fireworks finished, I had all day Wednesday to contemplate this year’s version of American … Read More
Britain Slashes Reliance on Middle Eastern Oil
Just as the debate rages of Iraq’s oil law, new government figures show that Britain is now importing only the tiniest fraction of its oil from the Middle East, sourcing its crude instead from the Americas, Africa and Norway. An analysis by UK government officials reveals how dramatically the map of UK oil sources has … Read More
Middle East Oil Firm Buys into Alberta’s Oil
In what is being described as a startling reversal of history, a Middle Eastern energy company is pushing into the Canadian oil and gas market looking for secure supplies. Abu Dhabi National Energy Company has said it has struck a deal to buy Northrock Resources Ltd., a Calgary-based oil and gas exploration firm, for $2-billion … Read More
BG Group to Supply Gaza Gas to Israel
This is a really hot political potato. The British BG Group is poised to agree the terms of an historic $4 billion deal to supply Palestinian gas to Israel from a discovery off the Gaza coastline. Representatives from BG are due to thrash out a 15-year contract with the Israeli Cabinet next week. Despite the … Read More
Miliband: We Should Focus on Costs of Middle East Oil
The UK Environment Secretary David Miliband has said that dealing with climate change does not only help the environment but bring a “peace dividend” because the world’s “oil dependence creates real danger”. Mr Miliband said it was “right” for a growing movement in the US to push for energy independence in the United States, “focusing … Read More
Chomsky: US Foreign Policy Driven by Oil
A great article by Noam Chomsky in today’s Guardian arguing that “Washington’s escalation of threats against Iran is driven by a determination to secure control of the region’s energy resources.” For the US, writes Chomsky, “the primary issue in the Middle East has been, and remains, effective control of its unparalleled energy resources. Access is a … Read More
New Oil Finds in Sunni Iraq
Although huge petroleum deposits have long been known in Iraq’s Kurdish north and Shiite south, Iraq has substantially increased its estimates of the amount of oil and natural gas in deposits on Sunni lands, especially in Anbar province. Iraq has quietly been paying foreign oil companies tens of millions of dollars over the past two … Read More