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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its growth forecast for the Saudi economy due to ongoing oil production cuts by OPEC+. The IMF now sees 2024 growth clocking in at just 1.7%, nearly a percentage point lower than its earlier projection of 2.6%. The effects of the cuts are expected to spill over into the coming year, with the IMF projecting GDP growth of 4.7% in 2025, a downward revision of 1.3 percentage points from April...Last year, the Kingdom's private-sector investments expanded by a brisk 57 percent, reaching a record high of 959 billion Saudi Riyals (254 billion dollars),...

He has a high-stakes job. War and natural disasters keep him on his toes. He is often on a plane to far-flung places, travelling to negotiate with local leaders. He has the best intelligence money can buy. And as November’s election nears, he will spend lots of time looking at lines on charts. The American president and swashbuckling oil traders, it turns out, have a lot in common. Indeed, Joe Biden also seems to have a knack for the oil trade. Two years ago his administration initiated the largest ever sell-off from America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (spr), an emergency store...

Move to phase out voluntary cuts depends on market conditions Oil futures headed lower on Monday as traders assessed a decision by the OPEC+ to extend cuts by the group into 2025 but to begin unwinding some additional voluntary reductions later this year. West Texas Intermediate crude CL00, -2.69% for July delivery CL.1, -2.74% CLN24, -2.69% was down $2, or 2.7%, to $74.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. August Brent crude BRN00, -2.38% BRNQ24, -2.43%, the global benchmark, fell $1.72, or 2.1%, to $79.39 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. July gasoline RBN24, -2.12% declined by 2.1%...

House Democrats are probing President Trump’s request for $1 billion in campaign cash from major oil companies. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) penned a letter to CEOs of eight energy companies and an oil lobbying group that reportedly attended a dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort with the former president last month. Outlets, including The Hill, reported that at the dinner, Trump asked the industry to raise $1 billion to support his presidential campaign. The Washington Post, which shared the story first, reported that getting him the funds would be a “deal,” because of all the money the industry would save in...

I have had several posts on a collection of related cases that I have called “The Stupidest Litigations In The Country.” These are cases where climate hysterics have sued oil and gas producing companies, or the federal government, or both, seeking various extreme punishments ranging from massive damages up to and including an order to end all production of fossil fuels. The asserted grounds vary somewhat from case to case, but a central theme is a claimed constitutional right to a “clean and healthy environment.” My last update on these cases was a post on April 9. A main subject...

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden reinstated oil and gas sanctions on Venezuela on Thursday, a recognition that lifting the sanctions did nothing to entice the socialist regime to host a free and fair election. The Biden administration lifted some of the strictest U.S. sanctions on dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime last year as part of a dialogue in which Maduro agreed to host a presidential election sometime in 2014. The deal collapsed rapidly; Maduro scrapped it in October and launched a new wave of violence against anti-socialist dissidents, likely bankrolled by new oil profits. The Biden sanctions relief lasted...

Of all post-war decades, the 1970s has undoubtedly had the worst press, but the truth is that most ordinary families in 1970s Britain were better off than ever, writes historian Dominic Sandbrook. The 1950s are symbolised by the television and the washing machine, which transformed the lives of so many families. We misremember the 1960s as the decade of the Mini, which was actually invented in 1959, the mini-skirt, which surprisingly few women actually wore, and the Pill, which most women never took. We remember the 1980s as the decade of gigantic hair, shoulder-pads, the Filofax and the home...

Since Hamas’s brutal attack against Israel on Oct. 7 and the resulting Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, tensions and hostilities across the Middle East have reached fever pitch. And with such a complex regional crisis playing out, it should not come as a surprise that the Biden administration is reconsidering its military priorities in the region.It should be cause for significant concern, however, that this could involve a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. While no definitive decision has been made to leave, four sources within the Defense and State departments said the White House is no...

The Associated Press’s latest foreign donor wants to transform journalists into "community activists on climate change." The AP doesn’t seem interested in publicizing that. It’s the latest left-wing charity to fund the Associated Press, which says it is read by four billion people each day. Philanthropies that support packing the Supreme Court, defunding the police, and other left-wing initiatives have contributed millions of dollars to the AP in recent years, the Free Beacon reported. While the AP says it maintains editorial independence from its deep-pocketed donors, its climate reporting reflects many of the KR Foundation’s core beliefs. A recent AP...

No one ever lost money betting on the ability of the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder to construct a “coalition of the willing” whenever faced with a geopolitical quandary. In every case, duly covered by the reigning “rules-based international order”, “willing” applies to vassals seduced by carrots or sticks to follow to the letter the Empire’s whims. Cue to the latest chapter: Coalition Genocide Prosperity, whose official – heroic – denomination, a trademark of the Pentagon’s P.R. wizards, is “Operation Prosperity Guardian”, allegedly engaged in “ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.” Translation: this is Washington all but...

