This was not meant to happen. In the post-invasion planning of Iraq it was meant to be the American and British oil companies that enjoyed the spoils of war and access to the country’s lucrative oil reserves. But the Kurds...
After its offer was accepted last month to develop Iraq’s vast Rumaila oil field, BP may have thought it had won the biggest prize in the country’s oil race. But it may not be over yet and BP now faces...
One thing is for sure about the negotiations in the run up to the Climate conference in Copenhagen – there is going to be intense arm-twisting and diplomatic manoeuvring. Central to any deal will be China. China is keeping up...
Australia has been accused of watering down demands for radical action at the Pacific Islands States conference, that has just finished in Cairns, Australia. At the start of the conference the Pacific Island states were demanding a 45 per cent...
Is the special relationship between the US and UK going to be stretched to the limit over Lockerbie? It is expected that this afternoon the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi will be freed from prison on compassionate grounds as he has...
To paraphrase the great writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain: “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated!" And so it is with the tar sands, one of the hottest debates in the energy industry. Its growing...
Appearances, goes the saying, can be deceptive. One of the tactics the oil industry has used over the years is the use of “front-groups” to promote its cause. Often these names are deliberately designed to confuse people or hide their...
Yesterday was the 20th Anniversary of America’s worst oil spill, the Exxon Valdez. It may be twenty years but the scars of the disaster are still being felt today. Take a quick glance at Prince William Sound and you would...
As President Obama has breakfast with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and demonstrators start taking to the streets to protest at the G20, we should not forget the events of yesterday. Congressman Henry Waxman and Ed Markey released a discussion draft...
Most people across the spectrum of the energy industry – from its critics to its most ardent supporters - believe that the days of easy oil are really over. Apart from the abundant deposits in the Middle East, which are...
