The Government Is Reducing Fuel Quotas and Is Considering Digital Fuel Cards, Tiered Pricing, and Energy Coupons Iran consumes more energy per person than many developed nations, though poor energy efficiency leads to extensive waste. The core reasons for this are energy subsidies and pricing schemes that buck market realities. While Iranian …
Read More »Iran’s Energy Dilemma: Constraints, Repercussions, and Policy Options
Despite vast oil and gas reserves, Iran faces a severe energy crisis due to decades of mismanagement, excessive subsidies, corruption, and international sanctions, which have crippled its infrastructure and distorted energy markets. Without structural reforms and international engagement, the country risks deeper economic instability, environmental degradation, and political unrest. Iran has …
Read More »From Caspian to Continental: Türkiye’s Bid to Supply Europe with Turkmen and Azeri Gas
Significant progress has been made in establishing Türkiye as a major regional gateway for the transit of natural gas, especially in enabling the shipping of gas from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to Europe. Its strategic positioning in the global energy market is strengthened by its participation in significant infrastructure projects like …
Read More »The Gulf States’ Carbon Capture and Storage Ambitions
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 …
Read More »Rare earths: Why China’s dominance is a trump card in US trade war
‘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 …
Read More »From Sanctions to Seizures: The New U.S. Push to Halt Iranian Oil Shipments
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 …
Read More »The China-GCC Equation: Energy, Critical Minerals, and Geopolitical Strategy
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 …
Read More »Critical Minerals and the U.S.-China Trade War
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 …
Read More »Trump’s energy imperatives
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 …
Read More »The Pitfalls of an America-First Energy Policy
President Donald Trump has promised to drastically lower oil prices in the United States during his second term—but the world’s oil-producing states may not allow him. U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to revitalize the American oil sector and slash prices, a key promise of his reelection campaign, may be …
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