Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Iran have pushed oil prices to seven-month highs, as markets factor in a sizable risk premium ahead of critical negotiations. Despite heavy sanctions by the West, Iran’s oil output has recovered to near pre-sanctions levels thanks to the OPEC producer offering discounted crude and having a ready market by Chinese independent refiners.  According to energy market consultancy FGE NexantECA, oil prices could spike to $100 per barrel if Washington declares war on Tehran, good for nearly ~45% upside…

The recent announcement that Turkey’s state-owned TPAO has signed a wide-ranging oil and gas cooperation agreement with Great Britain’s BP marks a potentially significant shift in the strategic landscape of northern Iraq. The new framework — covering field development, exploration, export capacity and regional gas transport — places both companies squarely at the centre of Iraq’s next phase of upstream expansion, with Kirkuk identified as the immediate priority. Coming on the heels of TPAO’s recent cooperation…

China and the United States, the world’s largest and second-largest crude oil importers, respectively, appear to have enough strategic reserves to go through an oil supply disruption in the key producing region, the Middle East, in case the U.S.-Iran standoff escalates to U.S. strikes on the Islamic Republic. Sure, any disruption to oil shipping in the Middle East would send oil prices higher from the current seven-month high of $71 per barrel Brent. The market panic in case Thursday’s U.S.-Iran talks fail could be even more disruptive…

Global battery markets are going gangbusters as demand for new and better battery technologies explodes, driven by the clean energy transition and the proliferation of data centers and artificial intelligence. Batteries provide a critical backup energy source at a time when energy security is under strain at a global level, thanks to the runaway energy demands of the energy and tech sectors.  “As applications diversify and costs continue to fall, batteries are evolving into a foundational component of modern economies,” states…

The surge in electricity demand in the world’s AI hotspots has prompted a comparable surge in the demand for reliable supply. That surge was not expected. There are not enough gas turbines to secure that supply. This means the AI revolution would either have to slow down, or the grid would have to increase its reliance on coal. Natural gas has in recent years been marketed as a so-called bridge fuel between coal and oil, on the one hand, and wind and solar, on the other. When it became clear that “bridge” is in fact its own country…

Saudi Arabia has started to increase its oil output as part of a contingency plan in the event the United States attacks Iran and oil flows are disrupted, Reuters reported on Wednesday, as OPEC’s biggest oil producer positions itself as a "reliable supplier" looking to take up its traditional role as a key swing producer ready to stabilize the markets if a conflict occurs. U.S. President Donald Trump recently revealed that he is considering a "limited military strike" on Iran in a bid to pressure its leaders into a new nuclear agreement.…

Saudi Arabia has started to increase its oil output as part of a contingency plan in the event the United States attacks Iran and oil flows are disrupted, Reuters reported on Wednesday, as OPEC’s biggest oil producer positions itself as a "reliable supplier" looking to take up its traditional role as a key swing producer ready to stabilize the markets if a conflict occurs. U.S. President Donald Trump recently revealed that he is considering a "limited military strike" on Iran in a bid to pressure its leaders into a new nuclear agreement.…

The pivot away from fossil-fueled power generation in the United States is stalling due to the Trump energy policy, increased power usage, and the fear of electricity shortages and blackouts. According to the Energy Information Administration, via Reuters, US power plants scheduled to close in 2026 could stay online longer, building on a trend that began last year as electricity use and prices hit record levels in some parts of the country. The EIA says 11 gigawatts of power-generating capacity was expected to be shut, with nearly 60% coal-fired…

The White House has requested formal pledges from US tech giants that the swelling data centre boom will not drive up electricity bills for households, as concern mounts over AI’s energy demands. Donald Trump has approached behemoths like Microsoft and Alphabet, who have notoriously rallied behind his administration, about signing voluntary, non-binding agreements committing them to “pay their own way” as they build out new infrastructure. Most notably, the proposal requests that hyper-scale data centre operators cover 100 per…

The Trump administration plans to allow energy companies to sell fuel to private Cuban businesses while maintaining a strict blockade on the Cuban government. The policy shift aims to alleviate a worsening humanitarian and energy crisis on the island by distinguishing between the Cuban people and the regime. The U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Department of Commerce are set to issue new guidance clarifying that Washington permits fuel exports to private Cuban companies without requiring specific licenses. Further, the Trump administration…

