The federal U.S. government has turned to plutonium from the Cold War era as an alternative to uranium in nuclear power generation, as supply of the default nuclear fuel runs short of demand. Washington has already selected five companies to supply the fuel to, as nuclear returns to the energy spotlight. The Energy Department said this month it would discuss the use of plutonium as nuclear fuel with five nuclear energy companies seeking to build new generation capacity in the country. The reason that the DoE is considering plutonium is the tight…

The global gas market, which has been reeling from the sudden loss of 20% of daily LNG supply, is poised to tighten even further in the coming months as higher-than-expected summer temperatures and the El Niño weather pattern are expected to raise gas demand in Asia.  Asian and European gas prices could rally even higher if the Strait of Hormuz remains inaccessible to most LNG tankers this summer, while Asia struggles to meet cooling demand and Europe looks to refill gas storage sites that have depleted to multi-year lows at the end…

next-gen battery systems that form the future of energy storage and break lithium’s chokehold on global clean energy tech supply chains. The batteries show particular promise for energy storage applications, and could soon be a promising solution for long-term energy storage as energy grids become increasingly reliant on variable energy sources like wind and solar power. VRFBs function by storing energy in liquid electrolytes. These liquid electrolytes contain vanadium ions in four different states of oxidation, kept in two separate tanks.…

Solar stocks are showing a clear technical shift, breaking above a well-defined downtrend after more than five years of sustained pressure. UBS analyst Catherine Gordon is attributing the surge in solar stocks to falling yields and renewed policy momentum. A potential Section 232 tariff announcement in mid-to-late June is adding fuel to the rally, with First Solar leading the charge. The UBS Solar basket (UBXXSOL) is now up 40% year-to-date. Gordon provided more context on what's powering UBXXSOL higher: Clean tech names…

For 88 days, millions of Iranians lived in digital darkness after the authorities imposed a nationwide Internet shutdown following the outbreak of war with the United States and Israel. But the end of one of the world’s longest-ever Internet blackouts offered scant consolation for many Iranians who reconnected to the same heavily filtered and state-controlled network after nearly three months. Still, some Iranians were relieved to escape the near-complete isolation forced on the Middle Eastern country of some 90 million people. “The…

Wall Street analyst Bernstein Research has established $75 per barrel as a reasonable long-term oil price target for equity valuations, pointing to rising marginal costs and declining reserves. Citing a new survey of the 50 largest energy companies globally, Bernstein analyst Neil Beveridge has revealed that higher spot prices and a tightening physical market continue to feed inflation back into the supply chain. This will negatively impact production costs, with the global marginal cost of oil now projected to climb to $77 per barrel, after declining…

Wall Street analyst Bernstein Research has established $75 per barrel as a reasonable long-term oil price target for equity valuations, pointing to rising marginal costs and declining reserves. Citing a new survey of the 50 largest energy companies globally, Bernstein analyst Neil Beveridge has revealed that higher spot prices and a tightening physical market continue to feed inflation back into the supply chain. This will negatively impact production costs, with the global marginal cost of oil now projected to climb to $77 per barrel, after declining…

Solar stocks are showing a clear technical shift, breaking above a well-defined downtrend after more than five years of sustained pressure. UBS analyst Catherine Gordon is attributing the surge in solar stocks to falling yields and renewed policy momentum. A potential Section 232 tariff announcement in mid-to-late June is adding fuel to the rally, with First Solar leading the charge. The UBS Solar basket (UBXXSOL) is now up 40% year-to-date. Gordon provided more context on what's powering UBXXSOL higher: Clean tech names are outperforming again…

Norwegian oil and gas companies have raised their investment forecasts for 2026 and 2027 compared to estimates three months earlier, though overall capital spending is still on track to decline slightly from the 2025 record. The companies now expect 2026 capex to clock in at NOK 266 billion ($28.64 billion), up from the NOK 255 billion projected in February, while 2027 spending is expected to come in at NOK 207 billion, above the earlier estimate of NOK 201 billion.  Among the primary drivers of the capital spending is a NOK 20 billion redevelopment…

Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 3.3 million barrels during the week ending May 22, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Thursday. The decrease brings commercial stockpiles to 441.7 million barrels, according to government data, which is now 2% 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 saw a draw of 2.8 million barrels in the period.…

