The infamous Texas Arctic freeze of five years ago exposed a key vulnerability of electric vehicles: Many drivers were forced to abandon their vehicles after being left stranded with dead batteries and no charging station in sight. While cold weather can lower driving range by ~10%, unusually low temperatures can cut it by up to 40% while increasing charging time by 300%. Thankfully, this could soon become a thing of the past: Chinese researchers have developed an all-weather battery electrolyte that is not only capable of maintaining high energy…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by a staggering 10.263 million barrels in the week ending March 27. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories rose by 2.3 million barrels. Analysts had expected a draw of 1.3 million barrels in the current reporting period. Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) drew down for the first week in many, sinking by 300,000 barrels to 415.1 million barrels as of the week ending March 27. This is 310.4 million barrels shy of maximum…

Tech giants Microsoft and NVIDIA are collaborating on an artificial intelligence project designed to accelerate the development of nuclear energy – in order to feed the growing energy needs of AI. The project aims to develop an “ecosystem of AI-powered digital engineering tools” that will be used to shorten the considerable timelines of nuclear power plants and bring them online a lot more quickly as the rate of energy demand growth continues to skyrocket around the world. The nuclear power sector in the United States is beset…

Guyana, once among South America's most impoverished nations, is experiencing an epic oil boom. In a mere four years, the country of less than one million went from first discovery to first oil and is now lifting over 900,000 barrels per day. There are signs of significant production growth ahead. This is occurring at a crucial time for a world experiencing an energy crisis after oil spiked to well-over $110 per barrel after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli airstrikes. Guyana's oil boom is significantly reducing…

China’s leading international broadcaster, CGTN, aired an interview March 24 with Turkmenistan’s paramount leader, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, touting how “mutual trust and centuries-old exchanges” shape present-day bilateral relations. But such messaging struck a discordant note during the actual interview, when Berdymukhamedov’s figures for his country’s natural gas exports to China proved significantly different than those subsequently proffered by Chinese officials. During the interview, taped while the Turkmen…

Iran has assured Malaysia that Malaysian tankers can safely transit the Strait of Hormuz without paying a toll that the Islamic Republic wants to exact from shippers, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on Tuesday. “The Iranian ambassador has mentioned that no toll is being imposed on Malaysian vessels,” Loke said today, as quoted by Bloomberg. “We are a friendly party, we have good diplomatic relationship with the Iranian government,” the Malaysian minister added. Iran has selectively allowed a small number of…

The world economy is heading for a “rare” recession in the middle of this year as a prolonged war seems likely amid the prospect of US troops heading to the Middle East.  Economists have warned that activity will fall in the middle of the year if oil prices surge to $150 per barrel and remain there for a period of four months.  Oil prices continued to climb higher on Monday as the Brent Crude benchmark raced past the $116 per barrel mark amid mixed messages between the US, Israel and Iran on the state of the war.  It…

Tightening Asian fuel markets and Indian refiners’ thirst for Russian crude have resulted in the highest Indian diesel exports to Southeast Asia in seven and a half years in March, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing trade sources and data from analytics firm Kpler. As the Middle East war roils Asian fuel markets and prompted many countries in Asia, including China, to impose fuel export bans, Indian refiners are taking advantage of the higher premiums they get to send their fuel to Southeast Asia, which began struggling with fuel shortages.…

The trade of global fertilizer and ammonia faces intense pressure due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz as diplomatic talks between the US and Iran remain uncertain. Rystad Energy’s 2025 trade mapping shows that the sale of 15% of global ammonia and 21% of urea, which is used as a high-nitrogen fertilizer, are tied to exporters potentially impacted by the closure. This includes leading producers Saudi Arabia and Qatar, followed by Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Iran and Iraq. Our analysis predicts this sustained logistics shock…

Oil markets are closing March on a historic surge, with prices posting their biggest monthly gain ever after an unprecedented global supply shock. Gasoline Goes Galactic: Prices Jump, Diesel Spikes, and the White House Feels the Burn - Nationwide US gasoline prices topped $4 per gallon for the first time since August 2022, jumping to $4.018/USG as of March 31, raising domestic political risks for the Trump administration. - With gasoline now up by more than $1 per barrel since the US attack on Iran, prices keep on rising despite the White House’s…