Soaring demand for power generation, the U.S. goal of quadrupling nuclear electricity generation by 2050, and a looming ban on Russian nuclear fuel imports could create a bottleneck in the nuclear fuel supply chain, according to U.S. enrichment company Centrus Energy. The American supplier of the key nuclear fuel is expanding domestic enrichment capacities, and so are other major Western firms. But until the new plants come online early next decade, the U.S. could face a supply gap in the fuel, Amir Vexler, chief executive at Centrus Energy, says.…

OPEC+ is likely to consider increasing oil output by 137,000 barrels per day (bpd) for April 2026, ending a three-month pause in hikes as they prepare for peak summer demand and navigate market share strategies, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday ahead of a scheduled cartel meeting on March 1.   The group had previously implemented 137,000 bpd hikes in late 2025 before pausing increases for the first quarter of 2026 in a bid to avoid creating a supply surplus. Unwinding previous output cuts will allow key members such as Saudi Arabia and…

US President Donald Trump used the longest State of the Union address in US history to repeat the threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails -- and pledged to keep negotiating to end the war in Ukraine. Speaking for nearly one hour and 50 minutes, Trump used the joint session of Congress to frame his administration’s achievements as the dawn of a "golden age." The speech was an opportunity to focus on domestic policy ahead of November’s midterm elections, but Trump also restated key priorities on foreign affairs and global…

Bahri, the national shipping carrier of the world’s top crude exporter, Saudi Arabia, has provisionally chartered at least five supertankers to ship oil to Asia amid soaring tanker rates not seen in six years.  Bahri has hired at least five very large crude carriers (VLCCs), the supertankers capable of shipping 2 million barrels of crude each, as daily rates on the key Middle East-to-China route surged above $200,000 for the first time since 2020, Bloomberg reports. The freshly chartered supertankers are expected to ship Saudi crude…

Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 16 million barrels during the week ending February 20, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The decrease brings commercial stockpiles to 435.8 million barrels according to government data, which is still 3% below 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 rose by a massive 11.4 million barrels in…

Storms in the Black Sea and alerts of potential drone attacks at a key loading terminal are slowing the ramp up of crude oil production at Kazakhstan’s giant Tengiz oilfield, industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday.  The huge field, capable of producing 950,000 barrels per day, was forced to shut down last month following a fire at the site that damaged critical power supply.  Since then, the field, operated by a Chevron-led consortium, has resumed operations and has been gradually raising production.  However, the pace…

Storms in the Black Sea and alerts of potential drone attacks at a key loading terminal are slowing the ramp up of crude oil production at Kazakhstan’s giant Tengiz oilfield, industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday.  The huge field, capable of producing 950,000 barrels per day, was forced to shut down last month following a fire at the site that damaged critical power supply.  Since then, the field, operated by a Chevron-led consortium, has resumed operations and has been gradually raising production.  However, the pace…

For more than a decade, the United States has treated rare earth independence as a mining problem. But the real vulnerability is further downstream. That’s where rare earths are turned into metals and become a part of the American military machine and its industrial backbone. That capability largely disappeared from North America, and rebuilding it is far more complicated than reopening a mine. Tim Johnston, co-Founder of Realloys (NASDAQ: ALOY), the only North American company that takes heavy rare earths to the magnet finish line, says…

For more than a decade, the United States has treated rare earth independence as a mining problem. But the real vulnerability is further downstream. That’s where rare earths are turned into metals and become a part of the American military machine and its industrial backbone. That capability largely disappeared from North America, and rebuilding it is far more complicated than reopening a mine. Tim Johnston, co-Founder of Realloys (NASDAQ: ALOY), the only North American company that takes heavy rare earths to the magnet finish line, says…

The average UK energy bill is set to drop by about 7% from April, to the lowest in almost two years, as the government has shifted part of the costs for supporting renewables from the household bills to general taxation.   From?April 1 to June 30, 2026, energy prices will go down by or 7%, or by £117, ($158), for a typical household who use electricity and gas and pay by Direct Debit, the UK’s energy market regulator Ofgem said on Wednesday in its quarterly energy price cap announcement.      The UK…