The Project That Once Balanced Russian Expertise with Iraqi Sovereignty Now Exposes the Fragility of This Set-up Western sanctions have reshaped Iraq’s oil sector. In October 2025, the United States and United Kingdom targeted Lukoil and Rosneft’s overseas operations to curtail Moscow’s war financing. Lukoil promptly declared force majeure at West Qurna-2, which …
Read More »Can Turkey Become a Rare Earth Element Power?
Independent Certification of Reserves and Scaled-up Processing Would Elevate Turkey’s Role in Global Supply Chains of Critical Minerals Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan frames the supposed discovery of 694 million tons of rare earth element reserves in Beylikova, Eskişehir, as a strategic opportunity to place Turkey among the top global producers of rare earth …
Read More »Iran risks severe economic downturn, unrest as renewed UN sanctions bite
By Parisa HafeziOctober 22, 20257:59 AM GMT+3Updated 3 hours ago DUBAI, Oct 21 (Reuters) – Iran’s economy is at risk of simultaneous hyperinflation and severe recession, officials and analysts say, as clerical rulers scramble to preserve stability with limited room to manoeuvre after a snapback of U.N. sanctions. They followed a breakdown …
Read More »Will Iran Get off the Financial Action Task Force’s Blacklist in 2025?
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 …
Read More »The Iğdır-Nakhichevan Pipeline: Development and Strategic Significance
A major change in the energy landscape of the South Caucasus has occurred with the opening of the Iğdır-Nakhichevan gas pipeline, which has strengthened strategic energy alliances and reshaped regional dependencies. This accomplishment is especially significant as Türkiye navigates a critical energy security phase, since important natural gas contracts with …
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 »Geopolitics in Transit: U.S. Becomes Key Gas Player in Turkey
Turkey’s Growing Reliance on U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas Represents a Purposeful and Strategic Policy to Improve Energy Security As Turkey’s second-largest supplier of liquefied natural gas this past winter, the United States has become a significant player in the country’s gas industry. By topping five billion cubic meters and surpassing more established …
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 …
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