Seesawing crude price, fresh lows & more

Oil prices have been seesawing all of this week in the wake of another round of Trump Tariffs, an OPEC+ production hike, market uncertainty, and so it goes. You name it, the market bears have it with crude prices currently lurking around 8-week lows. 

Brent closed at its lowest since June 10 on Wednesday, while the WTI closed at its lowest since June 5. 

However, even if you were to drown out the latest din, it is almost inescapable that both benchmarks have struggled to meaningfully maintain a price floor of $70 a barrel. 

Specifically on the global proxy benchmark Brent, as The Oilholic told Reuters, for all of what has been thrown the oil market's way geopolitically, it has struggled to stay above $70 a barrel for any convincing length of time. 

At the time of writing, Brent is down by over 10% on the year, 9% on a six-month basis, and, even more tellingly 11% year-to-date. That's because despite the various permutations and shifts the market has seen, it essentially remains well supplied at a time of uncertain demand.

Furthermore, the various macro factors - most notably China’s manufacturing contraction, weak US labour market data, and the chaos of Trump Tariffs - continue to temper expectations of any sort of lasting bullishness for crude.

Away from crude prices, here are yours truly's Forbes missives on a 10th successive quarterly profit decline at Saudi Aramco, Shell's share buybacks despite its own profits dip, and BP's latest bid to cheer up its underwhelmed shareholders. 

Additionally, here's The Oilholic's latest column for Energy Connects on the sector's incremental embrace of industrial AI and the commercial opportunities that presents the technology industry. 

Well that's all for now folks! More musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo: Oil pump jack building block model at the AVEVA World 2023 Conference, Moscone Center, San Francisco, US © Gaurav Sharma, October 2023.

IEW 2025 Days III & IV: India's quest for a gas economy

Over the course of Thursday and Friday - days III & IV - of India Energy Week 2025 that put us on the home stretch of the global event, conversations turned more meaningfully towards the Indian government's assertion of placing a 'gas economy' at the heart of its march to net zero by 2070. 

What many in the industry choose to describe as a 'bridging fuel', is a medium the Indian government, and indeed many others, appear comfortable in embracing to wean them off coal and help with a shift to more sustainable sources. 

In India's case, the country's Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri is leading the charge personally. Yours truly had the pleasure of reconnecting with the Minister and interviewing him for Forbes to discuss a host of energy related issues. Have a read here if you wish. 

In its collaborative transformation of the energy mix, the current Indian government is carefully examining the US shale revolution. Shale has already greatly changed the rules of international oil and gas trade and geopolitics, with the US making a significant shift from conventional to non-conventional oil and gas fields.

To this effect, the Oilholic hosted a Day III session titled "Harnessing the force of shale oil and gas in building future global energy systems."

Eminent panellists included Barnali Barua Tokhi, MD, Bharat PetroResources Ltd, Rahul Patel, MD and CEO, Transcontinental Energy Services, Trailukya Borgohain, Director (Operations), Oil India Ltd. 

The panel explored emerging concepts in exploration, extraction and distribution that have triggered a global shift in how untapped shale oil and gas resources are used, helping to fill energy supply gaps and change market dynamics. 

As it appears, the world’s remaining proven hydrocarbon reserves, 70% of oil and 45% of gas are considered unconventional. So, how they are tapped matter greatly. The panellists discussed how technological advances have now made many significant reservoirs of recoverable shale resources available to develop in multiple locations worldwide.

As the event neared its close on Day IV, focus also turned to STEM talent and process efficiencies achieved by the industry by deploying industrial AI. And, of course, to the deals that rained at the event as the great and the good of the global energy world queued up to ink agreements in India over the course of the week. 

Signature deals, among several moves, included BP's technical partnerships with EIL and ONGC, BPCL's agreement with Petrobras for 6 million barrels worth of exports to India, and, IOCL and ADNOC's long-term agreement for LNG up to 1.2 mmtpa from 2026 for 14 years.

