Energy Strategy & Foreign Policy

The GCC states have invested heavily in carbon capture and storage systems to lower their atmospheric emissions and take advantage of the high demand for these services in the years to come. The states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), long among the world’s greatest oil producers, are going through a …

Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian and Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev in a bilateral trade forum, Baku, April 28, 2025

‘While countries like the US and Australia have reopened mines, they remain dependent on China for refining,’ says energy strategist Umud Shokri In the 1990s, the US started offshoring a lot of our mining and a lot of our processing. So, a lot of that went to China … There’s …

Iran Economy & Innovation  Commentary Dr. Umud Shokri EN AR TR FA According to media reports, the Trump administration is thinking about physically intercepting and inspecting Iranian oil tankers on the high seas as part of a major escalation of Washington’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamic Republic. According to March 2025 reports, American …

he Central Asian country is positioning itself as a low-carbon leader, but antiquated infrastructure and a dependence on Russia are holding it back Kazakhstan is producing record amounts of oil for export, with output reportedly reaching 2.12m b/d at the beginning of March, exceeding the country’s OPEC+ quota of 1.47m …

As the GCC states undergo economic diversification efforts, they have increasingly turned to China for help—and Beijing has happily reciprocated. The geopolitical environment surrounding renewable technology and essential minerals is changing dramatically as the globe speeds up its journey to sustainable energy. China, which has become the main actor in the …

Due to geopolitical tensions and the growing need for minerals necessary for green technology, Ukraine’s vital mineral resources have drawn more attention from around the world. Ukraine, the second-largest nation in Europe, has abundant mineral resources, including sizable amounts of nickel, cobalt, graphite, rare earth elements, lithium, and titanium. Because …

The U.S.-China trade war grew more intense in 2018 due to several factors, including concerns about trade imbalances, intellectual property theft, and restrictions on market access. These issues led to several wars as both countries sought to assert their economic dominance. When the U.S. placed tariffs on a range of …

Increased oil supplies will moderate prices. But renewable energy will now have to compete with fossil fuel industryBy Richa Mishra ticking to his narrative of “Drill, Baby, Drill”, on January 20 Donald Trump, after taking office as the American President for the second time, declared National Energy Emergency. The objective of …

A new agreement to import Russian gas through Azerbaijan – signed by Iran’s president in Moscow — may reflect difficulties in constructing a pipeline under the Caspian Sea. Among the many challenges it faces as its regional alliances buckle, Iran is also experiencing a severe energy crisis despite possessing the world’s second-largest …