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China's energy strategy has largely shielded it from the fallout of the war in Iran and the resultant closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for global oil and gas trade. However, the country's newest five-year plan for its oil and gas sector reveals ongoing anxieties about geopolitical tensions, future conflicts, reliance on energy imports, and the country's dwindling crude supplies.…
Countries around the globe are racing to become the world’s first geologic hydrogen hotspot. A few years ago, the United States Department of Energy released a bombshell report that estimated that there are trillions of metric tons of natural hydrogen deposits sitting in underground pockets around the world – and that a considerable amount of that could be extracted for industrial use. Energy…
The extreme heat experienced across Europe in recent weeks has caused widespread disruption to nuclear power plants. Governments across the region have been forced to take extraordinary measures to keep nuclear facilities operating, but some are failing to meet their goals, with river levels at record lows. This is expected to have a significant impact on Europe’s GDP, with economic losses in the…
Iraq wants to more than double its oil production within six years. First, it needs OPEC to let it. Baghdad is targeting output of between 8 million and 10 million barrels per day, up from roughly 4 million bpd before the Iran war, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said Friday. Iraq dispatched its oil and finance ministers to Saudi Arabia the same day to make the case for a higher OPEC production quota.…
China is challenging Russia’s stranglehold on Central Asia’s arms market. Uzbekistan appears to have taken delivery of four PRC-made ChengduJ-10CE multi-role combat aircraft, according to multiple reports, one of which includes a photo of one of the fighters supposedly acquired by the Uzbek Air Force. Tashkent reportedly has an agreement with Beijing to receive a total of 24 fighters. Uzbek and…
Venezuela has plenty of oil buyers again. What it does not have is enough functioning port infrastructure to get them their crude. Tankers are waiting as long as 30 days to load Venezuelan oil as aging terminals, power outages and crude-quality problems create a de facto ceiling on exports, according to Reuters. That ceiling appears to be around 1.25 million barrels per day. PDVSA and its partners…
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, with the total rig count in the US falling to 588, up 50 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs fell by 3, sinking to 452 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 41 above this same time last year.…
Solar power developers in India have started to add battery storage to photovoltaic projects to attract buyers and reduce the large share of curtailments for power supply that the grids are unable to absorb, Santosh Sarangi, Secretary of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said on Friday. As much as 42 gigawatts (GW) of solar projects are still struggling to find offtakers, with about 18…
When Uzbekistan celebrates 35 years of independence on September 1st, Washington should do more than congratulate its people and government. It should recognize a strategic opportunity and make Uzbekistan the anchor of its policy in Central Asia. Uzbekistan is Central Asia's most populous country, strategically located between Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Caspian Sea. It is opening…
China’s refiners have imported lower volumes of Iranian crude in August compared to July as the U.S. blockade reinstated in mid-July is squeezing crude supply to Iran’s top oil customer. So far this month, China is estimated to have imported about 534,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude oil, down from an estimated 823,000 bpd in July, according to preliminary data by Kpler cited by Reuters.…
Nigeria’s Dangote Group has offered a 30% stake in a planned refinery in Kenya to East African nations, a senior economic adviser to Kenya’s President William Ruto said. Dangote Group, the corporation of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, plans to build a refinery in Kenya with a processing capacity of as much as 700,000 barrels per day of crude, which is estimated to cost about $17 billion. The…
The new Nigerian incentives for offshore oil and gas projects have the potential to attract $50 billion in new investment in Nigeria’s offshore energy sector, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said. Nigeria, however, needs upskilled and additional numbers of skilled workers and employees, including in the digital industries, to take advantage of the new offshore…
Iranian crude oil cargoes readily available to Chinese buyers have nearly dried up following the reinstated U.S. blockade on Iran’s oil exports, suggesting that independent Chinese refiners, the biggest buyers of Iranian crude, may have to turn to alternative supply as soon as next month. Total Iranian crude volume outside the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman is currently about 83 million barrels,…
Crude oil imports into China are set to rise by about 1.2 million barrels per day in the final quarter of the year from the current one, although they will likely remain lower than pre-war levels, Bloomberg has reported, citing energy consultancies. Oil purchases by Chinese refiners are climbing back towards 10 million barrels daily but may not hit that number until the end of the year, according…
First gas from Australia’s Beetaloo shale basin is scheduled to start flowing next month, with initial production of 37 million cu m, Reuters has reported, noting hopes that the country could replicate the U.S. shale gas success story. The Beetaloo basin is located in the Northern Territory and is estimated to hold some 500 trillion cu ft of gas. It has been compared to the giant Marcellus shale…
Crude oil prices were on course to book a second consecutive weekly gain as the prospects of peace in the Middle East dimmed further amid U.S. threats of the “toughest sanctions in history” against Iran and continued Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $93.50 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate was trading at $86.43 per barrel. The…
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)…
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…
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…
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…
Brent Crude futures prices topped $93 per barrel early in the morning in Europe on Thursday, hitting a three-week high amid fading hopes of U.S.-Iran talks as President Trump announced an “unprecedented” economic pressure campaign against Iran. In early morning trade in Europe, the international benchmark crude, Brent, rose by 1.95% to top $93 per barrel, at $93.48. The U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude,…
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened any country helping Iran in any way with “tremendous economic consequences,” as the American Administration is ratcheting up economic pressure on Iran in the hope of ending the war it began in February. Late on Wednesday, President Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social – as usual – to announce massive economic pressure on Iran and…
The reinstated U.S. blockade on Iranian oil exports is effectively preventing Tehran from exporting oil, making Iran’s oil volumes irrelevant for global oil market balances, Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, told CNBC on Thursday. The U.S. brought back the blockade in the Gulf of Oman aimed at preventing Iran from exporting its oil after the ‘deal to make a deal’ collapsed in July…
Demand for tankers from Middle Eastern oil producers has pushed prices to an all-time high, the Financial Times reported today, saying both new and second-hand very large crude carriers reached prices of over $130 million in the second quarter of the year. Citing data from shipbroking company Braemar, the FT also said the prices for chartering a supertanker for a year have also hit the highest on…
Japan’s import bill reached an all-time high in July, driven by higher oil prices, to a total of $76.39 billion. This was up by 27.8% from July 2025, Reuters reported, citing import and export data. In volume terms, Japan’s crude oil imports ticked up by 5.5% from a year earlier, but in price terms, the oil bill surged by 87.8%, breaking the previous record, set in June. “The recovery in crude…
Chinese refiners are buying Iraqi crude, with recent purchases of 8 million barrels of Basrah Heavy and Basrah Medium for prompt delivery, Bloomberg has reported, citing unnamed traders. Oil has continued flowing via the Strait of Hormuz—Iraq’s main export channel—despite the Iranian blockade, but the blockade has reduced these flows to a fraction of what they once were. For the week to August 17,…
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,…
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…
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,…
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.…