This incisive article first published by GR in October 2014 sheds light on the unfolding war in Syria and the confrontation between Russia and the US. The details are emerging of a new secret and quite stupid Saudi-US deal on Syria and the so-called ISIS. It involves oil and gas control of the entire region and the weakening of Russia and Iran by Saudi Arabian flooding the w
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Water injection scheme now not expected to be completed before 2020 BAGHDAD—A stalled project aimed at sustaining Iraq’s record oil production has become a symbol of missed opportunities for a country reeling from the fall in crude prices and the war against Islamic State. The government has ramped up production to meet its large payroll and fund the battle against the Sunn
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The oil market never fails to find reasons for its volatility. The failure of the April 17 Doha meeting between Opec and non-Opec producers to freeze production at January 2016 levels immediately sent oil prices sharply down. However, the market just as quickly moved upward on supply outages, especially due to the oil workers’ strike in Kuwait, which was reported to remove 1.3
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New projects are announced with investors of doubtful credibility Once upon a time in 2010, the then Iraqi Minister of Oil Hussain Shahristani — otherwise known as the “Teacher”, from recent exposes — was invited to the parliament to speak about the petroleum product shortages in the country. The refineries were not meeting domestic demand due to a 70 per cent utilisat
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The last time crude oil prices spent significant time below $30 a barrel Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were still “Bennifer,” Howard Dean was leading the Democratic primary race and Saddam Hussein had just been captured by U.S. troops in Iraq. It was December 2003 and the world was awash in oil. The OPEC cartel had ramped up production just as global demand was slowing, and th
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