Russia’s Gazprom the world’s top gas producer, has announced that it will take on big new energy projects in Iran, a move likely to anger the United States which wants Tehran isolated over its nuclear work. State-controlled Gazprom, which supplies a quarter of Europe’s gas needs, said it had agreed to develop more phases of … Read More
Iran
Oil May Hit $200 if US Attacks Iran
Just getting used to oil prices around $100 a barrel. Well Thailand’s Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand has said that global oil prices could surge to US$200 per barrel if the United States goes to war with Iran. Speaking at a seminar on “The Promotion of Bio-Technology,” he said he shared a view in common with … Read More
Twelve Dollars a Year
In the late winter of 2006, the citizens of Burlington, Vermont prepared to elect one of five candidates to a three-year term for an open mayor’s seat. At one forum, a citizen stood up and asked, “Within the next mayoral term, it’s likely the price of oil will hit $90 a barrel and gas will … Read More
Iran Warns Total Over Oil Project
Iran has warned France it is prepared to go ahead with a major gas project with Total using Iranian firms alone if the French oil giant gives in to political pressure and does not swiftly implement the deal. ‘I have a message for French President (Nicolas) Sarkozy,’ Caretaker Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters … Read More
Iran: OPEC will not be Pressured by Consumers
As oil prices continue to rise, Iran has warned that OPEC would not allow itself to be pressured by consumers in the face of rising oil prices, saying current record crude highs were good for oil exporting countries. ‘The talk that OPEC is a provider and a regulator of prices and therefore can be pressured … Read More
Sacked Iranian Oil Minister Issues Warning of Energy Crisis
Iran’s sacked oil minister has issued a parting warning to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, predicting a looming “catastrophe” in the Iranian energy sector because of high consumption. “If we do not find a solution to the energy problem in the next 15 years, the country will face a catastrophe,” Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh was quoted as saying … Read More
House Committee Passes Iran Sanctions Bill
A key US Congressional committee has voted overwhelmingly to pass a wide-ranging bill that would toughen U.S. sanctions on Iran and on companies that invest in the country. Although the bill, if passed into law, would sanction any investment in Iran, it particularly targets oil and banking. It requires the president’s administration to enforce the … Read More
Halliburton Leaves Iran
Halliburton has said that its subsidiary in Iran had completed all its commitments and was no longer working in the country. In January 2005, the company said that it would not accept new work in Iran but that it would complete existing contracts there.
Oil Reaches Six-Month High Over Gulf Standoff
The increasingly tense standoff between Iran and the UK over the fate of 15 British sailors and marines captured by Iran has helped drive crude oil prices to a six-month high. Traders sent the price of crude oil up by 3 percent, to $66.03 a barrel in New York yesterday, after Iran put off a … Read More
Plans to Beat Oil Bottleneck
Gulf governments are planning to build oil pipelines that will bypass the world’s most vulnerable energy choke point, the Strait of Hormuz, aiming to avoid possible Iranian threats to global oil shipments. Around two-fifths of the world’s traded oil is shipped by tanker through the Hormuz Strait. But the 54km wide passage is highly vulnerable … Read More