Crude oil prices have surged to record highs due to escalating tensions between the US and Iran, raising concerns about supply disruptions and market volatility.
Israel has for more than two decades and several US presidencies worked to draw the United States into a full-scale war with Iran. Having finally achieved that, the last thing it wants is Trump declaring victory and going home, as he is prone to do. Ali Larijani was the figure most capable of handing Trump a negotiated exit with something to show for it. Without Larijani, the road to an exit gets considerably narrower. Prem Panicker continues his must read daily blog on the Gulf War.
The latest flashpoint in West Asia has derailed India's preliminary plans to resume crude oil imports from Iran, officials said. In January, officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had told Business Standard that the government had been studying proposals for the same, given that India was trying to expand sources of imports. "We are always monitoring the situation when it comes to crude flows.
'Indians are basically liked because they are educated, they are intelligent.'
Iran has offered to help India meet its energy needs by relaunching rupee-rial trade for export of oil and gas, said Iranian ambassador to India Ali Chegeni. Chegeni said if both the countries resume rupee-rial trade, bilateral trade can touch $30 billion. Iran used to be India's second largest oil supplier but New Delhi had to halt imports after the former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed sanctions on its oil exports.
India on Monday lost the ONGC Videsh Ltd-discovered Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf after Iran awarded a contract for developing the giant gas field to a local company. "The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a contract worth $1.78 billion with Petropars Group for the development of Farzad B Gas Field in the Persian Gulf," the Iranian oil ministry's official news service Shana reported. "The deal was signed on Monday, May 17, in a ceremony held in the presence of Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh in Tehran." The field holds 23 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves, of which about 60 per cent is recoverable.
During the first round of discovered field auctions, there were 134 bidders for the 34 blocks on offer
The contract would give a big boost to India's $150 billion nuclear power programme, and a broader push to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The Modi government's appalling inefficiency and lack of purpose stand exposed, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Indian intelligence brass may have snared a key Pakistani spy and Jadhav's arrest is Pakistan's way of getting even with India, says Rajeev Sharma.
In the year since Modi cast the spotlight on Pakistan's human rights violations in Balochistan, India has not done much more than raise the issue at the UN a few times.
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