This week, I find myself in a bit of a quandary. As a rule, I dislike having a large cash position, but that is where I find myself right now. And try as I might, I can’t find anywhere to set it to work. To anyone trained in a dealing room, money is the tool you use to make money, so sitting on a lot of undeployed cash shows either a lack of imagination or just basic laziness. I would like to think that neither of those things apply to me, but I genuinely think that cash is not a bad option right now, even for an energy investor.  Nor…

IEA’s Forecast Takes a Chill Pill as Weather Cuts Into Supply Alleviating its oversupply doom and gloom, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has revised its outlook for the magnitude of this year’s production glut, citing weather-related outages in Q1 2026. In the January 2026 edition of the IEA’s monthly report, the international organization found that global supply dipped by a surprise 1.2 million b/day, defying expectations of oversupply. Cold snaps across the United States and a power outage-driven closure of Kazakhstan’s…

Ahead of the monthly meeting on March 1, the OPEC+ alliance is leaning toward resuming production increases from April following a pause in the first quarter, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting sources within the group. Early this month, the eight OPEC+ members that have been implementing cuts since 2023 – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – reaffirmed the decision to pause monthly increments during the first quarter of the year. The decision was first taken in November 2025 and was confirmed…

Iran’s leadership is trying to put down nationwide protests with sustained force while the U.S. keeps negotiations open under sanctions pressure. Activist groups estimate more than 7,000 people have been killed, including many minors. Security forces remain cohesive and active across the country, but unrest has not fully subsided. The government controls territory, but not sentiment.  Sanctions and unrest are now fully intertwined. Oil exports are restricted, banking channels are limited, the currency remains weak, and inflation has…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict It’s time for DC to evaluate whether Venezuela’s new hydrocarbons law can produce actual supply gains, and with that in mind, the U.S. energy secretary traveled to Caracas this week, touring Chevron-PDVSA joint operations. The new law allows broader private operating control and more flexible terms, a break with the past deterrents. The Trump administration is engaging, but on a results basis: sanctions relief depends on measurable production increases and contractual stability. The core issue is…

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures are trading sharply lower this week, with nearby contracts at $62.87 as of Thursday night, down $0.68 or -1.07% for the session. The weekly range spans from a high of $65.83 to a low of $62.39, reflecting the market's struggle to balance geopolitical risk against mounting supply concerns. Wednesday's EIA Report: Massive Build, Muted Response Wednesday's Energy Information Administration (EIA) report revealed a staggering 8.5 million barrel build in U.S. crude oil inventories, far exceeding analyst…

India considers boosting the run rates of its gas-fired power plants during evening peak hours to support the grid amid the surge in renewable power generation, India’s Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal said on Friday.   “For the last three years we have been studying whether gas plants can run for eight hours in the evening and remain shut during the rest of the day,” Agarwal said at a meeting with power plant executives, as carried by Reuters.  India has reduced in recent years its gas-fired power fleet from 25 gigawatts…

India’s largest private refiner, Reliance Industries, has been authorized by the United States to buy, export, and sell Venezuelan crude oil, Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources with knowledge of the situation.  Reliance last month applied with the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for a general license to be able buy Venezuelan crude without violating the sanctions, according to Reuters sources.    The license would give India’s top private refiner, which operates the largest refining…

At least three vessels sanctioned by the United States have arrived in recent weeks at the demolition hub of Alang on India’s west coast, following a record 15 dark fleet tankers sent to these scrapyards last year, as the business rebounds despite concerns about dealing with sanctioned ships.   The Woodchip, built in 1993 and sanctioned by the U.S. in 2021 under one of its previous names, is the third tanker to have arrived at Alang in less than a month, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing vessel-tracking data, agent reports, and…

Venezuela’s oil sales, under the control of the United States for five weeks now, are set to bring $5 billion over the next few months, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC News in an interview.    “Sales today are over a billion dollars, and in fact, we have sort of short-term agreements over the next few months that will bring in another $5 billion,” Secretary Wright said in the interview during a historic visit to Venezuela to meet with the interim President Delcy Rodríguez.   The United…

