Visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that Washington is “deeply concerned” over Turkey’s gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean amid growing tensions between Turkey, Cyprus and Greece. “We remain deeply concerned by Turkey’s ongoing operations surveying for natural resources in areas over which Greece and Cyprus assert …
Read More »Climate Change, A Central Focus of Companies and Governments in Last Decade
Cutting carbon emissions has become a central focus of countries and companies alike in the past decade. The oil majors are racing to ‘go green, Microsoft has pledged to go ‘carbon negative’, and over 20 nations have either committed to or achieved net-zero carbon targets. For public companies, the incentives …
Read More »OPEC+ Bid to Rescue Oil Market Falters as Demand Recovery Stalls
It was meant to be the week when OPEC nations gathered in Baghdad to celebrate the cartel’s six decades as a dominant force in global oil markets. Instead, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies will convene online, and reflect on whether the coranavirus has thwarted their best …
Read More »Covid and the New Crude Normal
Uncertainty continues to rule. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has cut its 2021 demand growth outlook for 2021 to 6.5 million barrels per day (bpd) – 500,000 bpd lower than projected last month. The EIA now expects the Chinese demand to grow only by 1m bpd next year, and …
Read More »OPEC’s 60th Anniversary
On Sept 14, 1960, the five founding fathers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo of Venezuela; Abdullah Al-Tariki of Saudi Arabia; Dr Tala’at Al-Shaibani of Iraq; Dr Fuad Rouhani of Iran and Ahmed Sayed Omar of Kuwait gathered together in Al-Shaab Hall in …
Read More »Iran Exports $2.5bln Worth of Non-Oil Goods to Middle Eastern Countries
Director-General of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization’s Office for Arabian and African Countries Farzad Piltan announced exports of about $2.5 billion worth of non-oil goods from Iran to the Middle Eastern countries over the past five months. “Iraq, the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Syria, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, and Bahrain have been the …
Read More »COVID-19 Is Transforming the Auto Industry
Automotive players in Turkey expect up to 8m used car sales in 2020 as a pre-pandemic shortage of new vehicles is exacerbated by supply chain disruptions attributed to the virus. Some 2.1m cars and light commercial vehicles were sold in the first quarter of the year, putting the market on …
Read More »Poland’s Orlen Aims for 2050 Emission Neutrality
Poland’s oil and energy giant PKN Orlen says it is aiming at carbon emission neutrality by the year 2050. Central and Eastern Europe’s leader in the energy sector, Orlen said this week it will invest heavily in developing cleaner production methods and greater efficiency, as well as in wind and …
Read More »Saudi Arabia Keeps Pushing OPEC+ to Increase Oil Output
Saudi Arabia has been encouraging members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers such as Russia, known as OPEC+, to increase output in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, the Financial Times reports on Wednesday. According to report, Saudi Arabia plans to keep oil production …
Read More »Iraq Could Seek an Exemption from OPEC+ Output Cuts
Iraq is debating whether to ask to be exempted from the oil production cuts OPEC+ agreed on this April. Initially set at 9.7 million bpd, the cuts have now been eased to 7.7 million bpd but as the second-largest producer in OPEC, Iraq is shouldering quite a large chunk of …
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