Powder keg year for geopolitics
Iran, Venezuela and North Korea are all potential flashpoints in 2018
The risk landscape in 2018 is being pulled in two competing directions: on one hand, global economic growth has been revised upwards for the best outlook since the global financial crisis. On the other, geopolitical competition is at its punchiest since the end of the Cold War, with material (if still modest) threats of both trade wars and real wars. This dynamic, explored in our RiskMap 2018 forecast, has been bullish for oil prices since mid-2017, but 2018 is far from a one-way bet. In terms of sheer physical fundamentals, the most obvious factor continues to be the predictable response by US shale drillers (and their bankers) to rising prices. Shale drilling activity continues to neatly l
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Domestic companies in Nigeria and other African jurisdictions are buying assets from existing majors they view as more likely to deliver production upside under their stewardship
23 January 2025
The end of transit, though widely anticipated, leaves Europe paying a third more for gas than a year ago and greatly exposed to supply shocks
23 January 2025
The country’s government and E&P companies are leaving no stone unturned in their quest to increase domestic crude output as BP–ONGC tie-up leads the way
22 January 2025
The return of Donald Trump gives further evidence of ‘big oil’ as an investable asset, with the only question being whether anyone is really surprised
