Peak oil

Greece's biggest oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum reported a 46 percent rise in second-quarter core profit Thursday as a combination of lower crude prices and rising fuel prices lifted its margins.

The company said it also benefited from a rebound in tourism, which pushed up demand for aviation fuel, and from strong demand for bunker fuel.

Global oil demand will continue to escalate despite slow growth resulting from the introduction of electric cars, according to the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) on July 12.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and U.S. shale producers will continue "productive" meetings, the cartel's Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said on July 12.        

"OPEC has broken the ice in reaching out to shale producers in the U.S.," Barkindo told reporters on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress.         

A Eurostat survey on the course of food retail prices confirms what Greek consumers already know - all too well: that prices are easy to rise and hard to fall.

Greece's sole oil producer, Energean Oil & Gas, has stepped up daily production by about 30 percent since early January, it said on Wednesday, as the debt-ridden country seeks to tap into its limited oil reserves.

Energy has been the defining factor in human development and determining factor in the hegemonic structure of world politics. The fundamental role of coal and steam, as key ingredients of the Industrial Revolution, and global control of their trade in the 18th and 19th century by the British Empire led the way for its hegemony in international politics.

Oil markets will begin to rebalance in 2017 thanks to falling U.S. production but that decline will prove short-lived as efficiency gains will push U.S. output to new records by the beginning of the next decade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Feb. 22.

While gasoline prices have decreased by an average of 60 percent around the world between June 2014 and January 2016 amid a plunge in oil prices, Turkish gas prices have only dropped 16 percent due to a loss in the Turkish Lira's value and higher taxes as well as low shares of raw materials in fuels, according to sector representatives. 

Saudi Arabia is considering issuing shares in state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco, the kingdom's powerful deputy crown prince told The Economist in a rare interview published on Jan. 7.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said on Dec. 23 the devaluation of the national manat currency this week had been made inevitable by a sharp decline in world oil prices.