A senior Iranian official on Tuesday delivered a sharp threat in response to economic sanctions being readied by the United States, saying his country would retaliate against any crackdown by blocking all oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for transporting about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Now that the "Arab Spring" is turning into the "Arab Winter" the former prime minister writes, "the challenge emerging from the changes taking place is so big that we had better put in place a common Western strategy or we'll find that national approaches are totally irrelevant to shape events there."
The death of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Sultan brings into play the system for choosing a new heir to the country's throne, and as one of most high-profile governments still resisting changes brought on by the Arab Spring, the importance of communicating stability affects investor sentiment across the Arabian Peninsula and energy markets around the world.
Oil market traders often deal with contrasting sources of information in their quest to find real production numbers and the slightest hint of where prices may be headed. Another case in point is the release of the latest August production and intake data by the producer-consumer energy dialogue, known as the Joint Data Initiative (JODI).