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Efforts to increase investment in exploration for oil and natural gas by the Indian government include an increase in the state mandated price of natural gas to bring it closer to world prices.

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U.S. oil exports are expected to average 1 million barrels a day for all of 2017. In 2016 in some months the average was 1 million barrels a day. U.S. oil exports make up 1% of global oil volumes, yet the added inventory has helped keep prices in the range of $46  to $55 a barrel in mid 2017. American crude is at a $2.50 discount over the Brent crude benchmark, making it profitable to export to far away locations. Back-haul economics also helps as tankers coming back from the middle east can now take crude back with a stop in Europe. Oil exports go to China and Europe. Production declines in China have led to China importing from the U.S.

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Deteriorating economic conditions in Venezula under Maduro and the failure of the Maduro administration to tackle problems facing the economy- inflation, oil subsidies, declining currency, and lack of investment.

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India has reduced imports of oil from Iran from 12% in 2011 to about 9% by the end of April, 2012. A senior state department official from the U.S., Carlos Pascual, will be in India in mid May 2012 to assess the energy situation and see what specific energy facilities in India need to do. Some of the refineries in India are designed to handle only the kind of heavy oil Iran supplies. For the U.S. the issue is keeping up the pressure on Iran during the talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on Iran's nuclear program. For India it has the vital trade and economic relationship with the U.S. balanced against cultural ties to the region and the need for oil supplies.

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Production declines by a steep 80% in the first half of 2014 in Venezuela's auto industry. Ford, GM and Toyota cut production and leave facilities idle with a lack of parts supplies and other problems.

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Saudi inflation went up by close to 9% in February, from January's 7% figure. Rents increased in February by 18% and food costs by 13%. The peg of the Saudi currency to the dollar accounts for 35% of inflation. Saudi peg is at 3.75 riyals to the dollar. The Saudi Monetary Agency cut interest rates 0.75 % in line with the Federal Reserve to maintain its peg, even while the Saudi are pouring money into construction of new cities in the desert and building new refinig and aluminium plants so the liquidity in the economy gets a further boost from lower interest rates when it does not need one. And the lower rates will only create more pressures on inflation in addition to those already present from all the money the governmet is spending from increasing oil revenues.

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Strong criticism from Attorney General Luisa Ortega, and dissension inside the government, led to the Supreme Court retracting parts of its decision to nullify the powers of the legislature. Ortega called the move "a rupture of the constitutional order." Most of the judges are appointed on the court by the Maduro government. Strong criticism by the OAS calling it a "self inflicted coup", by other governments in Latin America, also led to retracting parts of the decision by the Supreme Court. Nicholas Maduro succeeded Mr. Chavez who was the democratically elected president of Venezuela from 1999 to 2013. Maduro narrowly won the election in 2013 by a margin of about 1.5% over Henrique Capriles. In 2015 in National Assembly elections the opposition parties won a majority in the National Assembly. Protests against the Maduro government were followed by a recall attempt in 2016 which was suppressed. Inflation and economic conditions in Venezuela worsened under Maduro with the collapse of oil prices. The devaluation of the currency, high inflation and shortages of basic goods have led to widespread protests. As the situation worsened the Supreme Court in support of the government gradually chipped away at the powers of the National Assembly since 2016, leading to the situation in April 2016 with  the effort to strip the Assembly of all powers and remove the immunity from prosecution of legislators. Maduro is a former bus driver for the city of Caracas bus system, and a trade unionist. He was part of the movement supporting Chavez release after a coup attempt, foreign minister 2006-2013, and appointed Chavez successor in 2012.  Max Fisher and Amanda Taub of the NYT go on to discuss the writings of political scientists, including Dutch expert Cas Mudde, who pointed out that populism often starts its climb because established institutions and elites have become unresponsive to pubic needs. Yet the replacement is with what starts out as an effort to bring fairness- yet ends up creating another elite, suppressing opposition, and creating a new set of problems, even threatening the institutional framework of democracy such as elected assembly as happened last week in Venezuela.  In Venezuela the Chavez populist movement was initially intended to reduce corruption in the court system, the established parties control over media, and ensure oil revenues were used to provide services to poor regions and neighborhoods.  In the process over two decades it introduced a system that set up a Bolivarist class of its own based on socialist goals, failed to integrate the economy into the global economy for modernization, and created an overdependence on oil revenues that hurt the country when prices dropped sharply. High inflation, corruption, shortages of basic goods, and an economy slipping behind neighboring countries in Latin America, are the result by 2017. Seeing the situation in Venezuela in the context of current populist trends in the U.S. and Europe may be a stretch because the situation in Venezuela is unique to Latin America in some ways and is from an earlier period. High inflation, collapsing economy, debt problems and mismanagement of the economy, devaluation of currency, are problems faced by Brazil, Argentina, and other countries in Latin America, happening under conservative as well as populist governments since the 1960's. It is different in two respects, the disconnect with the global economy that prevents modernization, and the trend towards authoritarianism, as seen in Venezuela.     ...

