While a lot has been written about the rationale behind the U.S.’s move to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, and its implications, an aspect many have missed is the issue of oil prices. The U.S. is now the second largest producer of oil, and is poised to become the largest, according to the International Energy Agency. By ratcheting up tensions with Iran and further isolating Venezuela, the U.S. has already sent oil prices soaring. This is bound to be beneficial to the U.S., which is extracting shale oil and gas. President Trump, for all his seemingly irrational talk, seems to have a plan and that is to only benefit companies in the U.S. India must now eke out an ‘out of the box’ oil procurement policy and try to purchase oil and gas from Iran and Venezuela on terms that are better than prevailing international prices. There is already speculation in the media that Venezuela has offered to sell crude oil to India at a significant discount if New Delhi pays using its cryptocurrency, the Petro.
Aditya Shriram,
New Delhi
