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Fuels
Every regulation in the Vantage corpus tagged with fuels. Items are tagged by the enrichment cron once they land, plus any topic attribution the connector pre-populates.
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Open in Browser →Brazil’s New Oil Frontier Could Keep Its Boom Alive For Decades
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has hailed a new offshore oil discovery by Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) near the mouth of the Amazon River as a "passport to the country's future", continuing his support for controversial oil and gas drilling in Amazon's ecologically sensitive regions. Last week, the state-run Oil & Gas giant announced it has found oil at the Morpho-1 well (Block FZA-M-59) in the mouth of the Amazon roughly 180 kilometres (112 miles) off the coast of Amapa state, “All of our studies indicate substantial potential.…
Houthis Move to Gain Complete Control Over Crucial Bab el-Mandeb Oil Chokepoint
The Yemeni Houthis are planning to seize land along the Yemeni coast in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, tightening their control of the chokepoint. The information comes from the minister of information in the government that the Houthis are fighting in Yemen and suggests further disruption to marine traffic on one of the world’s busiest trade routes. “The Houthi militia... is working to create the conditions for seizing control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait by expanding its presence along the western coast and attempting to control strategic…
Hormuz Oil Crisis Accelerates Global EV Sales
Global electric vehicle sales have surged this year following the oil supply disruption in the Middle East and the second oil price shock in four years. The accelerating EV adoption that began with the spike in oil and fuel prices earlier this year is set to remain a trend in the global markets and could push the share of EVs in the passenger fleet above earlier expectations, analysts at Wood Mackenzie say. Challenges to accelerated adoption still remain, including the need for billions of U.S. dollars in investments in critical battery minerals…
Washington Eases Gasoline Rules as Iran Pressure Campaign Jolts Fuel Costs
Washington is tightening the screws on Iran and loosening the rules on gasoline at the same time as Americans are paying more than $4 a gallon. The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday authorized an early switch to cheaper winter-grade gasoline, allowing sales of gasoline blended with 10% ethanol beginning September 1 rather than waiting for the normal mid-September seasonal transition. The administration says ending summer-blend requirements early could add hundreds of thousands of barrels per day to domestic gasoline supply and provide…
How Solar Panel Prices Fell 90 Percent In 15 Years
Solar power is far and away the world’s fastest-growing form of energy production, beating out every other form of energy on Earth in 2025. Despite a recent political pivot away from renewable energies in the world’s largest economy, solar power additions continue to shatter its own records year over year as the sector has long since outgrown any need for subsidies. Solar power has simply become too cheap to fail. “We have a plentiful and cheap source of electricity that can be built quickly, almost anywhere in the world,”…
Iran Tensions Push Oil Near $94
Oil climbed to a one-month high as new US threats against Iran raised fears of a prolonged conflict.
Europe’s Energy Reserves Worked. The Next Test Will Be Harder
Europe has discovered something unusual during the latest energy crisis: its emergency system actually works. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz removed or disrupted one of the largest flows of oil and gas in the world. Prices rose, shipping routes changed, insurance costs increased, and concerns emerged over the availability of refined products, particularly aviation fuel. Yet Europe did not run out of oil, diesel, or jet fuel. That outcome should not be dismissed. It resulted from decades of mandatory stockholding, coordinated emergency planning,…
Continental to Buy 50 Pct of Mercuria Argentina Oil Firm
Billionaire shale pioneer Harold Hamm's Continental Resources Inc. signed agreements to buy half of an Argentinian shale oil firm owned by Mercuria Energy Group.
