If a Martian landed on Earth, it would be greatly surprised that the US is an ally of Saudi Arabia and an enemy of Iran. History is the explanation, but fundamentals have a tendency to reassert themselves in the long run… By István Zsoldos and Diána Szőke Saudi Arabia, where women are…

Every country has a stake in the conflict one way or another. But that won’t stop the bitter war of attrition from grinding on.  The old joke used to go like this: “Question: What is globalization? Answer: Princess Diana’s death. An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend…

We could well see oil prices spike to new records. But the average price in the next decade is likely to be lower than in recent years. In our previous piece we have shown that Saudi Arabia may not be able to cut production to stabilize oil prices much longer, if needed. In this post we are going…

…which would also bring down OPEC There was an interesting piece from Nick Butler in the FT on whether Saudi Arabia can export enough to maintain sufficient revenues underpinning social peace in the face of growing domestic oil consumption and the potential need to cut oil exports to maintain…

Furcsa dolgokra vetemedhet az ember, ha sarokba szorítják. Irán állítólag egy hatalmas olajszennyezés előidézését is fontolgatja, amellyel ellehetetlenítené a közlekedést a Hormuzi-szorosban, és rávenné a Nyugatot, hogy az felfüggessze a szankciókat a tisztogatás idejére.…

You may end up doing strange things when you feel cornered. Iran, for example, is even allegedly considering creating a huge oil spill, which would block the Strait of Hormuz and force the West to temporarily suspend sanctions during the clean-up. Let’s hope things don’t go so far: below we…

A közel-keleti országok egy része a magas egy főre jutó olajbevételéből növelte a jóléti kiadásokat, így úszva meg az arab tavaszt – legalábbis eddig. Viszont ahogy emelkedik a költségvetési egyensúly fenntartásához szükséges olajár és mindinkább kiéleződnek a…

Thanks to their high per capita oil revenues, certain Middle Eastern countries were able to evade the Arab Spring through higher social spending – so far, that is. But with both break-even oil prices and geopolitical tensions on the rise, simply buying the silence of their citizens with generous…