Energy

Report

Saudi Arabia Plans to Break Its ‘Addiction’ to Oil

Saudi Arabia on Monday unveiled a sweeping plan to diversify its economy and wean its excessive reliance on crude oil exports by 2030, a blueprint ...

Argument

This Is Not the Time for an Independent Kurdistan

Many have wondered when Iraqi Kurdistan, which already enjoys broad autonomy from Baghdad, might finally declare independence. The present moment doesn’t seem particularly auspicious for ...

Dispatch

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Islamic State

I met Abu Samou when he pulled over to the side of the road in his small Foton truck in Al-Bab, a lifeless city with ...

Report

Dutch Treat: Russia Dodges a Bullet in the $50 Billion Yukos Case — For Now

A Dutch court threw Russia an unexpected lifeline Wednesday in a $50 billion arbitration case, pushing a decade-long legal saga into further appeals that could ...

Report

To Punish Iran, Saudis Scuttle Oil-Freeze Plan

OPEC’s failure over the weekend to reach a deal to freeze oil production at current levels, and thus nudge oil prices back up, shows that ...

Report

Under President Sanders, the Planet Will Feel the Burn

Whether on stage during debates or on the stump, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders vows he’ll do more to fight climate change than any other U.S. ...

Report

King Coal Is Losing His Throne

Peabody Energy, the world’s biggest privately owned coal mining company, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on Wednesday. The company becomes the latest ...

Report

Tiny Kosovo Faces a Big Energy Dilemma

Almost everyone agrees that Kosovo, home to 1.8 million people and one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe, desperately needs more energy. The question ...

Argument

Africa’s Petrostates Are Imploding

Africa’s petrostates are crashing hard. A cool $115 in the summer of 2014, a barrel of Brent crude, the international pricing benchmark, now fetches below ...

Passport

One Saudi’s Protest, Through The Viewfinder

Five images, glowing with the black and blue hue of an x-ray, stand side-by-side in a row. On one end, Saudi Arabian artist Ahmed Mater’s ...

The Cable

This Chart Shows the U.S. Economy Might Be In Better Shape Than Voters Think

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have built their campaigns around the idea that the American economy is faltering. Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen says low ...

Report

China Is Getting Serious About Kicking Its Coal Addiction

After closing coal mines, Beijing is halting the construction of hundreds of coal-fired power plants. But is it too late?

Report

Clinton Tries to Stake Out New Turf on Energy Policy

In recent weeks, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has moved to the left on energy policy, seemingly yanked by the Bernie Sanders insurgency. Much as happened ...

Middle East Instability Props Oil Price Close to All Time High

Report

Turns Out Economic Growth Doesn’t Mean Destroying the Planet

The world seems to have found a way to keep growing every year without further destroying the environment, potentially sundering the link between growth and ...

Passport

After Activist’s Murder, Dutch Investors Question Ties to Hydroelectric Project

Two weeks ago, Gustavo Castro fell to the floor and pretended to be dead, waiting for the gunmen who shot Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres ...

The 168th Organization Of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Conference

Argument

Saudi Arabia's Oil Freeze Is a Serious Miscalculation

At OPEC’s December meeting in Vienna, the delegation from Saudi Arabia ignored the pleas of some of the bloc’s more economically fragile members, whose ranks ...

Report

Can a Desperate Brazil Finally Tap Its Oil Wealth?

Brazil is wracked by the Zika virus, rising inflation, a deep recession, massive political and corporate scandals, and worries that athletes at the 2016 Summer ...

Global Warming, Full Moon, High Tide Cause Flooding In Miami Beach

Report

Climate Change Is Undeniable. So Why Is the GOP Still Denying It?

MIAMI — Florida is waging a quixotic battle against climate change that becomes immediately and aggravatingly apparent when driving anywhere in Miami. Endless orange traffic ...

Report

With Power Plants Getting Hacked, Senate Looks For Ways To Keep The Lights On

On Dec. 23, hackers targeted three Ukrainian electricity companies, plunging 225,000 people into darkness. The attack was the first confirmed cyberattack to have caused a ...

