Venezuela’s decision to sell petrol to Iran to alleviate its ally’s crippling fuel shortage reminds us that future supplies of fuel may not follow market economics but geopolitical fault lines. President Hugo Chávez made the promise during a visit to Tehran where he pledged an “axis of unity” with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “The two countries will, united, defeat the imperialism of North America,” he told reporters. With a smile he added: “When I come to Iran, Washington gets upset.”

Closer to home the 2007 Economic Report of industry organisation Oil & Gas UK published yesterday warned that government targets of keeping Britain’s oil and gas production at 3m barrels a day by 2010 look like being missed.