Monday , November 2 2026
  • My New Book

    US Energy Diplomacy in the Caspian Sea Basin: Changing Trends Since2001 - Available on Springer

  • My New Book

    US Energy Diplomacy in the Caspian Sea Basin: Changing Trends Since2001 - Available on Amazon

Recent Articles

Why Qatar is buying American LNG while expanding its own exports

Logo of QatarEnergy, formerly Qatar Petroleum on September 18, 2023 [Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images]

Qatar is buying American liquefied natural gas while spending billions to expand its own export capacity. That apparent contradiction offers a way to understand Doha’s diplomacy during the Persian Gulf crisis. Buying gas abroad gives QatarEnergy something to sell when tankers cannot leave Ras Laffan. It does far less for …

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Iran’s evasion network survives, but the crude feeding it has run dry

File photo: A worker stands on the Soroush offshore oil platform in Iran’s Persian Gulf

Iran still has the knowhow, middlemen and shadow-fleet infrastructure it spent years developing to sell sanctioned oil to China. But it has now run out of oil outside Iran to put through that system. The US naval blockade has exposed a limitation in Tehran’s sanctions-evasion machinery: ship-to-ship transfers, false paperwork …

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What can Iran’s new oil chief change under the US blockade?

Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad resigned Sunday, leaving acting minister Hamid Bovard with crude exports choked by a US blockade and scrutiny of intermediaries used to sell sanctioned oil, raising questions over what he can change. President Masoud Pezeshkian accepted Paknejad’s resignation on October 4 and appointed Bovard, chief executive …

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Can the Caspian give Iran a way around Hormuz?

With war disrupting Iran’s southern trade routes, Tehran is looking north to the Caspian for alternatives. But the available evidence suggests they cannot replace its crucial oil exports. More cargo moving across the Caspian could help Iran keep supplies coming in. But rising freight totals do not show whether Tehran …

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Beyond shared identity: Military cooperation across the Turkic states

Military cooperation among Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is growing, but it does not yet amount to a unified four-country alliance. The ties are taking shape through different channels: a formal alliance between Azerbaijan and Türkiye, a separate allied-relations treaty between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, and broader exercises that bring Central …

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