Oil, geopolitics, and climate change

Crude oil still commands its place in the fuel market, but investments in oil exploration have gone down as concerns about climate change grow

President Biden visited Israel and Saudi Arabia recently. As a Presidential candidate, he had criticized the role of the Crown Prince in Khashoggi murder and threatened to turn his country into a ‘pariah state’. The overriding compulsion for a change in this position was a sharp increase in oil prices since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis. If the sanctions against Russian crude oil exports are to be successful, alternate supplies have to be found. Otherwise, the increase in the price would have political costs for Biden Administration in the coming Congressional elections. The petrol price at the