China Is Squeezing India Out of Russia’s Oil Trade
China is buying more Russian oil to replace missing Iranian barrels. The problem for India is that some of those Russian barrels used to be its barrels. China’s seaborne imports of Russian crude are estimated at 1.25 million barrels per day in August, according to Kpler data, cited by Reuters. That is down from 1.423 million bpd in July, but July and August are still China’s strongest months for Russian seaborne crude since April. The shift comes as Chinese imports of Iranian oil remain crushed by the Middle East war and U.S. blockade.…
Kazakhstan Caught in the Middle of the U.S.-China AI Rivalry
Kazakhstan and, to a lesser extent, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states are finding themselves caught in the middle of a deepening struggle between the United States and China for dominance of AI architecture and design. The brewing dilemma created by the AI rivalry has the potential to upend US relations with Central Asian states. The US State Department has drafted what amounts to an ultimatum and is reportedly preparing to deliver it to 35 states that have signed an AI cooperation pact with Washington, the Reuters news agency first reported.…
Continental Resources Expands Permian Footprint
Continental Resources is getting substantially bigger in the Permian Basin. The privately held oil producer has agreed to acquire FireBird Energy II, adding roughly 54,000 net acres in the Midland Basin along with 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) of production, Continental said Thursday. About 69% of that is oil. The FireBird assets include approximately 147,000 net resource acres across more than six stacked-pay reservoirs and 307 gross operated development locations. Continental will operate about 95% of the acquired acreage.…
Norway’s Oil Output Falls Nearly 200,000 Bpd as Gulf Supply Crisis Drags On
Norway’s crude oil production averaged 1.776 million barrels per day in July, according to preliminary figures from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate. The country also produced 183,000 barrels per day of natural gas liquids and 17,000 barrels per day of condensate, bringing total liquids production to 1.976 million barrels per day. The year-over-year comparison is striking. Norway produced 1.971 million barrels per day of crude in July 2025, according to the Directorate’s latest revised figures. Crude output was therefore down by approximately…
The Caspian Sea Is Now a Critical Military Lifeline for Russia and Iran
The Caspian Sea is emerging as a potentially important logistics corridor in the expanding military relationship between Russia and Iran as they look to move goods beyond the reach of Western naval power. The corridor opens a route that could allow Moscow and Tehran to exchange large quantities of cargo through an inland sea that Western navies cannot directly enter. NBC News reported this week that it had obtained a document, which it confirmed with a Western official, that shows Moscow is already using the Caspian Sea to send military-related…
Tajikistan Turns to Iran for Oil as Russian Fuel Supply Collapses
Central Asian nation Tajikistan has requested from Iran to import Iranian oil and petroleum products as the fuel crisis in Russia has choked supply from Tajikistan’s largest fuel supplier, the Transport Ministry of Tajikistan said this week. At a meeting with senior Iranian government officials in Tehran earlier this week, Tajikistan signed more than a dozen cooperation agreements with the Islamic Republic, the ministry said in a press release. The Central Asian country has also asked Iran to import from Iran 2.55 million tons of oil and…
Norway Posts Higher Monthly Gas Production
Norway produced about 12.38 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas in July, up for the second consecutive month on a sequential basis, according to preliminary official figures.
Beijing Bets on Fossil Fuels Even as It Leads the World in Renewables
China has become the world’s largest renewable energy producer by accelerating the rollout of solar, wind, and battery storage projects, while in recent years it has also increased its oil and gas output. Efforts to expand its fossil fuel industry are expected to boost China’s energy self-sufficiency over the coming decade, helping to reduce its dependence on other countries for oil and gas imports. The diversification of its energy sources will help ensure China’s energy security at a time when so many other countries are failing…
USA Crude Oil Stocks See Another Build
Crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 428.8 million barrels on August 14, the EIA's latest weekly petroleum status report showed.
Coal India Ventures into Critical Minerals Trading
Coal India, the world’s single largest coal producer, has applied to establish a trading office in Singapore to trade critical minerals and iron ore in what would be the company’s first trading office outside India, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing anonymous sources involved in the discussions. Coal India has applied with Singapore’s authorities to approve the setting-up of its planned trading hub as several major state-owned Indian companies have been looking to acquire strategic minerals assets overseas to support India’s…
Monumental Closes In on New Exploration Block in New Zealand
Monumental and its partners have identified gas prospects in the prospective area in the Taranaki Basin.
Oil Giants Eye Jurassic Rocks off Mexico
Latin America's two biggest oil companies are betting big on a high-risk effort.
UK Conservatives Claim Net Zero Rollback Could Save Families £540 a Year
The Conservatives have said that households could save about £540 a year after 2030 if net zero regulations are scrapped, with a commitment to make energy as cheap as possible. A report published by centre-right think tank Onward and backed by the Tories said the cost of net zero came to an extra £540 per household a year between 2030 and 2050. The headline figure per household is a total divided across bill payers, rather than a forecast of what any household would see knocked off its bill. The Onward report suggested that a full focus…
Equinor to Enter Namibia by Joining Chevron Exploration Campaign
Equinor signed an agreement to acquire a 17.4 percent stake in Petroleum Exploration License 90 on the Namibian side of the offshore Orange Basin from operator Chevron.
Who Were the Top USA Drillers, Customers in 1Q 2026?
Enverus announced that it has released its latest rankings of the most active U.S. land drilling contractors and drilling customers.
EIA Sees Oil Crunch in 2026, Glut in 2027
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is predicting an oil market crunch in 2026 and a glut in 2027.
Aramco, Maaden Sign Agreement for Transition Minerals JV
The Saudi state-owned companies signed an agreement to create a joint venture to explore and mine copper and other energy transition minerals at home.
