What happens when Saudi Arabia, the world’s swing producer of oil, rejects its traditional market-balancing role? The job falls to American shale oil producers, which, initial data show, appear to be assuming the Saudi role.
Constitutional reforms approved in 2013 offered a historic opportunity to restructure Mexico’s anemic telecommunications sector. While the original reform initiative seemed to address key problems at the root of the dysfunctional system, it is not clear if the secondary laws will have positive social impact — or if the lion’s share of benefits will go to a minority of investors.
There is a curious imbalance in energy markets in the Persian Gulf region: Five of the six Gulf monarchies exhibit shortages in domestic supply of natural gas. Meanwhile, Qatar holds the world's third-largest conventional reserves and is the world's No. 2 gas exporter. Why is Qatar, given its enormous resources and relatively small domestic needs, unwilling to supply gas sufficient to meet its neighbors' demand?
