Muhammad bin Salman is set on transforming the oil-rich kingdom into a modern, economically diverse superpower. It won’t be easy.
Gas prices usually rise heading into long weekends. The reasons behind wild oil price fluctuations, reflected at the pumps, is about a lot more than economics.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
OPEC’s recent decision to cut supply is a classic move from the oil cartel playbook. But in today’s era, there are many more players and game-changing technologies on the field.
OPEC has been declared dead in recent months as the group of oil-exporters has been unable to agree on a plan to stabilize the market. But was it really ever alive in the first place?
OPEC is already suggesting the US oil boom will end this year. Wishful thinking.
Saudi workers have been given a pay bonus by their new king, but unless oil prices rebound the country will find itself eating into its US$750 billion sovereign nest egg.
EPA/Ali Haider
In his first royal decree, Saudi Arabia’s newly crowned King Salman announced two-month bonuses for state employees, pensioners, students, and recipients of social service programs (that is, everyone in…
The sands of time will turn against the desert oil states.
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Steffen Hertog, London School of Economics and Political Science
Oil prices have now almost halved in six months to below $60/barrel thanks to OPEC’s refusal to cut production. This means all the member countries are revising their government spending policies. While…
At the recent OPEC meeting Saudi Arabia argued for oil production levels to remain stable.
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As at early December, the international price of crude oil is around US$70 a barrel, depending on grade. Over the last six months, oil prices have slumped by 30% and crude oil is now at its lowest level…
In the 1970s, refineries in the Middle East controlled the world’s flow of oil. Not any more.
National Iranian Oil Company/Wikimedia Commons
With oil prices on the slide, members of the once-dominant Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided last week not to attempt to rally them by cutting production, leaving the Brent…
Gas guzzled: OPEC’s 1973 oil embargo threw America into crisis and underlined the political power of energy.
David Falconer/Wikimedia Commons
The Australian Financial Review recently trumpeted America’s “re-emergence as a world oil power”. It is an accomplishment four decades in the making and its success is still under debate. Energy security…
Australia only keeps an estimated 23 days’ worth of fuel in the country.
Bidgee/Wikimedia Commons
It might sound unlikely, but Australia’s fuel gauge is worryingly low. We’re one of the world’s top energy exporters, but our stocks of liquid fuels – such as the oil on which almost the whole transport…
OPEC president Mohammad Aliabadi believes speculation in futures is inflating oil prices. He is wrong.
AAP
OPEC Conference president Mohammad Aliabadi recently joined a chorus of international observers to blame speculation as the source of ongoing volatility in the global oil market. Speaking at an OPEC Conference…