Report

A Mysterious Pipeline Closure Is Bankrupting Iraqi Kurds

Iraqi Kurds' dreams of energy-financed political independence are taking a beating -- and not just because of low oil prices. Since the middle of February, ...

Passport

U.S. Warns of ‘Catastrophic Failure’ of Iraq’s Mosul Dam

The United States is ringing alarm bells about the deadly consequences of a breach in the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq, warning publicly over the ...

Report

America’s Natural Gas Exports Won’t Be Enough to Blunt Putin’s Energy Weapon

A massive tanker eased into its berth in Louisiana last week and began loading thousands of tons of super-chilled American natural gas. The ship made ...

Argument

The Irrational Exuberance About the Iranian Economy

“You’re so happy!” I couldn’t help but smile at Kaveh as I climbed into the backseat of an old, white Iranian Peugeot taxi on a warm ...

Report

The No-Good, Very Bad Days for U.S. Oil Producers Are Here to Stay

U.S. producers are begging Riyadh to cut production to push up prices. A top Saudi minister says that’s not going to happen.

The Cable

What The Heck Are Cocos and Why Is Everyone Freaking Out About Them?

The global market sell-off that continued Thursday in the United States can be blamed on a lot of things, including China’s economic slowdown, low oil ...

Argument

Nigeria Is Coming Apart at the Seams

Crowds of Igbo-speaking people barricade streets across southeastern Nigeria, bringing traffic to a standstill. They wave black, green, and red secessionist flags; distribute their own ...

The Cable

This Is What Happens When Good News Is Bad For U.S. Stocks

Equities in the U.S. followed their global counterparts into a sharp drop Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by as much as 357 ...

Report

Mapped: The Crumbling Iraqi Dam That May Flood The Country

The Iraqi government and an Italian engineering firm have finally reached a tentative agreement that could provide a long-term fix for the world's most dangerous ...

Feature

Waiting to Vanish

A vicious storm surge, powered by monsoon winds, brought several feet of brackish water crashing through Sk Aptauddin’s coastal home in the fall of 2014. ...

Refelction Lake, Mount Rainier National Park_SW_V1

Feature

A Shot Across the Bow

“I have been studying the global shipping industry since 2000, observing its amazing growth both in cargo statistics and in the size of the ships. ...

Report

Ethanol Is Holy in Iowa. So Why Is Cruz Going After It?

Days before the pivotal Iowa caucus, Ted Cruz is gambling that he can attack the state's multibillion-dollar corn subsidies — and still win the vote.

Passport

Davos Q&A: Cheap Oil ‘Another Straw on the Camel’s Back’ for Struggling Emerging Markets

More than two-thirds of corporate CEOs around the world are concerned about the growth prospects of their own companies and see risky times ahead, according ...

Passport

Davos Diary: Iran Insists It’s Open for Business. Will It Have Any Customers?

DAVOS, Switzerland — It was a sweet but short victory lap this week at the World Economic Forum for Iranian officials, who quickly set aside ...

Report

America’s Looming Gas Revolution

The United States is finally set to start exporting some of its natural gas bonanza, potentially becoming not just the world's biggest energy consumer but ...

Dispatch

South Sudan’s Next Civil War Is Starting

JUBA, South Sudan — More than half a dozen cease-fires had been brokered and broken before opposition forces finally returned to the capital in late ...

Passport

Davos Diary: Jack Lew Urges Calm as Stocks Nosedive

DAVOS, Switzerland -- The U.S. Treasury secretary has a message for jittery investors and traders the world over: take a deep breath. That’s the message ...

Report

Don’t Blame China for Plunging Oil Prices

China's economic woes have rattled stock and commodities markets around the world, leading many traders to blame Beijing for plunging oil prices. They’re wrong: China ...

Passport

Davos Diary: The IMF Sees Dark Clouds Gathering Over the Global Economy

DAVOS, Switzerland - The 2016 World Economic Forum opened to a gloomy start Tuesday, with the International Monetary Fund again warning of modest global growth ...

The Cable

Unfounded Fears About Iran’s Oil Sparks Steep Global Losses

Global stocks dropped sharply Friday on growing fears that global growth, particularly in China, is slowing, and that historically low oil prices would only sink ...