And here are yours truly's thoughts via Forbes, based on conversations here, on climate finance and the trillions required if the world is to meet its net zero emissions targets. 

Finally, before bidding goodbye to Delhi, the Oilholic also took time out from the hustle and bustle of the conference to provide some analysis, and sum up the goings-on at the event to colleagues at Energy Connects. Watch this space when the good folks at EC publish the interview. 

It's been an immense pleasure and a privilege to attend and speak at India Energy Week for the very first time. But its now time to bid goodbye to India until next year. More thoughts soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo I: India Energy Week 2025. Photo II: Gaurav Sharma at IEW 2025. Photo III: Gaurav Sharma (left) at the Energy Connects studio in conversation with the media outlet's Editor-in-chief Chiranjib Sengupta at IEW 2025. © Gaurav Sharma 2025.

IEW 2025 Days I & II: Reimagining the future of energy

The first two days of India Energy Week or IEW 2025 have whizzed by with several aspects of the event's core theme - reimagining the future of energy in India and the world - discussed widely at various panel sessions and forums. 

The event was inaugurated on Tuesday by the country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi who noted in his opening remarks that India's wider energy sector ambitions would depend on "key five pillars" - namely "resource availability, a skilled workforce, economic strength, political stability, and strategic geography."

He also reiterated his pledge of more than doubling India's current renewable energy capacity from its current level to 500GW by 2030. Here's The Oilholic's full report for Forbes on the opening remarks. 

Following the Prime Minister's keynote, day I of the event also saw India's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri note that the world's energy transition journey can never be a straight cut exercise in resource replacement; rather a nuanced resource utilisation journey reliant on diverse supply chains banking on both  renewable and traditional sources. 

The event also saw several energy ministers from Brazil to Qatar hobnob with their counterparts and delegates on the first day, indicative of the interest in India's energy sector. 

Among them, rather curiously, was UK's eco-zealot minister Ed Miliband who attempted to portray to a foreign audience that he actually cared about the North Sea calling his country a "proud oil and gas producer." But - with his policy actions implying the exact opposite - was widely and rightly ridiculed back home. 

The event's exhibition floor also opened its doors with over 70,000 visitors expected here over the course of the week. Two themes instantly caught this blogger's eye - "Make In India" pegged to domestic manufacturing and Green Hydrogen, an admirable firm favourite of Minister Puri. 

Yours truly also kicked into gear on Day II by moderating a leadership panel session titled "Bridging the energy transition's investment gaps." 

Eminent panelists included Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, Former Secretary of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Roberto Bocca, Head, Centre for Energy and Minerals, World Economic Forum, Hitesh Vaid, CFO of Cairn Oil and Gas, and Katan Hirachand, Chief Executive & Chief Country Officer - India, Societe Generale. (See below right for details, click on image to enlarge)

It was a fascinating discussion on climate finance acknowledging the complexities and opportunities of the energy transition and the mammoth task of underpinning global action by investment dollars,  trillions of which may be required according to some. Securing these would be the challenge of our age. 

Elsewhere on day II, other sessions touched on the reliable role of gas in the energy mix and discussed the familiar topic of technology as an efficiency enabler and facilitator of faster decarbonisation. 

Various aspects of India's energy ecosystem, its policy framework and investment drive were also examined, and how the global south could perhaps take some learnings from the country's approach over the last decade. That's all for now folks. There's plenty more to come from IEW 2025. So keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo I: Yashobhoomi Convention Centre, Delhi, India - the venue of IEW 2025. Photo II: 'Make In India' display at the IEW 2025 exhibition. Photo III: Gaurav Sharma at the Indian government's green hydrogen booth. © Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo IV: Detail of 'Bridging the energy transition's investment gap.' (Courtesy: dmgevents)

Oil spikes as US hikes sanctions on Russia & more

Happy New Year dear readers. Oil trading began on a much firmer footing this month, with Brent capping the $80 per barrel mark for the first time in three months on January 10. 