Huge volumes of US oil production, as well as output from Brazil and Guyana, have eaten away at the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies' command of global crude flows, with the energy cartel's market share dropping to its lowest mark in nearly a decade, according to the International Energy Agency. In its oil report covering data up to December 2023, the IEA said OPEC+'s market share had fallen to 51% in 2023. It hasn't been that low since the group expanded to include additional allies in 2016, the Paris-based firm said. "Record-breaking supply from the United States,...

Iran International An oil refinery inside Iran went up in flames over the weekend, triggering several massive explosions. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA, said that all 18 reservoirs at the refinery in eastern Iran’s Birjand special economic zone caught fire. “The initial stages of the fire consumed 1.5 million litres of fuel,” Iranian officials said. The Jerusalem Post reported that Iranian officials were leaning toward letting the fire burn itself out because it was too dangerous for firefighters to get close enough to attempt to extinguish it. There was no indication of what caused the fire or...

A few years ago when there was some trouble with Venezuela and Colombia I remember reading that Brazil would have huge trouble moving their army there because the Amazon rainforest is nearly impassable.Is this true?What are they able to do now if Venezuela invades Guyana?

Tensions between neighbors Venezuela and Guyana have ratcheted up in recent weeks over a long-running territorial dispute. At issue is a 160,000-square-km (62,000-square-mile) border territory around the Esequibo river, which is mostly jungle, and an offshore area where massive discoveries of oil and gas have been made.

French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said Saturday she was "stunned" after the oil cartel OPEC urged its members to thwart any deal targeting fossil fuels at the COP28 conference. ADVERTISING "I am stunned by these statements from OPEC+. And I am angry," she said from the climate conference in Dubai, adding that "OPEC+'s position endangers the most vulnerable countries and the poorest populations who are the first victims of this situation". The minister said she was "counting on the presidency of the COP not to be influenced by these declarations, and to reach an agreement which affirms a clear objective...

The sell-off in the oil market accelerated Wednesday, with US crude prices sinking below $70 a barrel for the first time since July. The latest wave of selling bodes well for consumers, suggesting gas prices could fall even closer towards $3 a gallon nationally. Gas prices bottomed out at $3.10 a gallon in late December last year just before Christmas. The national average hasn’t been below $3 since May 2021. US crude tumbled to as low as $69.11 a barrel on Wednesday, the lowest intraday level since June 29. Oil closed at $69.38 a barrel, down 4.1% on the day....

An undercover sting operation has highlighted a Saudi Arabian government plan to artificially raise global oil demand, Channel 4 News can reveal in an investigation released just days before climate crisis talks begin in the UAE. Officials from Saudi Arabia’s Oil Sustainability Programme (OSP) have admitted the country’s state-backed plan to target Africa and Asia with petrol, oil and diesel products, under a public programme from its Ministry of Energy. The operation was conducted by the Centre for Climate Reporting, and given exclusively to Channel 4 News, with a team posing as oil investors. In a secretly recorded video call,...

It is déjà vu for major oil producers, who are again considering steeper production cuts. It took only a month after the Hamas attacks on Israel unleashed a punishing war for oil prices to fall below their pre-Oct. 7 level. The steep drop in oil prices last week, with Brent crude briefly dropping to $77 per barrel, led to speculation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers (OPEC+) will decide to cut production at its next meeting. OPEC’s last-minute decision to delay the meeting, now scheduled for Nov. 30, will only add to the speculation. U.S....

Oil prices dipped early on Wednesday as a report emerged that this weekend’s meeting of the OPEC+ group could be delayed. The November 26 meeting of the ministers of the OPEC+ alliance could be postponed due to OPEC leader Saudi Arabia expressing dissatisfaction over the production levels of the other members, delegates have told Bloomberg. The meeting may be delayed for an unspecified period of time, according to the anonymous delegates who told Bloomberg that the Saudis have been in talks with the other oil producers about their output.

In an emergency Arab Islamic Summit that comes 36 days after Israel launched its war on Gaza Arab and Islamic countries unequivocally condemned Israel, yet failed to adopt any measure capable of ending Israeli aggression or mitigating the ongoing human crisis.The 31-clause resolution drawn up by national leaders at a meeting in Saudi Arabia emphasized the need for a just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution. They call on the international community to hold Israel accountable for its actions and protect the rights of the Palestinian people.Rejecting any attempts to describe Israel's attacks as self-defence or justifiable under...