Hot Commodities
Disagreement, Drought, and Disasters
Doha Fails to Deliver
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Doha Fails to Deliver
Following protests spearheaded by powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr, Iraqi Oil Minister Abd al-Mahdi announced his resignation at the end of last month, suspending his activities as Minister and delegating responsibility to his deputy.
The Saudi decision to flood the oil market—otherwise known as the oil price rollercoaster we are currently riding—is what Andrew Scott Cooper calls the “oil trade’s equivalent of dropping a bomb on a rival.” However, while the prevailing wisdom holds that the rival is (now suffering) U.S. shale producers, Cooper argues otherwise.
The rollercoaster ride continues as oil prices reached their highest point in 2016 at $40 per barrel this week — before slipping right back down again.
Following months of speculation, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, and Venezuela last week announced their intention to freeze oil production at existing (high) levels in an attempt to stabilize the oil market.
Picking up where last year left off, 2016 has seen sanctions lifted against Iran amid the implosion of Saudi-Iranian diplomatic relations while the first U.S. crude oil exports to Europe arrived amid the continued downward march of oil prices. Still to come is the highly anticipated first shipment of U.S. LNG exports from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass facility against the backdrop of questions about the future of European energy policy in the nascent Energy Union’s promised “Year of Delivery.”
No Plan B
Over the weekend, 195 nations agreed to limit greenhouse gas emissions to whatever extent is necessary to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. This is good news because, as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated, there is “no Plan B.”
This year droughts crippled California and heat waves claimed the lives of hundreds in India and Pakistan. Major flooding caught Texas by surprise and Yemen was hit, not once but twice, by deadly cyclones. Coincidence? The UN says maybe not.
Tidal Waves and Tanker Trucks
The Islamic State’s money comes in significant part from energy. So if the world is going to take on ISIS in a serious way, it’s going to have to take on its energy resources.
When the Lights Go Out in the City