The global proxy benchmark has pretty much stayed near the mark in the couple of market sessions we have had since, as traders get their first quarter antennae up to gauge the direction of travel. And, of course, factor in recent news of heightened US sanctions on Russia's oil exports.

Many of the curbs target what's described as a "shadow fleet" of ageing non-Western oil tankers that carry Russia's oil. It has sent China and India - two of the biggest buyers of Moscow's black gold - scrambling for alternatives while they work out the situation. 

Extremely cold weather in the North Hemisphere, and an anticipation of tougher sanctions on Iran by an incoming Donald Trump administration are also providing an upside. However, wider market fundamentals have not shifted by much. 

The dollar remains relatively strong, lack of clarity on where China's demand may eventually go this year persists and there is still plenty of non-OPEC oil out in the market to meet global demand growth projections just north of 1 million barrels per day. 

Many are also factoring in higher US production levels in 2025. So the current firmness in Brent prices may prove to be short-lived. 

Away from the oil market, yours truly also discussed Central Europe's natural gas conundrum following Ukraine's new year's eve decision to end Russian energy transit via its territory on CGTN earlier this month. 

Basically, the old continent will need to find around 15 bcm of natural gas from elsewhere, which it can but at a considerably higher cost. (Full interview clip here).

Finally, switching tack to market related political developments, the year has begun with oil rich Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (finally) on his way out of office and an election on the horizon. Meanwhile, incoming US President Donald Trump has caused a stir revisiting his attempt to acquire the resource-rich and strategically important Arctic island of Greenland. 

We're barely a week away from Trump entering the White House with massive implications for the energy market and beyond. And on that note, its time to say goodbye for now. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo: Oil production site. © jplenio / Pixabay, 2018. 

OPEC and the oil price floor

The last few weeks have brought range-bound volatility to the oil market with Brent futures oscillating between $70 and $75 per barrel. 

For the Oilholic, the now not-so-new Brent price floor is at $70 that OPEC appears to be protecting, although the producers' group rarely publicly comments on oil prices. 

In the face of subdued global, especially Chinese, demand growth, working to protect a price level rather than market share isn't quite working either. 

Brent has seen a steady decline over the last six months to the end of the year from $85 down to $75 to ultimately encountering resistance at $70. 

The market share versus price quandary is continuing for OPEC+ with no end in sight and perhaps no unanimity within its ranks on how to deal with it. 

All the while rising numbers of non-OPEC, especially US, barrels continue to hit the market. Overall, the situation is that at present, and going well in to H1 2025, there is very little appetite for additional barrels from any source, let alone OPEC+ barrels. 

Chances are OPEC+ will keep its cuts in place for another few months whenever a formal meeting takes place to decide on near-term production levels in December. But while it can potentially avoid actions to oversupply the market, will non-OPEC producers do so? Most likely, no. So, lower for longer does appear to be the order of the day. 

And were OPEC+ and the Saudis to discard their output curbs and trigger a market tussle, a decline to $50 Brent prices cannot be ruled out. 

Brent's price floor might currently be at $70, but it could potentially be... well floored further depending on what happens. 

Moving on from oil market chatter, yours truly recently discussed COP29 shenanigans on TRT World (clip here), wrote concluding thoughts on the climate change conference for Forbes (article here), and offered one's take on London's AIM-listed energy minnow Afentra (LON: AET) for Motley Fool (article here). That's all for the moment folks. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo I: Oil pump jack building block model at the AVEVA World 2023 Conference, Moscone Center, San Francisco, US. © Gaurav Sharma, October 2023. Photo II: Gaurav Sharma on TRTWorld, November 2024 © TRT World, November 2024. 

Media missives from ADIPEC 2024

With ADIPEC 2024 drawing to a close on November 7, the Oilholic capped a fascinating and engaging week out in Abu Dhabi by hosting four pivotal industry panel sessions at the event on subjects ranging from climate finance to hydrogen markets in Asia.

Yours truly also hit the airwaves to discuss the wider energy market, impact of the US elections, an incoming Donald Trump administration and the various developments at ADIPEC 2024 which attracted over 200,000 people this year. 