Trump Targets Iran Trade Partners
The U.S. president threatened Iran and its trading partners with economic isolation after months of military strikes and a maritime blockade failed to force Tehran to capitulate.
Coal Remains The Undisputed King Of Global Power
The world is installing wind turbines and solar panels faster than ever, but coal still generates more electricity than any other source, and by a huge margin. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects coal-fired power plants to generate 10,974 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2026, nearly one-third of the 33,313 TWh of electricity produced worldwide. Natural gas is a distant second at 6,976 TWh, followed by hydropower at 4,536 TWh, solar at 3,289 TWh, wind at 2,898 TWh and nuclear at 2,871 TWh. In other words, coal will generate nearly as much electricity…
Hope Fades, Traders Brace for Extended Oil, LNG Squeeze
For most of the past six months, traders active on the commodity futures markets have been mostly optimistic. They have taken every statement by President Donald Trump about peace talks or victory over Iran at face value, betting on a speedy end of the war. Now, it has started to dawn on many that this is not happening. The physical squeeze is catching up with the market. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that a diesel shortage that has been brewing since spring is now growing increasingly severe and about to become even more…
Russia’s Fuel Crisis Hits Moscow as Rationing Spreads
Russia has been subject to many months of a ramped-up long-range drone campaign out of Ukraine, chiefly targeting oil refineries as well as industrial sites - and most recently expanding to online retail companies and attacks on private sector businesses. Tuesday saw one of the single biggest drone waves on Moscow of the war, for example, with at least 600 sent against the capital region, resulting in widespread panic and some casualties. Making matters worse for the Russian population, several gas station networks have introduced new restrictions…
SLB Prepares to Restart 15 Oil Rigs in Venezuela
Oilfield services giant SLB is preparing to reactivate as many as 15 drilling rigs in Venezuela, potentially removing one of the biggest obstacles to increasing the country’s crude production. SLB and energy-focused private equity firm Formentera Partners are working on separate efforts to increase Venezuela’s drilling capacity, executives said at an industry conference in Houston on Wednesday. Formentera is discussing importing rigs with international service companies, while SLB is focused on equipment already inside Venezuela. SLB…
Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High
The margin for making diesel from crude oil in the U.S. has soared to more than $100 a barrel.
$100 Diesel Cracks Signal a Much Tighter Oil Market Than Brent Suggests
The oil market has remained complacent for months amid the worst disruption in global supply, with crude oil futures rarely topping $100 per barrel over the six months in which tanker traffic at the Strait of Hormuz is a trickle compared to pre-war levels. While market participants have been putting too much hope of a resolution of the conflict in their bets on future crude prices, product supply of the fuel of the economies – diesel – has been shrinking. So much has the diesel market tightened in recent months that…
Oil Gains as Refinery Demand Surges
Crude gained as Gulf tensions intensified while US refiners boosted oil consumption.
Copper Backwardation Collapses After 20,000 Tons Hit LME Warehouses
Trafigura Group and several other traders delivered more than 20,000 tons of copper into LME warehouses on Tuesday, the biggest one-day build in on-warrant stock since April, and the squeeze that had gripped the London market for the past week came apart. The cash-to-three-month spread settled at a $248-a-ton backwardation, down from as much as $545 on Monday, which was the widest since 2021. Trafigura was behind a large share of the metal placed on warrant, according to people familiar with the deliveries, and traders expect more to follow in…
Central Asia Blackout Traced to Key Hydropower Plant
Kyrgyzstan has provided some clarity on the source of the recent blackout that impacted four states in Central Asia, while vigorously denying blame for the cascading outage. Power outages were first reported in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek during the afternoon of August 14 before spreading to southern Kazakhstan and portions of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry initially attributed the disruption, which lasted several hours, to a “sudden change in the power flow” of the regional grid. Confusion…
World's Largest Electric Plane Flies for 27 Minutes on $5 of Power
The world’s largest battery-electric aircraft has completed its first flight using just $5 worth of electricity, with Heart Aerospace’s 25,000-pound X1 demonstrator flying for 27 minutes and putting a megawatt-scale electric propulsion system through its first airborne test. Heart Aerospace’s X1 demonstrator flew for 27 minutes from Plattsburgh International Airport in New York, climbing to 1,100 feet, with its electric propulsion system delivering more than one megawatt of power. The aircraft weighs more than 25,000 pounds at…
The Strongest El Niño on Record Lands on the Tightest Energy Market in Years