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Reliance Industries plan for new 4G telecom network in India using the latest technologies.

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This report by Thomas Erdbrink of the NYT from Tehran, shows the Iranian economy almost at a standstill as sanctions are lifted in Jan. 2016- with little or no growth after years of western economic sanctions. Iranians in Tehran do no expect an immediate improvement in conditions after the lifting of sanctions. The expectation is that it will take years to undo the damage done by sanctions.

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U.S. president Obama invited NYT's columnist Thomas Friedman to the White House for an interview on Saturday afternoon April 4, 2015. Here Friedman gives president Obama's response to his questions, and Obama's concerns about the heated rhetoric in the U.S. and Israel on the negotiations with Iran detracting and distracting from his key goals of protecting U.S. interests and Israel. On the Sunni states, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Obama points out that there are some tough conversations needed about changes inside their societies which pose a greater threat to the governments than Iran. Obama says he understands perfectly that Israel and the Jewish people after their experience of the last hundred years are determined to not let Iran develop a nuclear weapon, and their right to be concerned that the agreement could let Iran clandestinely develop one. Obama says the verification is extensive and covers any facility in Iran, any suspicion about secret facilities, yet it leaves the subsequent decisions if Iran created difficulties, to a international body over which the U.S., UK, France, have no control. This is a principal issue for critics of the negotiated agreement. No mention is made of why Iran simply discarded the option of sending the atomic material to Russia to be processed into nuclear rods for the Bushehr nuclear plant built by Russia only a few days before the final outline was developed. And why the U.S., with allies Germany, France, UK and Japan, did not offer the Iranians an economic aid package if needed in return for the billions Iranians invested for that atomic material, to ensure that the atomic materials are shipped out of the country- to create a nuclear agreement that would be credible to all parties. The economic aid would benefit Iran modernize its oil industry, including refining operations, meet basic import needs, and provide tangible proof to the Iranian people of our best intentions for the future, that president Obama strongly espouses in the interview. The interview does show the quandary president Obama faces in Iran for strong action, that is a result of failed policies with Iran since the Eisenhower administration's intervention 1953 during the Cold War that displaced the elected government of Mosaddegh in Iran and setup the Shah's regime in 1956, the support of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in the war against Iran, which Obama mentions in this intervew. In the light of the repeated failures of the U.S. policies a Democratic party leader faces increasing reservations for taking strong action against Iran's development of nuclear weapons capabilities, preferring to exhaust every diplomatic channel, and take risks in the hope that time will give the Iranian people an opportunity to to reintegrate in the global community and pursue the peaceful development of nuclear energy. This strain in president Obama's thinking is evident throughout the interview with Friedman. Other aspects of president Obama's policy in the Middle East shared in the interview are about supporting the Sunni states in some areas, and Iran in some areas, at the same time as the nuclear issue is "put in a box" and separated from the regional conflicts. Friedman presents this as the Obama doctrine, yet it appears to be coming after a series of improvisations in foreign policy following a failure to act in 2011-2013, when the "once in a lifetime" opportunities presented by the Arab Spring were not taken up by the Obama administration, leading to the region's current disintegration....

