Tag Archives: oil and gas

Reports in major outlets that Tehran has floated a “commercial bonanza” to the Trump administration should be understood less as an investment roadmap than as a survival strategy. As Donald Trump’s 10-to-15-day deadline for a “meaningful” deal with Iran enters its decisive phase, Iranian officials appear to be reframing diplomacy …

President Donald Trump’s response to Iran’s recent unrest appears to reflect a strategy of gunboat diplomacy: the use of military pressure, rhetorical escalation, and economic coercion to extract concessions without committing to war or formal regime change. Iran’s currency plunge in late December 2025 sparked nationwide protests that quickly escalated …

Iran’s Sanctions-Evasion Infrastructure Has Become Systematic Rather than Improvised In early February 2025, President Donald Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), formally reinstating his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. The directive sought to deny Tehran any path to nuclear weapons, constrain its ballistic missile program, and dismantle support for regional proxies by …

A Fragmented Labor Force, Strict Security, and Other Factors Constrain Workers from Mobilizing, Not Apathy or Ignorance Iran’s latest wave of unrest has revived the expectation that sustained protests eventually will reach the oil sector and choke off the regime’s primary revenue stream. That escalation has not occurred. The absence …

Syria Holds an Estimated 2.5 Billion Barrels of Oil and 8.5 Trillion Cubic Feet of Gas but Reserves Do Not Guarantee Recovery Syria’s oil and gas sector once anchored state revenues and energy security. Before 2011, the country produced roughly 380,000 barrels per day of oil and about 25 million …

With Energy Diplomacy, Ankara Strengthens a Partnership That Stretches Across Military, Cultural, and Now Economic Dimensions On December 2, 2025, Turkey signed hydrocarbon exploration agreements through its state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) with six Pakistani energy firms. The announcement came with almost no political theater, but the implications run deeper …

Continued Blacklisting and Enhanced Sanctions Would Hinder Iran’s Trade Contacts, Foreign Investment, and Access to Financial Institutions The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international body charged with combatting money laundering and terror finance, placed Iran on its blacklist in 2007 because of its failure to address weaknesses in its …

When Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in Moscow on 17 January 2025, it marked a significant turning point in the expanding partnership between Iran and Russia. Broad collaboration in vital areas like defense, counterterrorism, energy, finance, technology, cybersecurity, peaceful …

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 …

Introduction China’s evolving position on the Iran-Israel conflict reflects a pragmatic adjustment to align with its broader geopolitical and economic goals, particularly in light of Iran’s June 2025 parliamentary move to potentially close the Strait of Hormuz. Initially, Beijing backed Iran’s sovereignty, endorsing Tehran’s “self-defense” claims against Israeli strikes.[1] By …