State-controlled Saudi Aramco adjusted its official crude oil selling prices in response to changing oil market dynamics. The company left Arab Light prices unchanged for Asian customers, while it increased prices for destinations in Europe and the US where demand appears to be picking up. The summer cooling season in Saudi Arabia is expected to… Keep reading →
Gail (India) Ltd., the country’s largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company, is looking to buy seven liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes for delivery from Oct. 2015 until Dec. 2016, the company disclosed at the end of March. According to the tender agreement, deliveries are to be split between India’s Dabhol, Dahej and Hazira… Keep reading →
Saudi Arabia, until recently the world’s top oil exporter and still de facto OPEC leader, is feeling pressure. Its top exporting customer of nearly four decades, the US, has become its greatest competitor. Amid the shale oil boom and the wonders of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), the US is now producing over 9 million barrels of crude… Keep reading →
Six-year-low oil prices, excess supply and debt woes among U.S. producers will change the oil and gas industry, but in no certain, or short, order. To paint a clear picture of what the oil and gas industry will look like by the end of 2015 would be an exercise in futility. The only thing we… Keep reading →
Continued low oil prices keep the leaders of many oil-producing states awake at night, but few feel the pressure as keenly as Nigerian authorities. Dienzani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s oil minister and current OPEC president, pled for an emergency meeting to discuss oil production cuts last month. Though such a meeting is unlikely to occur, Alison-Madueke’s proposed… Keep reading →
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, recently said again that OPEC will not take sole responsibility for supporting global oil prices. Since the collapse in oil prices this past year, OPEC has attempted to convince non-OPEC oil producers to cooperate on production and prices, but with little success. “Today the situation is hard. We tried, we… Keep reading →
Singapore’s goal of becoming Asia’s premier liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading hub is steadily unfolding. Earlier this month, Singapore’s Second Minister for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran said that the Singapore Energy Market Authority (EMA) received nine bids in December from suppliers hoping to become LNG aggregators in the city-state. The bids came after the… Keep reading →
At the beginning of the year the proposed $6 billion Jordan Cove Energy Project looked like nothing could stand in its way. The project is slated to be built in Coos County on the southern Oregon coast by Calgary-based Veresen Inc. and is one of more than a dozen US based liquefied natural gas (LNG)… Keep reading →
The crude oil price plunge of more than 50% since last June has proved a mixed blessing for global economies. It has cut deep into the coffers of oil producing nations while providing much needed relief for oil and natural gas import dependent countries. China, the world’s second largest oil importer, is also taking advantage… Keep reading →
Opinion: Oil and Economics at a Geopolitical Crossroad
By Nabegh Al SabbaghThe Middle East would have had a different shape today, if the US dollar were never pegged to oil trading. The ‘Petrodollar’ was born out of a US-Saudi agreement where oil sales would be denominated in dollars in return for US protection. Being established on a geopolitical infrastructure, the petrodollar has developed dimensions of security,… Keep reading →