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To get a clearer picture of the potential and problems with alternative fuels one has to cut through the political lobbying aspects to get an idea of what is doable without environmental consequences. There are many issues connected to the new mandate Congress is writing up for use of 9 billion gallons of fuel made from biomass in 10 years by 2017 and 21 billion gallons by 2022. Since it takes about 700,000 tons of biomass to produce 50 million gallons according to one energy analyst it would require the movement of 126 million tons of biomass from biomass growing areas to biomass plants that convert it into fuel in 2017. This would mean burning energy for transport and would require development of the logistics. The technology isn't here yet but scientists know that biomass can be converted into fuels resembling gasoline or diesel based on the molecular chemistry. Environmentalists and national security groups have joined together to push for this sweeping mandate that the Energy department estimates can replace a third or more of the country's gasoline needs by 2017 or 2022 as the fuel efficiency fuel savings also kick in by that time. The idea is to growthe types ofplant material and straw, switchgrass, that would require very little water and fertilizer to grow. Its the challenge scientists have to take on. And to use tree trimmings, corn stubble and certain kinds of garbage thats a biomass for conversion into fuel. Today about 7 billion gallons of ethanol are made in the USA after Congress passed a law in 2005. Its used mainly as an additive and replaces about 4% of the gasoline used in the USA. Congress new mandate on ethanol calls for an additional 8 billion gallons of ethanol from corn by 2015, in 8 years. Right now corn prices are soaring and corn used as feed for livestock is becoming costlier for meat producers causing them to complain and because it takes about 20 million acres of corn to produce these are acres that cant produce vegetable or fruit or other grain and food producers and processors are complaining that this raises the prices they pay for the inputs they use. So there is a lot of lobbying going on back and forth and some of the statements reflect this. The petroleum industry also does'nt like the idea of nonpetroleum based products and hasnt been too enthusiastic about this mandate and hasnt really made the conversion to their refining and distribution networks for widespread use of these alternative fuels. But Congress is determined and public opinion polls reflect the concerns of a public that is upset about nothing being done about the nationa's dependency on foreign oil. For this see the recent Business Week link. All this is going on while the price of ethanol has slumped and corn price inpouts for ehtanol production are soaring making ethanol less profitable, and see the recent link to the WSJ for this. Congress is responding to grassroots public opinion that wants something done and just as the auto industry learned by its failed lobbying on fuel efficiency the petroleum and other industries are just going to have to live with it it seems. ...

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Estimates of the contraction of the Iranian economy in 2012-2013 show GDP declines for 2012 and 2013. The IMF estimate of the economic contraction for fiscal year ending March 2013 was 6%. Former president Ahmadinejad's policies led to hyper inflation, a sharp depreciation of the currency rial, similiar to the situation in Venezuela under Chavez and Maduro. To get a sense of the the scale of the damage to the Iranian economy- a decline of 39% in vehicle production in 2012 with the lack of essental parts and decline in demand, oil production declining to about 700,000 barrels at one point in 2013 from over 2 million barrels in the period before 2012. This was a result of lack of access to needed technology and parts as sanctions began to take a toll, and because of the decline in exports from the enforcing of sanctions by 2013. By June 2014 the newly elected leader Rouhani had made economic recovery the to priority- inflation had been cut in half and the rial currency had recovered from the lows in 2012-2013, and oil production increased to 1.2 million barrels. The IMF forecast is for GDP growth of 2.35% for 2015. The auto maker Khodro Industrial Group is keen on increasing production and partnering again with Renault, which left the country with the sanctions. Iran's oil producing company estimate is that about 700,000 increase in production could be achieved quickly with the lifting of sanctions for oil technology and parts. Rouhani has put together a large group of business leaders inside Iran and overseas to improve Iran's image with investors and attract foreign investment....