These included broadcasting calls with the BBC, WION, Energy Connects and more, with this blogger's week also peppered with plenty of missives via the keyboard for Forbes, and of course this blog.

All blog entries for each ADIPEC day may be found here. And here are selected Forbes copies in chronological order based on soundbites and insight from the event. 

• ADNOC Boss Urges Energy Peers To Fully Embrace Power Of AI, November 4, 2024
• Donald Trump’s Presidency Will Likely Boost U.S. Oil Output In 2025, November 6, 2024
• Strait Of Hormuz: Why Iran Wont Harm Critical Oil Shipping Route, November 7, 2024
• British Energy Majors May Lean More On Oil And Gas To Boost Profits, November 8, 2024
• New U.K. Tax Rates Are Hammering North Sea Oil And Gas Drilling, November 12, 2024

That's a wrap for this year's ADIPEC. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo: Gaurav Sharma at ADIPEC 2024 studio in Abu Dhabi, UAE on November 4, 2024 © dmgevents /APCO Worldwide. 

Are we back to fundamentals as oil prices tank further?

For the second successive session this week oil prices have slid further and faster. After Monday's declines of over 2%, Tuesday has logged fresh intraday drops of as high as 5%. 

At the time of writing this post, The Oilholic noted that Brent and WTI front month futures contracts had breached their respective $74 and $70 per barrel floors. Headwinds are in fact gathering momentum and yet lower prices may follow. 

Over the weekend, China's promised economic stimulus underwhelmed the market with its vagueness. Then came a revelation that OPEC - deemed the most bullish of the crude oil demand growth forecasters - had revised its prediction lower for 2024 below 2 million bpd. The IEA's prediction is below 1 million bpd. 

And if that wasn't bearish enough, media reports, led by The Washington Post, also suggested on Tuesday that Israel may not attack Iran's oil facilities as feared. So has the risk premium effectively decoupled and are we now back to market fundamentals driving the oil price again? Largely yes in an oversupplied market. But then again not a complete yes yet, as its contingent upon what Israel may or may not do next! 

That said, outlandish $100 per barrel oil price predictions can once again take a back seat. That's all for the moment folks! Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo: Oil production site. © jplenio / Pixabay, 2018. 

Risk weighting oil in the current climate

The last few weeks have been relentless in terms of geopolitical developments and their impact on the oil market - albeit a somewhat oversupplied one with plenty of barrels to more than meet global demand. 

From the lows of September last seen in December 2021, the Brent front-month contract has ended the current trading week posting its highest weekly rise in almost two years. The reason is a bit more complicated than yet another escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

On Tuesday, Iran hit Israel with a barrage of ballistic missiles in response to its "aggressive acts," including the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon.

With speculation rife about Israel's impending response to Iran, Brent futures stemmed their decline towards $70 per barrels and started inching up towards $80. The inching quickly turned climbing on Thursday after US President Joe Biden decided to make an "off the cuff" remark about discussing with Israel if it could go after Iran's oil facilities. 

Four key ones spring to the Oilholic's mind as yours truly noted in an article for Forbes. These sites may well have a target on their back but any potential Israeli action does not need to be spelt out by a sitting US President 4 weeks from a presidential election. 

Cue a 5.5% spike in Brent futures on Thursday, followed by another 2% today, bringing prices closer to $80. That prices are still below the $85 level seen at the start of the third quarter last year, as well as earlier this year, is down to the fact there is plenty of crude in the market at a time of uncertain demand. 

So the question is where do we go from here? In that respect, things are pretty much as they were at the start of the week when the Oilholic was interviewed by Reuters, i.e., risk weighting for front-month oil futures is currently contingent upon what Israel might do next and if there is a direct confrontation with Iran.

It is now (almost) guaranteed that such a confrontation is now not a question if but when, as yours truly said on subsequent back-to-back BBC News interviews following Iran's attack on Israel on Tuesday and Biden's astounding intervention on Thursday. 

