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In 2025, the Middle East solidified its role as the primary stabilizing force in a fragmented global energy system. While international markets faced geopolitical dislocation and divergent transition pathways, the leading Middle Eastern national oil companies (NOCs) adopted a consistent strategy of sustaining hydrocarbon primacy while systematically reducing costs and carbon intensity. More than $100 billion in upstream capital deployment enabled the NOCs to expand crude spare capacity and accelerate gas development, while selective international…
The dramatic events over the weekend in Venezuela have renewed global attention on a country that, on paper, should be one of the world’s great energy powers. Venezuela holds the largest proven oil reserves on Earth, yet its oil industry has been in long-term decline for two decades. Understanding why requires looking past the headlines and into the technical, legal, and political decisions that steadily dismantled what was once a cornerstone of the global petroleum system. The United States confirmed that Venezuelan President Nicolás…
The foreign secretary has signalled the Bank of England will continue to withhold $4.8bn of Venezuelan gold being held in its vaults, despite the dramatic toppling of the country’s autocratic ruler potentially paving the way to the reserves being returned. Addressing lawmakers late on Monday, Yvette Cooper suggested the government would continue its refusal to recognise the new leadership in Caracas, acknowledging this would likely mean the Bank would continue to withhold the country’s reserves. Britain’s central bank has stored…
Will the electric utility distribution monopolies (”discos”) remain financially viable over the longer term? That is the question, and not an idle one. When the government broke up the Bell Systemm (some of you may remember that formerly ubiquitous entity) in the 1980s, it assumed (as did most investors) that the local exchange (the telephone equivalent of the disco) had an unassailable regulated monopoly. Technology (the internet and cell phones) changed that picture, and today only 30% of the population utilizes local exchange…
The United States will keep what it calls an oil quarantine on Venezuela even after U.S. forces bombed Caracas and captured President Nicolas Maduro. According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, this quarantine is as far as the U.S. “running Venezuela” would go. “We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes, not just in the way the oil industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the drug trafficking,” the top official said, clarifying earlier statements by…
