Viktor Katona is an Group Physical Trader at MOL Group and Expert at the Russian International Affairs Council, currently based in Budapest.
Disclaimer: views set out in Viktor's articles are solely those of the author in his private capacity.
Times of recession usually bring up overused terms like belt-tightening or company restructuring though distressed periods are just as useful for settling old scores and…
Oman has weathered all the innumerable challenges of 2020 with considerable flair, even though the year started off with the untimely passing of Sultan Qaboos,…
Reading through the nuclear news of the past weeks, the attentive reader might have come across an under-the-radar dispute of Austria and United Kingdom, perhaps…
At a time when the second wave of coronavirus is decimating the world economy, when the Caucasus is smouldering from the consequences of the Karabakh…
The prolonged Nord Stream-2 saga has managed the unmanageable – industry watchers are becoming numb to the ever-changing prospects of the project and are becoming…
When Michelangelo Merisi (also known as Caravaggio) left continental Italy for Malta in 1607 to escape the ramifications of a lethal sword fight, little did…
Belarus is slowly entering the third month of consecutive protests and there is very little indication that either of the sides is ready to let…
The Asian market has moved into a state of cautious expectation. Although October is still only halfway through, one can state with a great degree…
A little more than a month ago Turkey has victoriously announced that the Tuna-1 wildcat, drilled to a total depth of 4525 metres, has discovered…
The flow of positive news regarding the future of PDVSA, Venezuela’s national oil company and cash cow, has been almost non-existent since February 2018. Rightly…
Constrained by the OPEC+ production cuts and the necessity to balance its 2020 federal budget, Russia has started to play with one of the most…
The attentive reader might have come across numerous articles about Mexico’s numerous discoveries in the past months. Heavily indebted, mired in a myriad of corruption…
Algeria has struggled to keep up with its manifold challenges throughout this year – still trying to clear the rubble of the Bouteflika regime, it…
The 2nd wave of COVID-19/20 becoming an irreversible part of our reality, the global downstream sector has started to assess the damage done so far…
Despite being only 9 months in, this year has provided us with a rollercoaster of developments on the oil market and upended the market’s usual…
Times are tough for Russian oil companies. In the post-Crimean era where sanctions have become the new normal, oil prices above 40-45 per barrel have…
The oil industry in South America is in sever need of positive stimuli – the Argentinian shale wonder has just survived a near-collapse of its…
The United Arab Emirates have just become the first Arab nation to operate a nuclear plant as its 5.6GW Barakah nuclear plant achieved criticality on…
The issue of US-Russia energy ties has been enjoying a bit of media spotlight as President Trump accused Democrats in New England of purchasing Russian…
Still struggling to overcome the draining consequences of almost ceaseless conflict and political haggling, Iraq has nevertheless managed to overcome the worst of the 2020…