Now, if its a case of simple mathematics, Iran's 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in oil exports, mainly to China, can be taken care off by the rest of the market should they be knocked offline by Israel. Because as things stand, the crude market will likely end this year and start the next with a surplus.

However, should the conflict broaden to engulf the Gulf and hit exports from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar, as well as hold-ups in the Strait of Hormuz, we would almost certainly be looking at an upward lurch to $100 Brent prices. Where this goes is anybody's guess and all eyes are now on Israel. Well that's all for now folks! Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo I: Oil pump jack building block model at the AVEVA World 2023 Conference, Moscone Center, San Francisco, US. © Gaurav Sharma. Photo II: Gaurav Sharma on BBC News on October 3, 2024 © BBC. 

Stock market carnage wobbles oil bulls' stance

Before the recent global stock market carnage hit, bulls in the oil market had already revised their pipe-dream of $100 per barrel Brent prices down to still somewhat unrealistic $90 prices. 

In the face of uncertain summer demand in the Northern Hemisphere, oil prices were already wobbly prior to the wider market volatility. To the Oilholic, even lower to mid-$80 levels appeared to be on the higher side back then. Then - at least from the Bulls' standpoint - disaster struck last week. 

Stock market fears in the US on Friday (Aug 2) spilled over to Asia on Monday sparking declines from Tokyo to Frankfurt, and London back to New York and pretty much all else in between. 

Since energy markets don't operate in isolation from the wider macro climate, oil futures also took a predictable hit, with the Brent front-month contract sliding down to $75 at one point. Recovery followed on Tuesday, both for the stock market as well as the oil market. However, the future direction of travel is not as clear cut for crude markets. 

With lack of clarity on demand and plenty of non-OPEC, especially US, crude available, these days tension in the Middle East doesn't create the kind of price spikes the market had become accustomed to seeing in the previous decade. And in case you haven't heard, the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) weekly data suggests new all-time US oil production record of 13.4 million barrels per day (bpd) and currently projected to rise to 13.7 million bpd in 2025.

Elevated levels of geopolitical tension offer ample proof of that, and price spikes caused by risk now tend to fizzle out pretty quickly unless energy infrastructure is hit, as yours truly recently told Reuters. And it hasn't been hit so far. 

Meanwhile, both the IEA and OPEC are stuck in their respective positions that oil demand growth for 2024 will below 1 million bpd for the former and above 2 million bpd for the latter. Even if the figure is an average of the two, that demand growth can currently be serviced by the uptick in non-OPEC production alone. 

Not a single physical crude market source and their solver models (i.e. what-if analysis 6 months out) seem to indicate he/she is having (or will have) difficulty in securing crude cargoes at their projected price points, especially of light sweet crude. 

And Brent also remains in backwardation, i.e. a position wherein the current price is higher than prices trading in the futures market for later months. June 2025 Brent prices are nearly $3 lower than front-month (Oct) Brent prices. 

Many in the market are now calling for a $75 Brent floor. It is something the Oilholic has long suggested would be the lower end of a $75-$85 per barrel Brent price range. Looks like the Bulls may well have to recalibrate their long calls yet lower again. Well, that's all for the moment folks. More musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo: Oil pump jack building block model at the AVEVA World 2023 Conference, Moscone Center, San Francisco, US. © Gaurav Sharma, October 2023. 

Additional ADIPEC Energy Dialogues

As revealed in July, for much of 2020 yours truly has been participating in the recording of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) Energy Dialogues series. Here is a further selection from the series, also available via ADIPEC's YouTube channel and the event's website.

Recent sessions included informative discussions with Dr. Peter Terwiesch, President of Industrial Automation at ABB, Craig Hayman, Chief Executive Officer of AVEVA and Hugo Dijkgraaf, Chief Technology Officer of Wintershall Dea. 

