I just finished my first book of 2018, Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance upends Global Politics and Strengthens America's Power by Meghan O'Sullivan. I have to say that i really liked it since it is a book that clearly and extensively intersects and emphasises the role of geopolitics in the current global oil and markets and dynamics, seen specifically from the perspective of a world no longer lacking oil but one with increasing oil production and also a growing production and market of natural gas and LNG specifically, making the case for the United States, of which the author clearly highlights and says that in the future no longer will depend on oil and gas imports and specifically on the imports from turbulent regions like the Middle East for example.
Also, cases of Russia and China are exposed and explained, and even if the author states that the U.S. has gradually become a growing player in the LNG exports to Europe, it also points that still Russia has control and dominance over Europe in terms of gas supplies, and regarding China, the book bets on cooperation between Washington and Beijing for the distribution and control of oil reserves and production, especially underscoring the issue of the go out strategy of China regarding its investments in oil producing countries suffering from political instability, which has been a longstanding strategy, but in world with abundance of oil, China might not longer need to recur to this, and soon becoming a net oil producing country.
Overall, its been one good book and very useful specially explaining the intersections between geopolitics and oil and gas markets, when geopolitical dynamics are heavily influencing the direction of global energy markets and behaviour of prices.
