The prospects of a global economic slowdown are beginning to hit oil demand
The much-awaited ministerial meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, including Russia, in the expanded OPEC+, opted to increase its September output by just 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). Despite the urgings of U.S. President Joe Biden to open Saudi Arabia’s crude oil taps during his visit there, the announced output…
Saudi Arabia isn’t ready to ditch Russia
After a brief lull and a price drop, crude oil markets are heating up again, surging by more than US$2 a barrel last week. The Aug. 3 expanded OPEC+ ministerial meeting, which includes Russia, is just around the corner. And signals from producing countries aren’t helping to stabilize the markets. In addition, the threat of…
An intense tug of war is being waged on the global crude horizon
Stakeholders continue to make interesting moves across the global energy chess board. Six days after U.S. President Joe Biden flew out of Saudi Arabia – without any public commitment from Riyadh to increase crude output significantly – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman spoke by phone, underlining the importance of…
Biden wanted more crude, Mohammed bin Salman needed recognition. The visit served both purposes
What did United States President Joe Biden gain from a trip that took him to Saudi Arabia, the state he once promised to make into the pariah he said it deserved to be? What did Biden get from meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he has avoided until now? In response to…
U.S. and Canada should work together to build new pipelines to strengthen North American energy security
Here’s an important message for U.S. President Joe Biden as he heads to Saudi Arabia tomorrow to ask the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase oil production: he should be asking Canada instead. Canada’s oil producers have helped to free American consumers from the world’s oil dictators before and can do it again…
Analysts warn that prices could reach $380/barrel if existing penalties prompt Russia to make cuts
The crude oil world is in deep flux. Ongoing attempts by the G7 to put a price cap on Russian crude exports – almost an admission of its failure to curb the flow of petro-dollars to Moscow – also meant it needed to do more. But moving ahead with the proposal could result in global…
Car racing relies on oil and gas. Canada should be the choice supplier, rather than nations like Saudi Arabia
German Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel sat on a podium in Montreal last week in gear emblazoned with his sponsor logos – including Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil giant Saudi Aramco, owned by the tyranny state of Saudi Arabia – and told reporters that Alberta’s oil sands is “criminal.” He had arrived earlier…
The best bet remains to bring sanctioned Iranian oil back to the market
American gasoline prices have crossed the unprecedented US$5-a-gallon mark. American Automobile Association data shows prices at the pump are up roughly 60 per cent from a year ago. And prices in Canada are already more than $2 a litre. We are seeing new record prices around the world with each passing week. And no respite…
LIV Tour is a PR tool for a reprehensible government seeking to wash away its human rights abuse
The things people will do for money … The way Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell and other professional golfers tap dance while trying to come up with reasons to justify their move to the new LIV Tour is embarrassing. The LIV Tour has nothing to do with growing the game of golf,…
And we can blame political meddling
The crude oil world has inched into a crisis mode. The world faces a “much bigger” energy crisis than the one in the 1970s. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told the German daily Der Spiegel in an interview last Tuesday. The IEA, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development…
And the U.S. is getting ready to cave in
With crude oil fortunes on an upswing, Saudi Arabia – the world’s largest crude producer – is playing its cards very well. The crude oil markets have been transformed, with prices starting in 2022 at US$75.69 and now trading at around US$115 a barrel. That’s a gain of just over 50 per cent so far…
Despite the sanctions, Russian oil revenues are soaring
The energy pieces on the global chessboard are altering geopolitical realities, with serious consequences. China is boosting the volume of crude oil it purchases in order to increase its strategic reserves, Reuters’ Clyde Russell reported on Friday. China, the world’s largest crude importer, is buying more oil at a point when the demand-supply balance is…
Full European Union ban on Russian oil could have unintended economic consequences for the West
The war in Ukraine is transforming global geopolitics and crude oil dynamics. On the geopolitical front, the United States has relentlessly rallied its allies against Russia. The Russian energy sector has still not been directly impacted by the sanctions. But the repercussions are apparent, even as the world is finding it hard to replace Russian…
How is the Russian invasion of Ukraine different from the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq?
American writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Fiction reveals the truth that reality obscures.” I admit I’ve never been a great fan of fiction; I prefer writing that spells out the author’s perspective on what’s actually happening in the world. But there are times when nothing speaks the truth more effectively than a great…
Saudi Arabia is in active talks with China to price some of its oil in yuan
The United States owes a significant part of its eminence as the sole superpower to the dominance of its dollar in the global economy. This dominance is aided by the fact that the dollar is the currency of the global oil trade. Every country in the world needs U.S. dollars to buy oil. Even without…