Life support for Pakistan’s oil sector
The large drop in business activity following the enforcement of strict lockdown and travel restrictions is threatening to push Pakistan into a recession. Poverty and unemployment levels are expected to…
Pandemic exposes cracks in oil majors’ bet on plastic
The energy industry’s bet that a petrochemicals boom would support decades of oil and gas sales growth is on shaky ground as an already saturated plastic market is hit by…
Crude reality: price crash means oil firms must slash spending
Confronted with a dizzying drop in prices, oil firms face a real challenge as they try to cut investment spending in order to survive a coronavirus-induced collapse in demand coupled…
Fragile oil markets
As lockdowns ease globally oil demand has picked up, causing in turn a bounce-back in prices of both Brent crude and WTI (West Texas Intermediate). On April 21, 2020, both…
Oil tankers carrying two months of Venezuelan output stuck at sea
Tankers carrying nearly two months worth of Venezuelan oil output are stuck at sea as global refiners shun the nation’s crude to avoid falling foul of U.S. sanctions, according to…
Deregulating oil or price ceiling?
New and higher oil prices have been announced after fixing very low prices on 1st June. June prices were extraordinarily low in the company of 15 lowest price oil producing…
Emerging market turmoil may bring FX controls back on radar
The coronavirus pandemic and oil price collapse have made emerging markets a lightning rod for volatile capital flows, raising the question whether currency controls might creep back on the radar…
LNG investments vanish in 2020 as coronavirus slashes oil and gas prices
No new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects could be approved this year for the first time in at least two decades, banking and industry sources said, after the COVID-19…
Power sector in turmoil
Chairing a meeting on energy reforms a few days ago, prime minister Imran Khan expressed his grave concern over the woefully negative impact of the deals the past agreements made…
Pandemic’s second wave and oil markets
For an industry still heavily scarred by the events of March and April, when prices went into free-fall as widespread lockdowns cut global oil consumption by around a quarter, the…