A think tank set up by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged the Starmer government to reverse the decline in the country’s oil and gas industry, saying its revival could boost the economy by 165 billion pounds, equal to $224.42 billion. In a paper titled Why Britain Needs an Energy-Strategy Reset, senior policy advisor on climate and energy policy at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Tone Langengen called for a rearrangement of priorities in energy and a change of focus from emissions only. “This narrow focus…

A think tank set up by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged the Starmer government to reverse the decline in the country’s oil and gas industry, saying its revival could boost the economy by 165 billion pounds, equal to $224.42 billion. In a paper titled Why Britain Needs an Energy-Strategy Reset, senior policy advisor on climate and energy policy at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Tone Langengen called for a rearrangement of priorities in energy and a change of focus from emissions only. “This narrow focus…

Crude oil prices began trade with a decline today, set for the second consecutive weekly loss as fears of a U.S.-Iran escalation faded. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $67.36 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $62.66 per barrel, both essentially unchanged on Monday but down from higher levels seen earlier in the week. “Signs the U.S. is seeking more time to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, reducing the near-term geopolitical risk premium,” have pressured prices, according to IG analyst Tony Sycamore, as quoted…

Last year, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent set a target to cut the U.S. federal budget deficit to just 3% of GDP by the end of President Donald Trump’s second term. The deficit reduction was a key component of his "3-3-3" economic plan, with the other two being achieving 3% real GDP growth and increasing energy production by 3 million barrels a day by 2028. The plan relies on spending constraints, regulatory reforms, and tariff revenue to narrow the deficit.  With Trump now completing the first year of his second term, energy and…

Europe’s gas demand could rise even higher at the end of this winter, making it even more challenging to refill storage that has been depleting at the fastest pace in years.         So far into 2026, snowfall and snow coverage in the Alps, which feed a large part of the hydropower generation in Austria and northern Italy, have been well below average, Reuters columnist Gavin Maguire notes.  With potentially lower hydropower generation, if snowfall continues to be scarce, gas consumption in the…

Europe is still suffering from the consequences of its decadeslong dependence on Russian energy imports. But as the bloc continues to wean itself off of Russian oil and gas, Europe is facing new and compounding energy dependence threats from the United States and China. European policymakers are in a tough spot, literally and figuratively sandwiched between a massive and high-stakes battle for global energy supremacy.  When Russia illegally invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, Europe as a whole depended on the Russian producers for 40 percent…

Artificial intelligence is often viewed as a catalyst for electrification and subsequently decarbonization. Yet one of its most immediate effects may be the opposite of what many assume. The rapid buildout of AI infrastructure is increasing demand for reliable power, and that reality could strengthen the role of natural gas and other dispatchable energy sources for many years. Investors focused on semiconductors and software valuations may be overlooking a key constraint. AI runs on electricity, and those electricity systems operate within physical…

Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan succeeded in widening the scope of US economic engagement with the two South Caucasus nations. In the months immediately after Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a provisional peace deal in Washington last August, the Trump administration’s focus was on the development of the Middle Corridor trade and logistics network. But now other sectors, including civilian nuclear energy, arms sales and artificial intelligence, are part of the discussion. Vance’s stop in Baku on February…

Oil prices dropped Thursday after the International Energy Agency cut its demand growth outlook, a revision that landed in a market already uneasy about how quickly supply is said to be rising. Brent crude traded near $67 a barrel in the afternoon, down roughly 3% on the session. U.S. WTI slipped into the $62s. Selling accelerated after the IEA trimmed its 2026 global demand growth forecast to 850,000 barrels per day. A month ago, it was expecting 930,000. The number itself is not as dramatic as the context. The agency still sees global supply…

Oil prices dropped Thursday after the International Energy Agency cut its demand growth outlook, a revision that landed in a market already uneasy about how quickly supply is said to be rising. Brent crude traded near $67 a barrel in the afternoon, down roughly 3% on the session. U.S. WTI slipped into the $62s. Selling accelerated after the IEA trimmed its 2026 global demand growth forecast to 850,000 barrels per day. A month ago, it was expecting 930,000. The number itself is not as dramatic as the context. The agency still sees global supply…