The financial crisis changed the way people think. At least some people. In North America, the bursting of the housing bubble dispelled the myth you could get rich simply by…
The coming year: 2010, will see a growing clash of conflicting mega-trends in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater; trends which will ultimately have long-term impact not only on the region, but on…
ExxonMobil's buyout of XTO Energy was the story of December. It might be the story of 2009. But equally important are the details now emerging about the deal. Particularly the…
Baghdad is coming of age in its own backyard with the awarding of contracts for developing its oil reserves while taking care of its assets as evident from its tough…
Both solar and wind power are creative ideas that may one day prove to be of value, but sadly, after 40 years of concerted efforts, they’ve thus far not delivered…
While energy-strapped India is scouring the globe for oil and gas - a bid that recently took it to Sudan and Russia where India signed two memoranda of understanding, and…
That question has been on the minds of leaders and financial thinkers worldwide, since the financial crisis broke last fall. In response to falling asset prices, governments around the globe…
In order to survive revolutions must continue to propagate themselves or else they die; that was true of revolutions on the left that saw their golden years in the late…
There are two kinds of junior natural resource companies. When you analyze, it's critical to realize which one you're dealing with. The first type are explorers. These are companies hoping…
The illness of Nigerian Pres. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has now reached the point where it can no longer be hidden from the Nigerian electorate, and the prospect for a change…
Iran's strategy to break Iraq into three component territories, and to dominate those territories in order to reduce regional opposition and to gain unfettered access to Syria and the Mediterranean…
On November 6, 2009 The World Coal Institute released its new report "Securing the Future - Financing CCS in a Post-2012 World." One revealing sentence on the website says “significant…
Yesterday's big news in the commodities world was Exxon's $31 billion takeover of XTO Energy. The acquisition is a big endorsement by the world's largest energy company. The majority of…
For the last several decades it was generally assumed that Israel was the United States’ staunchest ally in the Greater Middle East. But when former Nebraskan Republican Senator Chuck Hagel…
China and Russia will stay on tenterhooks for decades to come, on the question of sufficiency of energy supplies, notwithstanding the oil grab they have indulged in over the past…
The South Caucasus: Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia - is at an historic "T" junction in the road. The next turn could result in a regional eruption of violence which would…
News spreads quickly throughout the energy industry, especially when that news is good! The “Energy Crisis” may very well be over, long before it ever had a chance to cripple…
A lot has been made this week of news that Mexico hedged the bulk of its 2010 oil production at $57 per barrel. Several analysts chalked this up to a…
An informative essay by Ferdinand E. Banks on the Copenhagen Climate meeting, Energy Economics, the Nuclear revival and why Global Warming should be uniting us / not dividing as a…
Inflows of speculative investment money into gold, copper and oil continue unabated and the numbers are staggering. I wrote a few months back about investment inflows into commodities setting a…