A little-recognized consequence of soaring cocaine related lawlessness and bloodshed in the tiny South American country of Ecuador is a massive surge in hydrocarbon theft. This serious problem, long associated with Colombia, which is the world's largest cocaine producer, arose because of the tremendous profits that can be earned from stealing gasoline and diesel. Rising fuel prices along with heightened lawlessness are driving ever-higher levels of hydrocarbon theft, which even government crackdowns appear incapable of stopping. Not long after…

A Labour cabinet minister has pushed back against rallying calls for the government to hand petrol retailers some reprieve, stating there is “no need” to axe the planned hike in fuel duty. Education secretary Bridget Bridget Phillipson said on Sunday the government would “take a view closer to the time” on whether to press ahead with the controversial increase. The current main rate of fuel duty stands at 52.95p per litre, but includes a temporary 5p reduction introduced in 2022, which is scheduled to be reversed in stages…

Data center capital expenditure reached $770 billion in 2025, surpassing investments for upstream oil and gas activities in the same year. Solar PV investments, broadly acknowledged as the most substantial growth story in energy supply over the past 10 years, had already been eclipsed by data centers in 2024. This year, Rystad Energy expects investments in data centers to match investments in both the renewable generation industry, as well as the full oil and gas sector – which comprises the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors. While…

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Monday said that U.S. monetary policy is in a good place, and the Fed will wait and see how the ongoing Middle East conflict will impact the economy and inflation before taking further action on interest rates. Powell reiterated that it is "too soon to know" the long-term scope and duration of the war's economic effects, noting that geopolitical risks make the outlook uncertain. According to the Fed chair, energy shocks tend to be temporary, and raising interest rates immediately to combat inflation caused…

The ghosts of Baghdad and Kabul should be enough to silence any serious talk of sending American troops into Iran. Yet here we are again, with voices in Washington and Tel Aviv whispering that only boots on the ground can neutralize Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, its local allies and its regional mischief. They are wrong. An American invasion of Iran would be a strategic catastrophe, a moral failure and a self-inflicted wound from which the United States might never fully recover. First, the military and logistical reality is brutal.…

Despite the fact that Nigeria is now home to the biggest oil refinery in Africa, Nigeria’s gasoline prices have soared to a record high amid the war in the Middle East. Dangote, the biggest refinery in Africa which began operations in 2024, has already started exporting fuel to regions other than West Africa. The refinery started up in January 2024 with the launch of diesel and naphtha production and began producing gasoline in September 2024. In the early days of the war in the Middle East, the refinery said it would keep its “unwavering…

A fast thaw in relations between the Kremlin and Azerbaijan occurred in March, enabling a strategic link connecting Russia and Iran to keep functioning, despite the ongoing US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. Some Western observers believe the route, known as the western branch of the North-South corridor, is being used by Russia to funnel weapons to Iran to keep the war in the Persian Gulf going. Russian-Azerbaijani relations had been tense since Russian air-defense forces accidentally shot down an Azerbaijani civilian airliner in late 2024 and…

South Korea is weighing the possibility to extend driving curbs from civil servants’ use of vehicles to the general public if oil prices hit $120 per barrel, Finance Minister Koo Yun Cheol said. If enacted, such a measure would be the first in South Korea since 1991 during the Gulf war. Early on Monday, oil prices were rising by over 2% with Brent Crude topping $115 per barrel amid an escalating conflict which now involves the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. South Korea has already restricted access by vehicle to government buildings in a rotating…

South Korea is weighing the possibility to extend driving curbs from civil servants’ use of vehicles to the general public if oil prices hit $120 per barrel, Finance Minister Koo Yun Cheol said. If enacted, such a measure would be the first in South Korea since 1991 during the Gulf war. Early on Monday, oil prices were rising by over 2% with Brent Crude topping $115 per barrel amid an escalating conflict which now involves the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. South Korea has already restricted access by vehicle to government buildings in a rotating…

“Iran’s been waiting for the U.S. to put boots on the ground because it knows that while it’s easy to get into a country militarily, it’s much more difficult to get out, and the longer the U.S. is on the ground, the more likely it is to be forced into making a better peace deal for Tehran,” a senior energy security source working closely with the European Union’s (E.U.) energy security complex exclusively told OilPrice.com over the weekend. “And two events this weekend [28-29 March] have dramatically increased…

