Battered by war, Iraq now faces calamity from dropping oil prices
The New York Times reports: Iraqis seeking to withdraw money from banks are told there is not enough cash. Hospitals in Baghdad are falling back to the deprivation of the 1990s sanctions era,...
View ArticleAssad preparing to handover Syria’s energy sector to Russia
The New Arab reports: The regime of Bashar al-Assad is reportedly seeking to rehabilitate and operate oil fields and power plants in areas controlled currently by the rebels and the Islamic State group...
View ArticleSaudi Arabia is reeling from falling oil prices — and it could get much worse
The Washington Post reports: Stung by falling oil prices, Saudi Arabia has cut spending and subsidies as part of harsh austerity measures that threaten the lavish welfare programs underpinning its...
View ArticleIf the Kurds go broke, it’s lights out for Obama’s war on ISIS
John Hannah writes: Here’s a worrying bit of news: America’s best ally in the war against the Islamic State, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is nearly broke. That’s a major problem,...
View ArticleHow Saudi Arabia turned its greatest weapon on itself
Andrew Scott Cooper writes: For the past half-century, the world economy has been held hostage by just one country: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Vast petroleum reserves and untapped production allowed...
View ArticleAdam Hochschild: A corporation goes to war
So much that matters in our world and on our planet happens in and remains in the shadows. This website is dedicated to shining at least a small light into some of those shadows. Commenting recently...
View ArticleThe rise and deadly fall of ISIS’s oil tycoon
The Wall Street Journal reports: Islamic State oil man Abu Sayyaf was riding high a year ago. With little industry experience, he had built a network of traders and wholesalers of Syrian oil that at...
View ArticleMichael Klare: The coming world of ‘peak oil demand,’ not ‘peak oil’
In a Greater Middle East in which one country after another has been plunged into chaos and possible failed statehood, two rival nations, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have been bedrock exceptions to the...
View ArticleTony Blair: The former prime minister for hire
The Guardian reports: hen Jonathan Powell, the gatekeeper to the corporate empire of Tony Blair, sat down to lunch with the former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Faisal Al Turki in June 2010 he could...
View ArticleLakota lead the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline
Jason Coppola reports: As the start of 2016 shatters last year’s record as the hottest year on record, the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation) once again find themselves on...
View ArticleFort McMurray and the fires of climate change
Elizabeth Kolbert writes: No one knows exactly how the fire began — whether it was started by a lightning strike or by a spark provided by a person — but it’s clear why the blaze, once under way, raged...
View ArticleSyrian-Russian businessman serves as middleman between ISIS and Assad
The Wall Street Journal reports: In Syria, George Haswani sees himself as a patriot. In the West, he is a wanted man. Mr. Haswani acts as a middleman between Islamic State and the Syrian government,...
View ArticleDo countries fight over oil resources?
Emily Meierding writes: When China’s Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig sailed into waters off the Paracel Islands in May 2014, it provoked an international crisis. Hanoi insisted that the rig was operating...
View ArticleSaudi Arabia has declared an end to its oil war with the U.S.
Quartz reports: Two years after quietly declaring war on upstart US shale, Saudi Arabia says the need for the fighting is over. In remarks to journalists while on a US visit, Saudi Arabian energy...
View ArticleSeizure of Libyan oil terminals prompts call for military action
The Guardian reports: Forces opposed to the UN-backed Libyan government in Tripoli appear to be making a clean sweep through the country’s “oil crescent”, seizing control of oil terminal headquarters...
View ArticleHaftar forces now control Libya’s ‘oil crescent’ along coast
Al Jazeera reports: Forces opposed to Libya’s unity government have seized a fourth oil port, Brega, completing their takeover of vital installations in the North African country’s “oil crescent”,...
View ArticleIf the Kurds go broke, it’s lights out for Obama’s war on ISIS
John Hannah writes: Here’s a worrying bit of news: America’s best ally in the war against the Islamic State, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is nearly broke. That’s a major problem,...
View ArticleU.S. Army Corps of Engineers blocks Dakota Access oil pipeline route
The Associated Press reports: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Sunday that it won’t grant an easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota, handing a victory to the Standing...
View ArticleWill the victory at Standing Rock outlast Obama?
Rozina Ali writes: Late Sunday afternoon, protesters at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, in North Dakota, received unexpected and welcome news. Jo-Ellen Darcy, the U.S. Army’s assistant secretary...
View ArticleLeak reveals Rex Tillerson is director of Bahamas-based U.S.-Russian oil company
The Guardian reports: Rex Tillerson, the businessman nominated by Donald Trump to be the next US secretary of state, is the long-time director of a US-Russian oil firm based in the tax haven of the...
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