Oil treatment plant in Yarakta oil field, Irkutsk, Russia. Ban on Russian oil risks sky-high prices and inflationary shock (File photo) Some three weeks after the reported meeting of the CIA chief William Burns with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Sultan, the OPEC+ ministerial held a videoconference on Thursday. The OPEC+ …
Zelensky rubbishes Biden’s war on Russia
Happy hour: US President Biden (R) meets with Ukraine President Zelensky in the Oval Office, Washington, September 2011 What was the need for all that happened in the period since mid-December when Russia transmitted to Washington its demands for security guarantee? This question will haunt US president Joe Biden long after he retires from public …
Russia hits back on “sanctions from hell”
An innocuous tweet from Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organisations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov earlier today in the afternoon said that he met with the EU Coordinator at the Vienna talks on Iran nuclear issue Enrique Mora and “raised a number of questions which need to be duly addressed now in order to ensure smooth …
Continue reading “Russia hits back on “sanctions from hell””
A Russian firewall for Venezuela against US sanctions
The optics of the Russian oil leviathan Rosneft’s decision to sell its subsidiary Rosneft Trading SA and sell all its assets in Venezuela after the US Treasury sanctioned its trading arm two weeks ago as part of Washington’s regime change project to oust president Nicolás Maduro, may not look good to the uninformed outside observer. It may …
Continue reading “A Russian firewall for Venezuela against US sanctions”
Winners and losers from Saudi Aramco’s travails
Benchmark oil futures jumped as much as US$11.73 a barrel to US$71.95 as market opened in Asia on Sept 16, 2019. The US President Donald Trump’s tweet Sunday regarding the attack on two Saudi Aramco plants says as follows: “Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, …
Continue reading “Winners and losers from Saudi Aramco’s travails”
Trump’s fawning over Saudi ties backfires
(Russian President Putin ‘high fives’ with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Argentina, Nov 30, 2018) The G20 is an economic club and it has traditionally stuck to that groove. And Saudi Arabia has traditionally been represented at G20 events by government ministers, usually the oil minister. But this time around, the Crown Prince Mohamed …
Continue reading “Trump’s fawning over Saudi ties backfires”
Post-Khashoggi US-Saudi ties become iffy
(Lockheed Martin’s THAAD Missile System) Saudi Arabia has inked the deal, finally, after nearly two years of discussions to buy Lockheed Martin’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system. The massive$15 billion deal involves Saudi Arabia buying 44 THAAD launchers, missiles and related equipment. The Trump administration had vigorously canvassed for the arms deal, …
India should stay the course on Iran oil
The new kids on the block are unaware that not a year had passed since the Islamic Revolution in Iran 40 years ago when US sanctions against that country wasn’t a fact of life. Iran has weathered multiple rounds of sanctions before. As a BBC commentary put it, “Iranians will be forced into finding creative …