Romania spent more than 2 million euros this month detonating rocks and sinking barges in the Danube, trying to shove enough water toward the Cernavoda nuclear plant to keep its reactors cool. It didn’t work. On Aug. 13, Nuclearelectrica began a controlled shutdown of the plant’s second reactor, the first time drought has taken Cernavoda fully offline since 2003. That is about a fifth of Romania’s electricity. Dacia and Ford idled their Romanian factories to free up power for everyone else. Europe’s drought has its…
Saudi Aramco Gives Full September Oil Allocations to 3 European Refiners
Saudi Aramco will supply full contractual crude volumes to at least three European refiners in September, offering deliveries from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and through ship-to-ship transfers off Malta as the war disrupts the kingdom’s normal export routes, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday via The Edge Malaysia. Two European refiners will take their barrels from Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir, while a third can choose between Sidi Kerir, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu or a ship-to-ship transfer off Malta, Bloomberg reported…
UK Inflation Jumps to 2.9% as Energy Bills Bite
Inflation has leaped up following the reset of the energy price cap, official data has revealed, marking the likely beginning of a long run of increases in price growth. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) put the consumer price index inflation reading at 2.9 per cent for the 12 months to July. The previous inflation reading was 2.6 per cent. Services inflation, a measure closely watched by Bank of England policymakers given it provides signals on wage pressures, eased to 3.4 per cent while core inflation, which strips out food and energy,…
UAE Freezes Trade With Iran After Missiles Fall Near Its Coast
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is halting all trade, financial, and commercial ties with Iran until further notice, after saying Tehran had fired ballistic missiles targeting its territory. Late on Tuesday, the UAE’s Defense Ministry said that “assessments revealed the two ballistic missiles detected, originating from Iran, were targeting maritime navigation and fell into the sea.” A few hours earlier, the ministry had announced that the UAE’s air defense systems detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran towards…
3 Chinese Supertankers Abort Hormuz Attempt
Three China-linked supertankers have U-turned in the strait as risks to shipping remain elevated, with prospects for a normalization of traffic dimming after President Donald Trump took a hard line on Iran.
Kino Aski, Marinvest Propose Canadian LNG Project to Supply Europe
'In a period of global energy instability, Kino Aski LNG will establish a reliable, secure, short-distance energy corridor between North America and Europe'.
Latest Gulf Sale Generates $82MM in High Bids
The DOI announced that the Big Beautiful Gulf 3 lease sale, or BBG3, generated $82.6 million in high bids for 59 blocks in federal waters of the Gulf of America.
EIA Shows Crude Oil Inventories Still Rising
Crude oil inventories in the United States saw a massive increase of 4.4 million barrels during the week ending August 14, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 428.8 million barrels, according to government data, which is now right about at the five-year average for this time of year. The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories had fallen by 328,000 barrels…
Fire Breaks Out at Rosneft-Owned Refinery After Ukrainian Drone Strike
Ukraine hit a refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region overnight in a drone attack that sparked a fire, as Kyiv continues to pound Russian energy infrastructure to reduce Russian fuel supply. One of the refineries in Ufa, in the Bashkortostan republic, caught fire as a result of the attack, the region’s governor Radiy Khabirov said on Wednesday. Ufa and the area around it host three refineries, all owned and operated by Bashneft, a unit of Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft. The Ukrainian attack overnight caused “a small…
Saudis Give Full Oil Allocations to at Least 3 Europe Buyers
Saudi Aramco has notified at least three European oil refiners that will supply full contractual crude volumes next month.
Ukraine’s Ousted Defense Chief Calls for Wartime Elections
A popular former defense minister whose dismissal last month sparked protests has delivered a videotaped address to Ukrainians in which he assailed wartime corruption, warned of a systemic crisis of governance, and said the country must find a way to hold elections despite the continuing Russian invasion. Mykhaylo Fedorov's remarks late on August 18 came hours after lawmakers said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who abruptly pushed him out in mid-July, has asked parliament to confirm acting Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara in the role. A vote is expected…
Aker BP to Take Over Undeveloped Discoveries from Apache, ConocoPhillips
Aker BP signed separate agreements to acquire operating stakes in the Losgann discovery on the United Kingdom's side of the North Sea and the Slagugle area in the Norwegian Sea.
Flex LNG Logs Highest Quarterly Revenue in 5 Years
'We are entering an interesting and potentially volatile period for the LNG shipping market, with the balance between continued fleet growth and competition on LNG volumes between Europe and Asia'.
EIA Lowers Henry Hub Gas Price Forecasts
According to its new STEO, the EIA now sees the Henry Hub spot price averaging $3.44 per million British thermal units in 2026.