A ruling against the Russian energy behemoth Gazprom issued by a special court in the Kazakh capital Astana will not be enforced by the government, Kazakhstan’s justice minister has stated. The comments call into question the Astana International Financial Center’s (AIFC) independence from government interference and are likely to sow doubts among foreign investors that they can obtain a fair hearing in case of financial disputes involving state-connected entities. The AIFC is set up as a special economic zone to attract foreign investors…

Chevron has filed a request to buy 70% in an oil and gas exploration block offshore southwest Greece in what would be another step in the U.S. supermajor’s expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean. Chevron wants to buy 70% in an exploration block, whose concession rights are currently 100% owned by Helleniq Energy, the Greek Energy Ministry said on Thursday. The U.S. energy giant and Helleniq Energy are partners in several other offshore exploration blocks that Greece has recently awarded. Now Chevron seeks to expand its footprint and become…

Chevron has filed a request to buy 70% in an oil and gas exploration block offshore southwest Greece in what would be another step in the U.S. supermajor’s expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean. Chevron wants to buy 70% in an exploration block, whose concession rights are currently 100% owned by Helleniq Energy, the Greek Energy Ministry said on Thursday. The U.S. energy giant and Helleniq Energy are partners in several other offshore exploration blocks that Greece has recently awarded. Now Chevron seeks to expand its footprint and become…

Energy giant Uniper warns that Germany could face natural gas shortages in the winter if it doesn't accelerate the rate of filling gas storage sites. Uniper's chief executive Michael Lewis called for incentives for companies to stock up gas in storage in an interview with Germany's business daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Germany's gas storage sites were only 30.6% full as of May 27, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. That's well below the 38.65% filled storage at the same time last year. “If we don’t fill the gas…

Energy giant Uniper warns that Germany could face natural gas shortages in the winter if it doesn't accelerate the rate of filling gas storage sites. Uniper's chief executive Michael Lewis called for incentives for companies to stock up gas in storage in an interview with Germany's business daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Germany's gas storage sites were only 30.6% full as of May 27, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. That's well below the 38.65% filled storage at the same time last year. “If we don’t fill the gas…

Energy giant Uniper warns that Germany could face natural gas shortages in the winter if it doesn't accelerate the rate of filling gas storage sites. Uniper's chief executive Michael Lewis called for incentives for companies to stock up gas in storage in an interview with Germany's business daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Germany's gas storage sites were only 30.6% full as of May 27, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. That's well below the 38.65% filled storage at the same time last year. “If we don’t fill the gas…

BP’s ousted chair has hit back at the group’s decision to fire him over governance issues, launching a robust defence of his short-lived tenure on the supermajor’s board and rejecting the “false narrative” surrounding his sudden departure. In a move poised to plunge the London-listed energy giant into a full-blown governance crisis, Albert Manifold defended his record as chair, and said he drove “genuine change at BP – cutting costs, challenging excess and holding the organisation to higher standards”.…

Energy investment in India is set to reach a record high of $170 billion this year, driven by spending on solar installations and expansion of oil refining capacity, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its new World Energy Investment 2026 report out on Thursday. Over the past five years, India's energy investment has increased by 11% on average, with solar PV investment up by 25% in this period, and investment in oil refining jumping by 23%. Together, these two sectors have contributed to one-fourth of India's energy investment growth.…

Energy investment in India is set to reach a record high of $170 billion this year, driven by spending on solar installations and expansion of oil refining capacity, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its new World Energy Investment 2026 report out on Thursday. Over the past five years, India's energy investment has increased by 11% on average, with solar PV investment up by 25% in this period, and investment in oil refining jumping by 23%. Together, these two sectors have contributed to one-fourth of India's energy investment growth.…

As Washington races to build a rare earth supply chain that can survive the Pentagon’s 2027 ban on Chinese-origin materials, REalloys (NASDAQ: ALOY) has locked in long-term supply from one of the largest known heavy rare earth deposits in the world. The company announced last Thursday that it has signed a definitive 15-year offtake agreement with Critical Metals Corp. (NASDAQ: CRML) covering 15% of Phase 1 production from the Tanbreez project in southern Greenland, a massive heavy rare earth deposit containing Dysprosium and Terbium, the…