Lebanon is preparing to receive US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with no domestic enthusiasm. It is foreseen that the visit will bring no positive outcome to the country. This conclusion has been reached by many Lebanese officials following previous visits by Assistant Secretary of State David Hill, and after him by US Deputy Assistant…
The International Energy Agency forecast that the US could become the world’s top oil exporter by 2024. The report attributes this to “the incredible strength of its shale industry”, noting that it amounts to “a pivotal milestone that will bring greater diversity of supply in markets.” Although the agency’s full forecast isn’t available for free,…
Last Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a disturbing interview to Fox Business Network in which he divulged his plans to form a NATO-type alliance against Iran. The U.S. has long accused Iran of supporting terrorism, accusations that have ramped up under the Trump administration. Pompeo said, without a hint of irony, that…
Many people I talk to seem to think American foreign policy has something to do with democracy, human rights, national security, or maybe terrorism or freedom, or niceness, or something. It is a curious belief, Washington being interested in all of them. Other people are simply puzzled, seeing no pattern in America’s international behavior. Really,…
So far much of the discussion over what is driving the bizarre Trump Administration intervention into Venezuela centers around the comments of National Security Adviser John Bolton to claim it’s about oil. In a previous analysis we looked at the prospects of the huge Chavez Basin, formerly the Orinoco Basin, said to hold the world’s…
A 2014 Petroleum Economist report on Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt concluded where it might have begun: “A crucial question that the (Venezuelan) government has skirted is how its Orinoco Belt plans would fit within OPEC’s production quotas. Venezuela has been one of the cartel’s most hawkish members, urging tighter production quotas to keep prices above $100/b. An aggressive production expansion as…