Shell Taps SLB for Production Restarts offshore Brunei
SLB received a contract from Brunei Shell Petroleum to reactivate shut-in wells across multiple offshore fields.
North Sea Operators Back Decom Charter
Signatories include BP, Shell, and Eni.
5 Energy Stocks Cashing In On The New Energy Crunch
The Iran war has created an extraordinary earnings season for U.S. refiners. Brent crude has fallen to around $90 per barrel from a wartime peak of $126, but the shortage of refined fuels has only deepened. According to Reuters, Global refinery throughput in July was nearly 5 million barrels per day below year-earlier levels as Middle Eastern refineries remained constrained and Ukrainian attacks pushed Russian processing close to a 20-year low. U.S. refiners have stepped into the gap, running at or near record utilization rates and exporting more…
The U.S. Is Quietly Building a New Energy Foothold in Iraq
There have been perhaps a handful of events since the end of the Second World War that have fundamentally reshaped the world’s oil markets and consequently its geopolitics while remaining largely unnoticed at the time. The quiet agreement between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Saudi King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud struck on 14 February 1945 that would define the energy, economic, political and military relationship between the two countries until the rise of American shale in the early 2010s is one, as analysed in my latest…
Peter Thiel Bets $76 Million on Argentina’s Vaca Muerta Shale
Palantir chairman and hedge fund owner Peter Thiel bought a 1% stake in one of the biggest companies operating in the Vaca Muerta shale formation in Argentina in the latest evidence of the play’s prospects as the world’s second-largest shale oil and gas deposit amid a global crunch. Thiel bought the stake in Vista in the form of American depositary shares worth $76 million, according to a security filing cited by Reuters. The purchase came four months after a meeting between the venture capitalist and Argentina’s president, Javier…
AI Could Make Big Oil Even Bigger
AI is changing energy systems, but data centers are only a small part of the impact. Much has been written and said about how the data center and AI boom are consuming and will consume increasingly higher shares of global electricity demand, and grids are struggling to meet soaring demand. Fossil Fuel Gains Could Outweigh Emissions Cuts from Renewables Arguably, a fundamental change in the energy system may not come from surging power demand, but from the efficiencies and productivity gains AI will help energy companies achieve, according to a…
Distillate Stocks Sink Further as U.S. Crude Inventories Barely Budge
The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 328,000 barrels in the week ending August 14. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories rose by 9.072 million barrels on the back of increased imports, decreased exports, and a sizeable injection from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost just over 49 million barrels over the last eighteen weeks, with US crude inventories up 1.88 million for the year, according to API data, kept…
Greek-Run Oil Tanker Comes Under Attack
A Greek-run oil tanker was attacked in the Black Sea after loading a Russian-origin cargo.
Only 7% of Global Green Hydrogen Capacity Was Finished on Schedule
Green hydrogen research and development has found itself in limbo, once again. Enthusiasm for the resource’s potential as a clean energy solution in hard-to-abate sectors like steelmaking, shipping, and transportation has waxed and waned over the last decade as the technology has made incremental progress but largely failed to meet expectations. While the war in Iran breathed some new life into the sector as a potential alternative to oil and gas, that new wave of optimism faces major economic headwinds. Take the state of California. The…
Oil Hits Three-Week High on Iran Standoff
Crude gained as Hormuz tensions, tanker threats and tight fuel markets supported prices.
