Recent Posts

Something’s Brewing: China’s “Teapot” Refineries and Middle East Oil Producers

This year, China is expected to overtake the United States as the world’s largest oil refining country.[1] Although China’s bloated and fragmented crude oil refining sector has undergone major changes over the past decade, it remains saddled with overcapacity.[2] Privately owned unaffiliated refineries, known as “teapots,”[3] mainly clustered in Shandong …

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The Dorra Field: Global gas market impact or bellwether for regional relations?

The Dorra Gas Field, located in shallow waters offshore in the northern Arabian Gulf, lies at the junction of competing territorial claims by Kuwait, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. With the growing gas demand in these countries, any production will be absorbed into the domestic network and the impact of production …

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Not “business as usual”: The Chinese military’s visit to Iran

Amid stalled nuclear talks with the P5+1, a senior Chinese military delegation, headed by Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Gen. Wei Fenghe, landed in Iran for a visit in late April. The readouts from Tehran were rather dull, with the usual platitudes about the close relations between …

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