Dr. Peter Terwiesch, President of Industrial Automation, ABB

Craig Hayman, CEO, AVEVA

Hugo Dijkgraaf, Chief Technology Officer, Wintershall Dea

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© Gaurav Sharma 2020. Video © ADIPEC / DMGEvents, UAE

End of 'voluntary' Saudi cuts, no Covid-19 end in sight

In the lead up to the OPEC+ summit on June 6, oil benchmarks continued to rise toward $40 per barrel and subsequently went beyond. Brent even capped $42 levels briefly as OPEC+ decided to predictably rollover ongoing crude production cuts of 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) - scheduled to end on July 1 - by another month. 

All of it was accompanied by the common din of crude oil demand returning, underpinned by hopes of China reverting to its average importation rate of around 14 million bpd by end-2020. Such an assumption is fanciful in the Oilholic’s humble opinion, as a semblance of normalcy, especially in the aviation sector, is unlikely before Q1 2021. But even that assumption was further punctured by Saudi Arabia withdrawing its additional 'voluntary' cuts of 1 million bpd in June, atop what they were already cutting as part of the OPEC+ agreement. 

To quote Saudi Oil Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman: "The voluntary cut has served its purpose and we are moving on. A good chunk of what we will increase in July will go into domestic consumption."

Be that as it may be, that's bearish joy for those with short positions who can now also count on rising sentiment in favour of a second wave of the Coronavirus or Covid-19 hammering crude oil demand, with rising cases in the U.S. and as well as a fresh outbreak in China. So, oil futures have duly retreated from $40 levels.

However, here's what this blogger doesn't get – how can it be all about a possible second wave, when the initial pandemic is far from over! Just look at the official and anecdotal data coming out of India and Brazil. 

And while European pandemic hotspots might be cooling down, the initial threat is far from over. A crude market recovery remains a long, long way off. The Oilholic reckons it will be Q1 2021 before we get into a proper recovery mode and can think of a nuanced reversal in market fortunes. By that argument near-term volatility is likely be in $30-40 range, unless Covid-19 situation escalates. To assume the only way is up from $40 is pretty daft. That's all for the moment folks! Keep reading, keep it crude!

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To email: gaurav.sharma@oilholicssynonymous.com

© Gaurav Sharma 2020. Image by Omni Matryx from Pixabay. 

Addressing the information gap on Abu Dhabi

While Dubai often hogs the limelight, the principal emirate in the United Arab Emirates is Abu Dhabi which holds over 8 per cent of the world’s oil reserves. It is a key regional player and an economic power in its own right, yet few written works have examined its culture, politics, influence and economic prowess on a standalone basis. Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond is author Christopher Davidson's commendable attempt at addressing the perceived information gap.

The author justifies his quest to write a comprehensive volume on Abu Dhabi by noting that with 90 years of remaining hydrocarbon production and with plans to increase oil output by 30% in the near future, the emirate of will have the resources and surpluses it needs – regardless of the vagaries of broader economic trends. Simply put, ignore Abu Dhabi in a regional or global context at your peril.

Yet it is not all about the oil as Davidson explains via his book of just under 250 pages split by seven detailed chapters. He dives into history and sequentially charts Abu Dhabi’s transformation from an 18th century sheikdom to its current status in the global economy. Dynastic politics, culture, strategic investment (via its mammoth sovereign investment fund), regional influence, have all been examined in some detail, along with the emirate’s “new economy” and its moves away from a traditional oil and gas export oriented structure.

However, the book need not be mistaken for a glorified tale or positive spin about Abu Dhabi. Rather it is a pragmatic examination of the emirate. To this end, the author does not shy away from discussing a number of problems that may surface to impede economic development and undermine political stability in his concluding chapter.

Civil and socio-economic issues, media censorship, an underperforming education sector, terrorism and rising federal unrest have all been discussed. Overall, Davidson’s work is interesting and informative. It is a must read for those interested in Middle Eastern geopolitics and oil. That aside, students of history, the oil business and those of a curious disposition fascinated by the Emirates might find it well worth their while to pick this title up.

© Gaurav Sharma 2011. Photo: Front Cover – Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond © Hurst Publishers, May 2011.