A 4-Million-Bpd Shadow Oil Highway Is Running Through Hormuz
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has predicted that the Strait of Hormuz will become “irrelevant” within two years, and with Gulf oil producers already building their way around it, millions of barrels may prove him right for a short time. Months into the Iran war, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar are moving more than 4 million barrels per day through a shadow export network of AIS-dark shuttle tankers and ship-to-ship transfers outside the Persian Gulf, keeping millions of barrels flowing through a waterway that has largely…
Aramco Puts VLCCs Back Into Hormuz After Three-Week Pause
Saudi Arabia spent weeks finding ways around the Strait of Hormuz. Now it is starting to send tankers straight back through it. Saudi Aramco resumed crude loadings from its Ras Tanura and Juaymah terminals inside the strait last week, ending a three-week gap in activity at the ports, according to Kpler and Vortexa data cited by Reuters. Three VLCCs—Malaysia Prosperity, Algeria Prosperity and Singapore Prosperity—each loaded roughly 2 million barrels between August 12 and August 16. Six more VLCCs could load Saudi crude from inside Hormuz…
Russia Pushes Ahead With Uzbekistan Nuclear Plans Despite Money Troubles
Despite apparent financing difficulties hovering over the construction of nuclear reactors in Uzbekistan, the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom has announced it is developing a training program for Uzbek technicians who will eventually operate the plant. Rosatom specialists need to develop new, specific training modules for what is envisioned as an “integrated nuclear plant” featuring the operation of both large-scale and small modular reactors. “This requires developing training materials tailored to the specifics of small reactors,…
U.S. Diesel Reserves Sit Near 23-Year Lows
Brent and WTI futures remain below $100 a barrel on Tuesday morning, partly suppressed by governments releasing strategic oil reserves into global markets. But the more serious issue is building downstream, where the Russia-Ukraine war, strikes against energy infrastructure, and continued disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz are fueling the refined-products "perfect storm" we have repeatedly warned about. Oil extended gains this morning, with Brent trading around $91 a barrel after another vessel attack was reported near the Hormuz maritime…
China’s Solar Exports Fell 21.4% in July
Chinese exports of solar cells and panels dropped in July as the removal of the local export tax rebate as of April 1 continued to depress exports for the third straight month. China’s solar equipment exports declined by 21.4% last month from a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data cited by Reuters on Tuesday. The world’s top solar panel and cell manufacturer scrapped, effective April 1, 2026, export tax rebates for the value added tax (VAT) of photovoltaic products, including solar cells and panels. China will also withdraw…
Russia Bars Anti-War Opposition Party From Election
Russia's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the Yabloko party, the sole officially registered party to openly oppose Moscow's war on Ukraine, against its removal from the ballot for September parliamentary elections. In a separate hearing on August 17, a court in the city of Pskov sentenced an outspoken deputy chairman of Yabloko, Lev Shlosberg, to more than 11 years in prison after convicting him under a law designed to punish critics of the war. The rulings display the Kremlin's determination to silence dissent, particularly when it comes…
How Gulf Oil Is Escaping the Strait of Hormuz
Gulf oil producers are finding new ways around the Strait of Hormuz, but bypassing the world’s biggest oil chokepoint creates new risks. VLCC Rates Go Ballistic as Hormuz Turns Into a Freight Jackpot - VLCC prices are ballooning out of control (once again), pushing assessed earnings for a Middle East-to-China voyage beyond $500,000 per day as the flow of vessels moving out of the Gulf trickled down to a mere couple per day. - Amidst news that Saudi Aramco resumed crude loadings at its key Ras Tanura export terminal, VLCC fixing costs for…
Equinor to Buy Majority Stake in 1.48GW CCGT Plant in PA
'Equinor and Invenergy will together explore additional collaboration opportunities that leverage Invenergy's long-standing operating capabilities and position in the existing PJM power market'.
Jeff Currie: Forget $91 Brent, The Real Crisis Is $170 Diesel
Brent at $90.94 looks almost civilized. Jeff Currie thinks that is exactly the problem: everyone is staring at crude while the real energy shock is already showing up in the fuels people actually buy. “Nobody on the planet earth consumes crude oil,” Currie told CNBC. Refineries do. Everyone else consumes gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, and those markets look considerably uglier. European diesel was trading around $170 per barrel during the interview, Currie said, almost twice Brent’s current $90.94. WTI was trading at $84.94 Tuesday.…
North America Goes Back to Adding Rigs
North America added eight rigs week on week, according to Baker Hughes' latest North America rotary rig count.
Romania Restarts Coal Plant as Danube Drought Forces Nuclear Shutdown
Romania has this week restarted a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant to partially offset the generation lost by the closure of nuclear electricity output after the low water level on the Danube river forced a shutdown of the country’s only nuclear power plant. Romania, which lost 20% of its power generation with the closure of both rectors at its Cernavoda nuclear power plant, has restarted the Rovinari Group 4 coal-fired power unit. The additional coal-fired generation is adding nearly 300 megawatts (MW) to the National Energy System, Cristian…
Energy Stocks Soar to Record
Energy stocks closed at the first record since March.
ExxonMobil Awards $1.1B Contracts for Mozambique LNG Project
ExxonMobil and its Area 4 partners issued around $1.1 billion in engineering, procurement and manufacturing contracts for the pre-FID 18.6-MMtpa Rovuma LNG project in Cabo Delgado.
KazMunayGas Posts Higher H1 Profit
Kazakhstan's state-owned KazMunayGas reported around $1.96 billion in net income for the first six months of 2026, up 69.1 percent from the first half of 2025 as higher oil prices offset lower production.
Russian Crude Oil Production Enters New Era of Constraint
Rystad says Russia's crude production has entered 'a new era of constraint'.
