WTI crude futures advanced more than 3% during the final full trading week of 2025, rising to $58.46 after gaining $1.94 since last Friday. The rally stands out during a traditionally muted period between Christmas and New Year’s, when thin liquidity often dampens movement. Instead, geopolitical events have reshaped short-term sentiment, prompting traders to reprice supply risk despite widespread expectations that 2026 will bring heavy oversupply. Reduced participation has amplified price action, leaving the market more sensitive to developments…

Where Are Nigeria’s Oil Exports Going? Nigeria’s crude exports outside of the country have fallen to their lowest reading in a year, averaging 1.2 million b/d this month to date, adversely affected by an explosion at the Escravos-Lagos pipeline earlier in December. Luckily, the country’s only operational refinery – the 650,000 b/d Dangote plant – has been mopping up Nigerian grades, importing 1.7 million tonnes this month, the highest on record. Nigerian crude has been faced with extremely tepid buying demand lately…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict U.S. actions around Venezuelan oil exports are now affecting actual flows. Chasing a third tanker in less than two weeks has made shippers more cautious and reduced the number of willing buyers. Loadings are slowing. Insurance and scheduling risk are rising. If this continues, exports fall first and production follows once storage fills. Public messaging about Venezuela having “stolen” U.S. oil does not line up with the record. The industry was nationalized decades ago. U.S. firms operated under…

Over the past week, several oil and gas-related engagements involving Syria have surfaced, but none constitute an investment or production deal. Saudi contractor ADES has confirmed discussions around gas-sector service and maintenance work. Syria and Iraq have publicly acknowledged renewed technical talks on reviving the Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline as a possible export route. Syrian officials have disclosed exploratory technical contact with Chevron, described as preliminary and non-binding. Regional service firms are also assessing pipelines,…

Oil prices stabilized on Wednesday after a run of gains, with markets digesting U.S. economic strength and ongoing supply uncertainty tied to Venezuelan crude exports and the continued war between Russia and Ukraine. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading just 0.13% higher at $62.46, while West Texas Intermediate had risen 0.17% to $58.48. Both contracts are up over 4.5% in the last five trading days, as geopolitical risk has pushed prices higher. Robust U.S. economic data underpinned the latest rally, with Tuesday's data showing the U.S.…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States saw a build of 2.4 million barrels in the week ending December 19. Crude oil inventories shrank by 9.3 million barrels in the week prior. Crude oil inventories in the United States are so far showing a net decrease of 6.7 million barrels for the year, according to Oilprice calculations of API data. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have risen by 800,000 barrels…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States saw a build of 2.4 million barrels in the week ending December 19. Crude oil inventories shrank by 9.3 million barrels in the week prior. Crude oil inventories in the United States are so far showing a net decrease of 6.7 million barrels for the year, according to Oilprice calculations of API data. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have risen by 800,000 barrels…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States saw a build of 2.4 million barrels in the week ending December 19. Crude oil inventories shrank by 9.3 million barrels in the week prior. Crude oil inventories in the United States are so far showing a net decrease of 6.7 million barrels for the year, according to Oilprice calculations of API data. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have risen by 800,000 barrels…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States saw a build of 2.4 million barrels in the week ending December 19. Crude oil inventories shrank by 9.3 million barrels in the week prior. Crude oil inventories in the United States are so far showing a net decrease of 6.7 million barrels for the year, according to Oilprice calculations of API data. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have risen by 800,000 barrels…

U.S. gasoline prices are set to fall to the lowest level since 2020, thanks to increasing supplies, despite some ongoing refinery maintenance, GasBuddy has predicted. GasBuddy has predicted that U.S. motorists will pay an average of $2.79 per gallon on Christmas Day, down from $2.95 per gallon a year ago. That will mark the cheapest gas since prices averaged $2.26 per gallon in the Christmas of 2020. The Energy Information Administration has projected that rising global oil inventories will put downward pressure on oil prices, with a gallon of…