Brent crude jumped to $118.2 per barrel on Tuesday while WTI sat at $102.5, leaving an unusually wide gap between the two benchmarks as the market reacted to fresh rhetoric around the Strait of Hormuz and the growing risk to fuel flows outside the United States. The apparent immediate trigger was a social media post from President Donald Trump urging countries struggling to secure jet fuel because of the Strait disruption to buy from the U.S. or go to the Strait and "take it" themselves. "...the U.S.A. won't be there to help you anymore, just like…

The United States is extending by a month through May 1, 2026, the deadline for potential buyers to negotiate buying the foreign assets of Russia's second-biggest oil producer, Lukoil, which the U.S. sanctioned in October to force Russia to negotiate peace in Ukraine. The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorized in a new general license negotiations of potential deals until May 1, provided that such agreements are approved by the OFAC in separate authorizations. Earlier this year, Lukoil announced it had agreed to sell…

The United States is extending by a month through May 1, 2026, the deadline for potential buyers to negotiate buying the foreign assets of Russia's second-biggest oil producer, Lukoil, which the U.S. sanctioned in October to force Russia to negotiate peace in Ukraine. The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorized in a new general license negotiations of potential deals until May 1, provided that such agreements are approved by the OFAC in separate authorizations. Earlier this year, Lukoil announced it had agreed to sell…

The United States is extending by a month through May 1, 2026, the deadline for potential buyers to negotiate buying the foreign assets of Russia's second-biggest oil producer, Lukoil, which the U.S. sanctioned in October to force Russia to negotiate peace in Ukraine. The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorized in a new general license negotiations of potential deals until May 1, provided that such agreements are approved by the OFAC in separate authorizations. Earlier this year, Lukoil announced it had agreed to sell…

US President Donald Trump has renewed his warning to Tehran to reach a deal to end the war soon and open the Strait of Hormuz, or he will order air strikes with the aim of "completely obliterating" Iran's oil export hub of Kharg Island, oil wells, and power plants. For the second day in a row, the US leader said a deal is likely at hand, but he also said in a social media post on March 30 that "if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached" US forces will react " by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants,…

Coal is back with a bang in Asia’s power generation, as countries scramble to contain the LNG supply shortage due to the war in the Middle East. Coal hasn’t really left most Asian economies, which rely on the fuel for much of their power generation. Amid the squeeze of natural gas supply due to the de facto closed Strait of Hormuz and the sky-rocketing LNG prices that few buyers in Asia can afford, nations are scrapping previous restraints to the use of coal-fired power generation. Developed economies like Japan and South Korea are…

REalloys (NASDAQ: ALOY) is assembling the only non-Chinese supply chain for a component powering nearly everything the modern economy runs on — but one that almost nobody outside the industry pays attention to. A single F-35 carries roughly 435 kilograms of these materials. MRI machines need them to power today's medical imaging. They’re in the guidance systems on missiles, the haptic feedback in your phone, the motors inside surgical robots, and the cooling systems that keep data centers running. Today, the rare earth magnet market…

Japan’s heavy dependence on imported energy is being put through a real-time stress test. The crisis triggered by the war in Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has exposed the structural vulnerabilities in one of the world’s largest energy importers. With roughly 90% of its crude oil sourced from the Middle East, Tokyo has already moved to release around 80 million barrels from its strategic petroleum reserves – equivalent to roughly 26 days of domestic oil demand. This should be sufficient to stabilize the…

Every time energy prices spike, nuclear power makes a comeback in the debate. The argument is familiar. If Europe had more nuclear, it would be insulated from volatile gas markets. Prices would be stable. External shocks—from Hormuz to Ukraine—would matter less. There is truth in that. But only up to a point. And crucially, only under very specific conditions that are often ignored. Nuclear Works, If You Already Have It France is the obvious example. With a large nuclear fleet forming the backbone of its electricity system, France has…

The worst energy crisis in history is sending ripples across global markets, and optimism is in short supply. IEA’s chief said the current crisis is worse than all previous ones put together. JP Morgan analysts warned Asia is going to be hit the hardest, although other analysts see Europe as suffering the most from the fallout. And yet it seems the seriousness of the situation has yet to sink in. The European Central Bank’s president, Christine Lagarde, said in a recent interview with The Economist that the risks stemming from the U.S.…