Days before it is slated to announce pricing for May-loading cargoes for Asia, the world’s top crude exporter, Saudi Arabia, is unsure how the typical price mechanism could apply and is under pressure from buyers to switch to alternative pricing, as the war is upending oil flows and roiling regional benchmarks. Saudi Arabia typically announces around the fifth of each month its crude pricing for the following month and doesn’t comment on price changes. It also sets the tone for the pricing of the other major oil producers in the Middle…

US President Donald Trump said he wants to “take the oil in Iran” and perhaps seize Kharg Island, while at the same time insisting that Washington is doing “extremely well” in negotiations with Iran and that he is "pretty sure" a peace deal will be reached "soon." The mixing of threats and the possibility of a peace deal with Tehran came in an interview published late on March 29 in the Financial Times and in remarks an hour later to reporters aboard Air Force One. To reporters, Trump hailed progress in talks with Iran,…

President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to destroy Iran's power plants, oil wells, Kharg Island, and potentially its desalination infrastructure if no ceasefire deal is reached, even as he claimed talks are moving in the right direction. "Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached...we will conclude our lovely 'stay' in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully…

President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to destroy Iran's power plants, oil wells, Kharg Island, and potentially its desalination infrastructure if no ceasefire deal is reached, even as he claimed talks are moving in the right direction. "Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached...we will conclude our lovely 'stay' in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully…

The ongoing Middle East conflict has upended global energy markets, cutting off supplies of approximately  8 million barrels of crude per day and 20% of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Brent crude has surged more than 50% to around $110/bbl since the conflict erupted in late February, while the U.S. stock market has lost nearly $4 trillion. Previously, we reported that Russia has emerged as the biggest winner of the war, with the conflict providing a strategic "economic lifeline" to Moscow by elevating oil prices, distracting Western allies from…

Criminals are exploiting weak points across the West Texas oil production region, which accounts for 15% of the world's energy resources. This emerging wave of oil theft is burning a multi-billion-dollar hole in the budgets of oil and gas operators across the Permian Basin and is becoming a national security threat. Bloomberg reports that oil and gas producers are losing at least $1 billion, if not more, per year due to oilfield theft in what the outlet describes as something straight out of a "Mad Max" movie. At the center of the Permian…

Electric vehicle (EV) makers are racing to develop the fastest battery chargers to give them the competitive edge, with Chinese producers once again coming out on top. One of the biggest criticisms consumers have is the length of time it takes to charge EVs, compared to refuelling internal combustion engine (ICE) alternatives. This has led several EV-makers to invest heavily in research and development into charging technology over the last decade. Some EV producers now think they may have the solution - ultrafast chargers. The race to develop…

Africa needs to strengthen its energy sector in a hurry. The continent is the most underdeveloped on the planet, and today approximately 600 million Africans lack access to electricity. These numbers are in danger of skyrocketing if African leadership does not massively expand its energy production capacities and grid infrastructure, as the population is expected to double between now and 2050. In fact, experts predict that by midcentury, a quarter of the global population will be in sub-Saharan Africa. Meeting the needs of this growing population…

Donald Trump’s hatred for wind farms reached a new peak this week. The President announced that the United States will pay $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to a French company to not build planned wind farms in leased federal waters off the coast of New York and North Carolina. Together, those wind projects would have supplied more than 4 gigawatts of clean electricity for households and businesses in the United States. Under the unusual deal, the French energy giant TotalEnergies would abandon its planned wind farms and annul the lease deal…

Brent crude is trading over $100 per barrel, WTI has topped $90, but oil drillers in the world’s largest producer are cautious about their future plans. In fact, they are rather unhappy with the war in the Middle East, because it has made it harder to plan investments. On the face of it, everything is perfect, price-wise. WTI is trading much higher than what shale drillers need to be profitable. According to the latest Dallas Fed Energy Survey, the range of WTI profitable drilling price levels for the oil patch is between $62 per barrel for…