There's a standoff happening between the old oil powers and the booming US shale industry, as the OPEC oil cartel is thought to be pushing down prices to drive new production offline. But the investment bank Citi says it's not a fight that OPEC leader Saudi Arabia is going to win. Although no one is sure what is causing the plunge in oil prices from above $105 a barrel this s
Read MoreDip in prices throws up as many imponderables for shale oil producers as well. When oil prices collapsed in 1986 from $28 (Dh103) a barrel (for the Opec reference crude Arab Light) to less than $10 a barrel in just a few months, we were told the battle for market share with non-Opec producers was joined. I was just starting my new job at the Opec Secretariat and one of the apo
Read MoreAs prices drop to around $80 per barrel, more attention is being focused on the mindset of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter. The 20 percent decline in oil prices over the past three months has been attributed to a wide range of factors, including declining growth in China, poor growth in Europe, and the increase in U.S. production of "light tight" oil, often know
Read MoreIn June 1919, aboard an Allied warship en route to Paris, sat Damat Ferid Pasha, the Grand Vizier of a crumbling Ottoman Empire. The elderly statesman, donning an iconic red fez and boasting an impeccably groomed mustache, held in his hands a memorandum that he was to present to the Allied powers at the Quai d'Orsay. The negotiations on postwar reparations started five months e
Read MoreISIS Has Become Most Well-Funded Terrorist Group in Recent Memory / In Letter Senators Urge Admin to Consider Labeling ISIS Transnational Criminal Organization to Send Strong Signal to Smugglers, Third Party Facilitators that U.S. Is Prioritizing Cutting Off ISIS Financing / Reports Indicate ISIS Receiving Revenue from Oil that Is Smuggled Through Black Markets and Purchased by
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