Tensions between Russia and Western economies have been constantly on the rise since the Crimean Crisis in 2014. The current impact that Ukraine invasion may have in the price of natural gas will certainly add pressure to the European economic recovery from the pandemic crisis. In fact, the latest cancellation of the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline represent the first bridge burnt between Russia and Western Europe since the Ukraine invasion. Western Europe is forced to start thinking about how it is going to compensate for the natural gas supply that most certainly will not be able to keep importing ..read more

The oil industry has been shocked by a move by OPEC+ to continue limiting supply despite rising demand across the world. The move, championed by Saudi Arabia, has led to oil prices soaring which has added inflation worries for economies as they look to come out of lockdowns imposed due to the pandemic. Prices had already been surging recently due to OPEC+ restrictions and vaccines leading economic recovery helping spur demand. Russia and Kazakhstan were given exemptions and allowed to marginally boost production but this pales in comparison to the potential increase that was anticipated. The d ..read more

Investment banks have funded over vast sums of money to the destruction of the environment, with the top 50 global investment banks, particularly JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America, driving this financing. These institutions are not able to accurately track and measure the impact their investments are having on the climate, due to a lack of policies protecting the environment when they provide loans or underwriting services. In the coming years, more needs to be disclosed by banks and firms they invest in on the potential damage caused to the natural world. Investment banks across ..read more

After being subject to years of mismanagement, getting Pemex back in shape is essential for the Mexican government. The incumbent government has invested much political capital into getting rid of deep-rooted corruption within the oil company, which drained monetary resources in the past and was the main cause of bad decision-making by the Pemex management, too. Furthermore, the government has announced the construction of an $8bn oil refinery in Tabasco at the same time it suspended the construction of a new Mexico City airport until further notice earlier this year. The decision suggests the ..read more

Though the validity of US foreign policy towards the Iranian nuclear problem conjures much controversy, the 28% spike in oil freight rates between the Middle East and Asia which followed charges issued to parts of COSCO Shipping showed the extent of control the United States still has over the world oil market, revealing in a very public way weaknesses Beijing must seek to overcome. Already jittery thanks to global trade wars and fears of a looming recession, the oil markets scarcely needed the introduction of further problems. COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co and COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalia ..read more

For now the purchase of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation – a company that in 2018 registered $13bn in revenue but which consistently lost billions of dollars each year before turning a profit in 2018 – remains the largest of its type and places Chevron level with ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell in terms of production. Last year the newly combined company would have generated greater revenues than ExxonMobil. Investing so heavily reveals the degree of confidence big oil players have in shale gas extraction. The scale of operations such companies will bring should help to stabilize what has been ..read more

For the first time in over four decades of operation state-owned oil major Saudi Aramco released financials, revealing the firm to have produced the highest net profit of any company in the world. Despite the attractiveness of headline figures, the financial condition of the firm falls far short of the $2tn valuation the government declared when launching an IPO was first mentioned publically. Evidence on which that valuation could be supported is lacking, exacerbating the economic problems the state has experienced of late, thus revealing the need for diversification. In buying most of SABIC ..read more

For BP, a company which has suffered following massive bills incurred from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, entering such a market may not immediately appear to be an example of prudent business decision making. Provided BP can drill oil reliably, and the country remains sufficiently stable to enable foreign companies to operate freely, the partnership with Eni to begin exploratory drilling in the early part of 2019 could prove fruitful. Exploring for oil at this stage could prove to be a valuable strategic move when viewed from a long-term perspective. Demonstrating commi ..read more

For a long time the US has been a leading oil player, but the combined might of OPEC was sufficient to reduce the global influence the country could have. However, thawing relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia reveal a decline in the ability of Gulf oil states to shape the international oil price according to domestic wants. Under such circumstances, expanding US production over much of the last decade has gone up against comparatively steady production from both Russia and Saudi Arabia. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts the country will remain the leading oil produci ..read more

New Zealand pumped an average of just 31,000 barrels of crude oil a day in 2017, according to data from the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), a fraction of the 913,000 barrels produced daily in the North Sea. The country’s annual oil production makes up just 1.4% of the country’s economy. The industry is already in decline after a downturn in the global market from 2014 took a heavy toll on its earnings. Crude oil production declined in 2016 to the lowest level in a decade, and spending on production had fallen. In April 2018, the New Zealand government announced it is taking a huge step to ..read more