A gas transfer station, Volovets, western Ukraine, Oct. 7, 2015 (AP photo by Pavlo Palamarchuk).

Following meetings with Ukrainian officials in Kiev early this month, the vice president of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, who holds the energy portfolio for the EU as a whole, laid out his vision for how the often contentious relationship between Ukraine, Russia and the EU ought to be structured. “Russia as an exporter, Ukraine as a transit country and the EU as the main importer,” he said. This pithy formulation also sums up Europe’s geo-economic approach for managing the Ukraine conflict. Geopolitical strategies to keep the peace appear to be breaking down in Ukraine. An uptick in clashes and […]

An anti-government rebel sits with an anti-aircraft weapon in front an oil refinery, Ras Lanouf, Libya, March 5, 2011 (AP photo by Hussein Malla).

Libya’s crude oil production has increased by more than 70 percent since August, to 450,000 barrels per day, as several oil fields resumed output and the port of Ras Lanuf reopened for the first time since 2014. In an email interview, Matthew Reed, the vice president of Foreign Reports, Inc., a Washington-based consulting firm focused on Middle East politics and world oil markets, discusses Libya’s oil industry. WPR: What is the state of Libya’s oil industry and its infrastructure? Matthew Reed: Libya’s oil sector is making a tenuous comeback. Production jumped to 450,000 barrels per day following the reopening of […]

An Iranian oil worker at a refinery south of Tehran, Dec. 22, 2014 (AP photo by Vahid Salemi).

Since August, there have been growing rumors about an oil production freeze by major oil producers. The deal might be concluded on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Algeria from Sept. 26 to 28, where the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will hold an informal gathering along with other producer countries, such as Russia. Seasoned oil market watchers will have a strong feeling of déjà vu. Back in April, members of OPEC and Russia failed to hammer out an agreement to limit oil production at a meeting in Doha. The talks collapsed at the 11th hour after […]

Climate activists protest on the rooftop of the Economy Ministry, Warsaw, Poland, Nov. 18, 2013 (AP photo by Czarek Sokolowski).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on countries’ risk exposure, contribution and response to climate change. As the European Union faces pressure to quickly ratify the Paris Agreement, Poland has said it will only do so if it is given special concessions for its coal-based power sector, which the government plans on continuing to use for many years. In an email interview, Karolina Jankowska, an independent researcher on climate and energy policy and the author of a chapter in the forthcoming book “The European Union in International Climate Change Politics,” discusses Poland’s climate change policy. […]

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades at a summit in Athens, Dec. 9, 2015 (AP photo by Thanassis Stavrakis).

In recent years, Egypt, Israel and Cyprus have all discovered huge natural gas fields off their coasts, raising export potential and perhaps the prospects for better political ties in the region through new energy partnerships. At least this is the scenario that the United States is hoping for. Last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s envoy on energy affairs, Amos Hochstein, told Bloomberg that “we’re just beginning to open the spigots of what is the potential for the broader region.” That is already evident in the improved ties between Israel and Turkey after their June rapprochement, motivated by gas […]

An Emirati man walks by a photovoltaic plant at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 16, 2011 (AP photo by Kamran Jebreili).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on countries’ risk exposure, contribution and response to climate change. An epic heat wave engulfed the Middle East this summer, with temperatures reaching as high as 129 degrees Fahrenheit in Kuwait in July, and climate experts warn the region could become too hot for human survival. In an email interview, Mohamed Abdel Raouf, a research fellow at the Gulf Research Center, discusses climate change’s impact on the Gulf. WPR: What are the Gulf countries’ risk exposure to climate change, what effects of climate change are already apparent, and what […]

A military operation against the Islamic State by Kurdish peshmerga west of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, Iraq, Sept. 30, 2015 (AP photo).

During a visit to Washington in April, Qubad Talabani, the deputy prime minister of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, declared that “the real existential threat facing Kurdistan today is the state of [its] economy.” The KRG’s monthly deficit had risen above $100 million, adding more strains on an already-teetering economy. Four months later, the KRG continues to face a financial crisis as oil production slows amid attacks from the Islamic State, refineries fall offline, and export quality drops. Kurdish leaders consider their region’s oil fields to be the foundation for an envisaged state. But falling oil revenue leaves […]