New crisis and old
Subdued oil prices and intractable wars cast a shadow over the year
The backdrop to the Middle East and North Africa stage in 2017 illustrated the two key themes of the previous 12 months: low global oil prices; and continuing violence in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen. But other crises emerged. On 5 June, Saudi Arabia, with the backing of Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt, took the world by surprise by imposing an economic blockade on Qatar. The country was being punished, Saudi Arabia and its backers said, for failing to honour previous pledges to change domestic and regional policies towards political Islam and Iran. Qatar rejected what it called attempts to infringe upon its sovereignty. It circumvented the blockade by increasing imports of food and goods from Ir
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20 February 2025
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The EU would do well to ease its gas storage requirements to avoid heavy purchase costs this summer, with the targets having created market distortion while giving sellers a significant advantage over buyers
18 February 2025
Deliveries to China decline by around 1m b/d from move to curb crude exports to Shandong port, putting Iran under further economic pressure
