Simon Watkins is a former senior FX trader and salesman, financial journalist, and best-selling author. He was Head of Forex Institutional Sales and Trading for Credit Lyonnais, and later Director of Forex at Bank of Montreal. He was then Head of Weekly Publications and Chief Writer for Business Monitor International, Head of Fuel Oil Products for Platts, and Global Managing Editor of Research for Renaissance Capital in Moscow. He has written extensively on oil and gas, Forex, equities, bonds, economics and geopolitics for many leading publications, and has worked as a geopolitical risk consultant for a number of major hedge funds in London, Moscow, and Dubai. In addition, he has authored five books on finance, oil, and financial markets trading published by ADVFN and available on Amazon, Apple, and Kobo.
The key corporate proxy at the centre of the U.S.’s Middle East pushback against increasing Chinese and Russian influence across the region – the Abu…
Various reports that Chinese oil giants, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) are ‘considering acquiring’ U.S. oil titan ExxonMobil’s…
Given China’s burgeoning role in the Middle East - with Iran and Iraq, in particular, irreplaceable staging posts for Beijing’s multi-layered, multi-generational ‘Belt and Road…
The initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Aramco that was heralded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) as being a showcase flotation for raising…
Despite its huge oil resources, Iraq’s practical readiness to hit its 7 million barrels per day (bpf) oil production target (by 2025) came into question…
Whilst new U.S. President-elect, Joe Biden, will almost certainly focus on dealing with the tail of the COVID-19 pandemic and repairing the economic damage to…
With the announcement last week that the president of Russian state oil proxy Lukoil, Vagit Alekperov, met one-to-one with Iraq’s Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, and…
The net present value of Iran’s supergiant South Pars natural gas field has jumped from an estimated US$116 billion at this point last year to…
The 15 June clash between military units of the two great Asia powers – China and India – in the disputed territory of the Galwan…
Iraq is facing a desperate financial situation: obliged to pay billions of dollars in state salaries, pensions, and other disbursements whilst its ability to generate…
The termination last week of the development contract of Iraq’s Mansuriya gas field for the consortium led by Turkey’s state-owned Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortakl??? (TPAO)…
Oman is looking at ‘all financing options’ following the lacklustre sale last week of a total US$2 billion bond offering, according to legal sources working…
Nine months on from Saudi Arabia’s second major oil price war in the last five years, more negative consequences are manifesting themselves. Aside from the…
Following the end on the 18th of October of the 13-year United Nations’ embargo on Iran buying or selling weapons, the roll-out of the military…
With sanctions on Iran still in place following the U.S.’s unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, Tehran has…
The prospect of the return of the 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil that Libya was producing before the broad-based blockade of…
It is no coincidence that just over a month after Israel and the United Arab Emirates declared that they would normalise relations and Israel and…
Following the death at 91 of Kuwait’s ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, his half-brother, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, aged 83, faces a daunting…
With the 25-year deal with China now moving ahead at pace, Iran has a buyer for all of the crude oil it can produce, albeit…
It can safely be surmised that whatever the new Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, told U.S. government officials during his visit last month to Washington…