Chevron Makes New Discovery in Block 0 offshore Angola
Chevron and its partners are considering a tieback.
Will Oil Prices Keep Rising?
Will oil prices keep rising as Iran tensions threaten global crude supply?
Weekly road fuel prices
Road fuel price statistics providing average UK retail 'pump' prices on a weekly basis.
Supertankers on Mideast Route Reach $510K a Day in Earnings
Earnings for a supertanker procuring crude oil from within the Persian Gulf to Asia are nearing a two-month high, as exporters hunt for more vessels to deliver the fuel via the Strait of Hormuz even as the security situation remains uncertain.
North America’s Only Cesium Project Moves Closer to Production
Power Metals is advancing what it describes as North America’s only cesium project at a time when America’s defense ambitions are colliding with the reality of critical mineral supply chains. The U.S. imports 100% of its required cesium, a rare mineral used in atomic clocks, GPS systems, aerospace solar technology, advanced communications networks, and high-tech defense equipment. That could make a high-grade cesium discovery in Ontario a potential source of new North American supply. And now it’s moved from a discovery story…
U.S. Shale Majors Cut Spending Despite Higher Oil Prices
U.S. oil companies dominating the shale patch are planning to trim their spending plans and instead take advantage of higher international oil prices to reduce debt and boost shareholder returns. This is bad news for production growth. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that all the big names in shale had reduced their spending over the first six months of the year. Chevron and ConocoPhillips spent 10% less in the period while Occidental slashed its spending on operations in the Permian by as much as a fifth over the first half of the year.…
Automation Could Start Eating Into U.S. Diesel Demand
The rise of automation, AI, and electric trucks can fundamentally change the freight transportation industry in the United States, leading to a revolution in transport fuel demand. Various vehicle and technology companies and U.S. cities and states have launched in recent years automation trucking pilot programs. In barge transportation on the Mississippi River, AI-assisted co-pilot projects are already being used to make transportation more efficient. The increase in efficiency, via technological, autonomous, or AI-enabled systems, could optimize…
Why Libya’s Next Oil Pipeline Could Be a Geopolitical Game-Changer
The proposed Libya–Egypt crude oil pipeline has, surprisingly quickly, entered a phase in which Cairo and Tripoli are actively discussing it. The pipeline, expected to be 800 kilometers long, will connect Tobruk in eastern Libya to Egypt’s port of Alexandria, allowing Libyan crude to flow directly into Egypt's Mediterranean refining system. With an expected cost of over $1 billion, it represents a significant strategic opportunity. However, neither the final capacity, financing structure, nor investment decision has yet been agreed.…
USA-Iran Peace Prospects Dim
The prospects for peace in the Middle East suffered a fresh setback.
The Next Energy Crisis Could Be a Water Crisis
Strategic shortfalls? Maybe in getting cobalt out of the Congo or rare earth powders from China or natural gas from Russia or oil from the Persian Gulf? Or maybe something closer to home. Thanks to climate change (yes, just say it and hope the big boss doesn’t hear you), temperatures have risen, and rainfall patterns have changed dramatically. As an example of the consequences, the Colorado River’s flow has diminished and Lake Mead, its principal reservoir, has dropped to record low water levels. Aside from the obvious impact on water…
Oil Advances as Iran Tensions Persist
Crude futures gained as geopolitical risks remained elevated across the Middle East.