In mid-August, Chevron dispatched the first two crude oil cargoes from Venezuela since the start of the year. The company had secured a sanction waiver from the Biden administration, but President Trump canceled that—temporarily. Since then, Chevron has had to contend with political uncertainty and, lately, the prospect of a hot war between the U.S. and Venezuela. But it is not leaving. Chevron previously produced up to 240,000 barrels per day through its joint ventures with Venezuela’s PDVSA. Indeed, looking further back, American…

Iraq is at a crucial tipping point in its history. The past few months especially have seen a surge in activity from Western firms looking to re-enter the country’s oil and gas sector following a prolonged hiatus that had allowed the previous build-up of influence of China and Russia to accelerate and expand. Both sides – West and East – see Iraq as a crucial part of their global strategic plans, with no room for the other in this zero-sum game.  As exclusively revealed to OilPrice.com by a very high-ranking official…

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose by 3 this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Tuesday, bringing the total rig count in the US  to 545 this week, down 44 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 3 in the reporting period, according to the data, after US drillers saw an 8-rig decline in the week prior. Oil rigs are now at 409, which is 74 below this same time last year. The number of gas rigs stayed the same at 127, which is 25 more than this…

President Trump’s recent decision to rescind the Biden-era fuel efficiency standards marks a sharp shift in U.S. transportation policy. While the administration frames the move as a win for consumers and automakers, the implications extend well beyond the showroom floor. The rollback raises fresh questions about how automakers should plan long-term investments in an increasingly fragmented regulatory environment. What The Biden Standards Were Designed To Achieve The Biden administration’s rules, finalized in 2024, set aggressive targets:…

China’s independent refiners are accelerating purchases of Russia’s Far Eastern ESPO crude blend as Chinese refiners were issued new import quotas and the discount of Russian crude swelled to a record high, traders told Reuters on Tuesday. After missing out the crude purchasing windows for most of the fourth quarter, amid a lack of quotas allowing imports, the Chinese refiners, especially the so-called ‘teapots’ of the Shandong province, are back on the market hunting for bargain trades. The discount of the Russian ESPO…

China’s independent refiners are accelerating purchases of Russia’s Far Eastern ESPO crude blend as Chinese refiners were issued new import quotas and the discount of Russian crude swelled to a record high, traders told Reuters on Tuesday. After missing out the crude purchasing windows for most of the fourth quarter, amid a lack of quotas allowing imports, the Chinese refiners, especially the so-called ‘teapots’ of the Shandong province, are back on the market hunting for bargain trades. The discount of the Russian ESPO…

China’s independent refiners are accelerating purchases of Russia’s Far Eastern ESPO crude blend as Chinese refiners were issued new import quotas and the discount of Russian crude swelled to a record high, traders told Reuters on Tuesday. After missing out the crude purchasing windows for most of the fourth quarter, amid a lack of quotas allowing imports, the Chinese refiners, especially the so-called ‘teapots’ of the Shandong province, are back on the market hunting for bargain trades. The discount of the Russian ESPO…

The Chinese yuan is making gains on the US dollar in Central Asia as a form of payment in commercial transactions. For example, the volume of trade in the Chinese yuan/Kazakh tenge (CNY/KZT) forex pair in Kazakhstan’s spot foreign exchange market grew by 102.1 percent to an equivalent of about $2 billion during the January-November period in 2025, compared with the same timeframe last year, according to Kazakhstan’s stock exchange platform, KASE. However, the US dollar (USD) remains the dominant foreign currency by far. For the USD/KZT…

More than half of the power plants in the PJM market running on fossil fuels have either deferred or canceled plans to retire as soaring electricity demand from AI data centers has operators use all available capacity to ensure the flexibility and reliability of the grids. PJM Interconnection is the biggest power grid in the United States, whose area covers 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia. According to a Reuters analysis of company filings in the PJM region, around 60% of the power plants running on oil, natural…

More than half of the power plants in the PJM market running on fossil fuels have either deferred or canceled plans to retire as soaring electricity demand from AI data centers has operators use all available capacity to ensure the flexibility and reliability of the grids. PJM Interconnection is the biggest power grid in the United States, whose area covers 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia. According to a Reuters analysis of company filings in the PJM region, around 60% of the power plants running on oil, natural…