Report

Cheap Oil Means the State of the Union Is … Not Great

Crude oil prices took another swan dive Tuesday, falling below $30 a barrel during daytime trading, their lowest levels since late 2003. For President Barack ...

Report

The IPO to End All IPOs?

$10 trillion. That’s the top-end estimate for how much Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, could be worth when shares in the energy giant ...

Shadow Government

Unhappy New Year: The 10 Geopolitical Risks to Watch in 2016

2016 is looking like it might be a turbulent year. Rising populism, great power revanchism, the continued specter of terrorism, disputes over “cyber-sovereignty,” intensified regional ...

Argument

The Next Front in the Saudi-Iran War

It looks like 2016 was born in violence. Saudi Arabia’s execution of popular Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr has led to an escalation with its ...

Report

Oil Prices Have Hit a 10-Year Low. They’re Not Going to Stay There.

With demand growing and output shrinking, today’s cheap oil could nearly triple in cost in coming years.

Report

Saudi Arabia and Iran Are at Each Other’s Throats. Why Are Oil Prices Falling?

Saudi Arabia and Iran, OPEC’s two biggest powers, are at each other's throats in an escalating war of words that is already spreading to other ...

Report

The Afghanistan Land Bridge Is Finally Here

One of the world's most quixotic energy projects finally kicked off this month, with the formal groundbreaking of the so-called TAPI pipeline meant to tap ...

Report

A Gas-Powered Rapprochement Between Turkey and Israel

Turkey's quest for new sources of energy to escape Russia's clutches may have helped power the latest push for reconciliation with Israel, five years after ...

Report

U.S. Aims to Lift 40-Year-Old Oil Export Ban

U.S. lawmakers are set to lift a 40-year-old ban on exporting crude oil, a symbolic recognition of the United States' resurgent role as a major ...

Report

The Billion-Dollar Caliphate

Last month, U.S. fighter jets unleashed airstrikes against oil fields, refineries, and hundreds of tanker trucks near the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor. Dubbed Operation Tidal ...

Argument

Is There a Way to Solve the American Fight Over Climate Change?

In his speech at the opening of the Paris global summit on climate change, U.S. President Barack Obama urged foreign leaders to “show the world ...

The Magazine

Modi’s Coal Conundrum

Leaders in India have long faced their share of momentous choices with epoch-making implications. The Mughal emperor’s decision to grant trading rights to the British ...

Report

For Israel and Its Neighbors, Energy Finds Power Big Dreams

Israel and other countries ringing the eastern Mediterranean are trying to kick-start the development of their potentially vast energy reserves, but the push may bring ...

Dispatch

The End of Coal*

LE BOURGET, France — The United Nations climate talks that began last week in Paris, and will be wrapping up on Friday, are an experiment ...

Report

Russia, Turkey Fight Spreads to Energy Sector

The fallout from the Turkish downing of a Russian jet last month is growing ever more dangerous, with even the seemingly untouchable energy sector now ...

The Cable

OPEC’s Failure to Reduce Oil Output to Keep U.S. Gas Prices Low

Historically low oil prices have OPEC so divided that marathon talks in Vienna that closed Friday could only produce one thing: disagreement. At the end ...

Report

Russia Pours Hot Oil on Wounded Ties With Turkey

Relations between Moscow and Ankara are only getting uglier, a week after Turkey shot down a Russian jet that crossed into its airspace. On Wednesday, ...

Report

Top Economist: OPEC Is Preparing for ‘Long-Term Type of War’

American oil producers are reeling thanks to a continued fall in oil prices. Countries such as Iran, Iraq, Russia, and Venezuela are struggling to pay ...

Report

Will Putin Use the Energy Weapon Against Turkey?

Moscow is warning it will strike back after the downing of a Russian plane. But is it willing to jeopardize its own economy to do so?

Report

Hitting the Islamic State’s Oil Isn’t Enough

U.S. and coalition warplanes have launched a rapidly intensifying air campaign against the Islamic State’s oil wells, refineries, and pump stations in recent days, mounting ...

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