Carbon Capture’s Biggest Problem Isn’t Capturing Carbon
Carbon capture is still debated as if technical performance were the decisive question. Can a solvent remove carbon dioxide from flue gas? Can the CO2 be compressed, transported and injected underground? Will the storage remain secure? These questions matter, but they no longer explain why most announced projects do not reach construction. The missing component is usually commercial. A cement plant can capture carbon and still lose money on every tonne. A storage site can be technically ready and remain empty without contracted volumes. A pipeline…
Russia Receives First Gasoline Cargo From India as Fuel Shortages Spread
Russia has received its first gasoline cargo from India as Ukrainian attacks knock out refining capacity and a second wave of fuel shortages spreads across at least 10 Russian regions, Reuters reported on Monday. The roughly 68,000-metric-ton cargo was produced by Nayara Energy at its Vadinar refinery in western India and delivered to Russia’s Arctic port of Vitino after a ship-to-ship transfer at Port Said, Egypt. Two more gasoline cargoes from India are expected to reach Russia in the coming weeks. Russia’s gasoline shortages have…
War and Drought Are Choking the World’s Most Vital Trade Routes
Since early March, a previously obscure waterway between Iran and Oman that very few people could name has become the subject of daily reporting around the world after Iran closed it in response to the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel. The Strait of Hormuz, which remains closed to most ships, is now known around the world as the transit point for 20 percent of the world's oil and high percentages of key materials including fertilizers such as ammonia (23 percent), urea (34 percent) and phosphate (20 percent), helium (30 percent),…
Chevron Strikes Oil and Gas Offshore Angola in Major Discovery
Chevron has announced a new oil and gas condensate discovery offshore Angola, hitting more than 2,000 feet of hydrocarbons in a Block 0 exploration well that could be tied directly into the company’s existing production infrastructure in the country. The 105-4X well encountered more than 300 feet of net pay in the Pinda reservoir in the Lower Congo Basin, with Chevron describing the reservoir quality as “excellent” in a press release. The company has not yet disclosed an estimate of recoverable resources or potential production.…
U.S. Copper Imports Hit a 12-Year Record as LME Stocks Crash
U.S. importers hauled in more than 200,000 tonnes of refined copper in July, the biggest monthly volume in at least 12 years. Add that to what's already sitting in Comex warehouses, LME-registered stock and private port storage, and the country's copper stockpile is now pushing past 1 million tonnes, built almost entirely on the bet that Washington is about to tax refined imports. LME warehouse stocks, however, have fallen for 42 straight sessions, the longest losing streak since 2014, down to just 204,975 tonnes, with nearly half of that already…
Libya Power Crisis Explodes as Grid Fails Again
Libya’s electricity grid suffered another major collapse on Monday, knocking power plants offline across western, central and southern parts of the country, shutting down the Great Man-Made River water system, fueling widespread public anger in a country already divided between rival power centers. The Zawiya, Khoms and Ubari power plants went offline, with large parts of western and central Libya losing electricity. The Libya Herald reported that it was the third major blackout to hit western Libya in two days. The cause of Monday’s…
Ukraine Has Shattered the Myth of Russian Military Might
When President Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine, the Kremlin appeared to be betting on a familiar axiom of European security: sheer Russian mass, backed by vast Soviet-era stockpiles and nuclear power, would overwhelm resistance. More than four years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion, that assumption has been all but obliterated. Ukraine survived, derailed Russia's expected quick victory, and turned the conflict into a high-tech war of attrition. It has developed an innovation cycle that Joshua Huminski, senior vice president for…
Trump Administration Bins 3 Proposed Grid Corridors
The Lake Erie-Canada Corridor, Southwestern Grid Connector Corridor and Tribal Energy Access Corridor have been withdrawn.
China's Renewables Boom Faces Record Clean Power Curtailments
Grid constraints and rising coal-fired power generation in China led to soaring curtailment rates of solar and wind power generation in the first half of the year. China curtailed as much as 360 terawatt-hours (TWh) of solar and wind generation between January and June, up by 49% from a year earlier, a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) showed. All the clean electricity curtailed would have been enough to meet all of China's electricity demand growth in the first half of 2026 and allow…
Vista Jumps as Thiel Logs Stake
Shares in Vista Energy SAB, Argentina's top oil exporter, jumped in New York on Monday.
Venezuela’s Oil Revival Accelerates as U.S. Majors Push Trump’s New Energy Order
Following the Washington-led removal of Venezuela’s previous president, Nicolás Maduro, from office on 3 January this year, U.S. firms are pushing hard to keep increasing oil production from the hydrocarbons giant, in line with President Donald Trump’s grand plans for the country within his new world order. The foundation for such output increases is extremely solid, as Venezuela still holds the world’s largest proven crude reserves -- roughly 303 billion barrels, or about 17% of the global total. Most of this is extra-heavy…
Power Constraints Becoming Brake on Robotic Adoption
Power constraints are becoming a real brake on robotic adoption, said Robert Liew, Director, Integrated Energy Research, at Wood Mackenzie.
Iraq-Syria Oil Pipeline to Bypass Hormuz Is 4 Years and $15 Billion Away
The project to ship Iraqi crude to the Syrian Mediterranean coast to bypass the Strait of Hormuz is still at least four years and $15 billion in investments away, sources familiar with the project told Reuters on Monday. The pipeline plan, supported by the U.S. Administration as a way to reduce the importance of the Strait of Hormuz in global oil supply, is being reviewed and its feasibility assessed by a consortium, which includes U.S. supermajor Chevron. The U.S. is touting the project as making Hormuz “irrelevant” within two years,…
EIA, IEA, OPEC Reports Highlight 'Massive Divergence'
Ole Hansen, Saxo Bank's Head of Commodity Strategy, highlighted that the monthly oil market reports from the EIA, IEA, and OPEC 'continue to highlight a massive divergence'.