Simon Watkins

Latest articles from Simon

• Qatar To Move Ahead With Ambitious Petrochemical Megaproject

  Published 17 January 2023 | viewed 8,493 times

  Qatar has been a principal beneficiary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early last year, securing its top liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter position and vigorously…

• China’s Reopening May Not Lead To A Major Jump In Oil Prices

  Published 16 January 2023 | viewed 10,340 times

  China has undergone three distinct phases in its reaction to COVID-19 since the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported the first small cluster of cases of…

• Full U.S. Energy Independence Could Have Huge Ramifications For The Middle East

  Published 10 January 2023 | viewed 17,020 times

  Although the U.S. marked an historic shift in 2020 by becoming a net exporter of petroleum, it has remained a net importer of crude oil…

• Predicting Russia's Next Move Against The Oil Price Cap

  Published 09 January 2023 | viewed 10,990 times

  On 27 December 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on countermeasures against the introduction of a price cap on Russian oil and oil…

• Qatar Walks The Diplomatic Tightrope With Latest Deal For Japan

  Published 04 January 2023 | viewed 4,027 times

  Qatar’s geographical position tells one all one needs to know about its energy export policy. Situated between Saudi Arabia on one side and Iran on…

• Russia Under Pressure To Accelerate Energy Exports To The East

  Published 02 January 2023 | viewed 17,417 times

  So significant was the launch of Russia’s Kovyktinskoye (Kovykta) gas field last week that reportedly ailing Russian President, Vladimir Putin, personally gave the order to…

• Russia And Iran Look To Strengthen Grip On Global Oil Markets

  Published 28 December 2022 | viewed 6,948 times

  When a senior government minister of either Iran or Russia says that the two countries are now experiencing a ‘golden age’ in developing relations between…

• Iran Moves To Consolidate Its Grip On Iraq’s Oil Sector

  Published 27 December 2022 | viewed 6,020 times

  Iran has long held enormous political, economic, and military sway over neighbouring Iraq through its various military and political proxies, and since the discovery of…

• Will Iraq Finally Start To Use Its Natural Gas Reserves?

  Published 20 December 2022 | viewed 7,835 times

  It has long been a point of extreme contention with the U.S. that Iraq continues to rely on neighbouring – sanctioned – Iran for around…

• Xi Has Two Priorities In Its Relationship With Saudi Arabia

  Published 19 December 2022 | viewed 5,002 times

  Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week hosted a series of meetings in Riyadh between China’s President Xi Jinping and the leaders of…

• Libya Invites Oil Majors To Produce More Oil And Gas

  Published 12 December 2022 | viewed 3,867 times

  Given the fragile supply-demand balance in the global energy market and the toxic inflation-interest rate mix with which many developed economies have been struggling, news…

• Saudi Arabia Uses Contested Gas Field As A Geopolitical Tool

  Published 12 December 2022 | viewed 5,422 times

  Although there have been signs in the past year or so that a softening of relations between historical enemies, Saudi Arabia and Iran, is being…

• U.S. Played A Key Role In Germany’s Huge Gas Deal With Qatar

  Published 06 December 2022 | viewed 9,960 times

  The talks between Germany and various emergency gas suppliers that OilPrice.com has been tracking for the past couple of months or so last week have…

• Lower Oil Prices On The Horizon As China Enters Next Phase Of Covid Crisis

  Published 05 December 2022 | viewed 20,348 times

  Since the late 1990s, China has been the big beast in the global oil markets, driving demand for oil and other commodities that it used…

• Crucial Global Strategic Oil And Gas Hub Oman Eyes Big New Projects

  Published 29 November 2022 | viewed 5,544 times

  Oman’s significance in the Middle East, and therefore the world, is much greater than its 5.4 billion barrels of estimated proved oil reserves (the 22nd…

• $60 Billion LNG Mega Deal Marks Chinese Influence In Middle East

  Published 28 November 2022 | viewed 14,710 times

  In a world now where several major economies may need huge quantities of gas delivered very quickly and with very little notice, Qatar, as the…

• Can Iraq Challenge Saudi Arabia’s Regional Oil Dominance?

  Published 22 November 2022 | viewed 13,455 times

  Like the first cuckoo of spring, the annual autumn refrain from senior Iraqi oil officials of new production targets has that pleasant ring of the…

• China’s Zero-Covid Tweaks Are A False Flag For Oil Markets

  Published 21 November 2022 | viewed 12,437 times

  The bullish reaction in several of the world’s leading stock markets on the news that China has ‘relaxed’ its economy-crimping ‘zero-Covid’ policy was misplaced from…

• Iran Eyes New Export Markets For South Pars Gas

  Published 15 November 2022 | viewed 2,823 times

  The threat of sharply rising gas prices and supply failures increases as Europe heads into winter without the reassurance of abundant cheap gas from Russia.…

• Iraq's New Prime Minister Doubles Down On Oil & Gas Deals With China And Russia

  Published 14 November 2022 | viewed 6,992 times

  It is possible that U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, believed for a moment that his call to the new Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia…