Companies operating in Egypt continue to make oil and gas discoveries and drill new wells at the start of the year, further boosting hydrocarbon production as the North African country looks to reduce import dependence.  Several companies have drilled successful wells in the Western Desert, Eastern Desert, and the Nile Delta, Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said on Friday.   The new wells are expected to add around 47 million cubic feet of natural gas and about 4,300 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and…

Companies operating in Egypt continue to make oil and gas discoveries and drill new wells at the start of the year, further boosting hydrocarbon production as the North African country looks to reduce import dependence.  Several companies have drilled successful wells in the Western Desert, Eastern Desert, and the Nile Delta, Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said on Friday.   The new wells are expected to add around 47 million cubic feet of natural gas and about 4,300 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and…

Iran has been a major supplier of military equipment to Russia in recent years, especially since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but experts have told RFE/RL that this support no longer plays a key role in Moscow's war effort. Iranian missile sales to Russia, including air defense missiles and ballistic missiles, have totaled $2.7 billion since October 2021, according to a January 12 Bloomberg report citing an unnamed Western security official. The volume of trade is not publicly disclosed by Moscow, and Iran denies…

Over the last week or so, crude oil futures have been volatile, with a sharp run up to over $62, followed by a dramatic dip back below $60. Given crude’s normal volatility, that is not really surprising. What is surprising in some ways, though, is the fact that this bout of volatility was driven by the words of President Trump. You would think that, by now, traders would have learned that trying to predict the actions of this administration based on what they are saying at any given moment is a fool’s errand. Opinion is divided as to…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Syria is moving into a dangerous new phase. Damascus is pushing Kurdish forces out of Aleppo. Kurdish autonomy west of the Euphrates is no longer being tolerated, and the order to withdraw east is not a bargaining position. The Aleppo advance changes leverage. Once Kurdish forces lose their urban footholds, they lose political weight quickly. That is why the protests in Kurdish areas are growing out of desperation over the loss of negotiating leverage. At the same time, Washington is running a parallel play…

The United States is setting up an air defence coordination unit in Qatar while publicly warning Iran about the use of lethal force. The unit itself is small and specific. It pulls together radar feeds, satellite warnings, and airspace tracking so U.S. systems and Gulf partners are looking at the same picture if something is launched. It does not plan strikes. It does not pick targets. It does not authorize action. Its job is to reduce confusion in the first minutes after an incident. The move raises the profile, but it is meant to contain what…

Light crude oil futures posted one of their most volatile weeks in months, swinging nearly $4 from a low of $58.45 to a high of $62.36 before settling at $59.17 on Thursday evening—up just $0.05 or +0.08% for the week. The dramatic price action was driven primarily by escalating and then rapidly diminishing geopolitical tensions surrounding Iran, compounded by the resumption of Venezuelan oil exports. Iran Takes Center Stage as Primary Market Driver The week's dominant narrative centered on Iran, where massive protests and a violent government…

If anyone is still wondering whether the Trump Administration’s goal of $50 per barrel oil price would hurt American drillers, the answer came this week from oil tycoon and wildcatter Harold Hamm, who is ceasing drilling operations in North Dakota for the first time in decades. “This will be the first time in over 30 years that Harold Hamm has not had an operation with drilling rigs in North Dakota,” Hamm, who founded Continental Resources, told Bloomberg in a telephone interview published on Friday.  “There’s…

If anyone is still wondering whether the Trump Administration’s goal of $50 per barrel oil price would hurt American drillers, the answer came this week from oil tycoon and wildcatter Harold Hamm, who is ceasing drilling operations in North Dakota for the first time in decades. “This will be the first time in over 30 years that Harold Hamm has not had an operation with drilling rigs in North Dakota,” Hamm, who founded Continental Resources, told Bloomberg in a telephone interview published on Friday.  “There’s…

Two years after abruptly ending the EV subsidies due to budget constraints, Germany is returning the incentives for buying electric vehicles with federal funds of $3.5 billion (3 billion euros) by 2029.   With the return of the incentives, Germany plans to prop up its ailing automotive sector, which has suffered a lot in recent years from surging costs, supply chain issues, and Chinese competition in EV sales.  The end of the previous EV subsidy scheme in Germany at the end of 2023 under the previous government resulted in a plunge…

Azerbaijan’s state energy firm SOCAR has started delivering Azeri natural gas to Germany and Austria, in another milestone for Europe that looks to ditch Russian gas by 2027.  SOCAR has started selling significant volumes of gas via the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the European segment of the Southern Gas Corridor, to the markets of Southern and Central Europe.  Starting January 2026, Azerbaijan’s gas is being supplied to buyers in Austria and Germany, too, SOCAR said in a statement on Friday. The gas supply to Austria and…

U.S. President Donald Trump is taking action to protect American consumers from soaring electricity bills with plans to direct the biggest U.S. grid operator, PJM, hold an emergency power auction in which Big Tech would bid for power supply for their new data centers and effectively pay for new power plants.  President Trump and governors of several U.S. states, including the data-center hotpots Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, are expected to announce the plan later on Friday, Bloomberg reports. Under the plan, PJM Interconnection will be…

Chevron has announced the final investment decision regarding production expansion at the giant Leviathan gas field offshore Israel. “Our decision to invest in the expansion of Leviathan’s production capacity reflects our confidence in the future of energy in the region,” said the president of Chevron Upstream, Clay Neff. “Pragmatic U.S. and regional energy policies are helping to strengthen energy security across the Eastern Mediterranean and foster an environment that encourages investment in the Middle East and globally.”…

The U.S. stock market finished strongly in the green in 2025, with the broad market benchmark, S&P 500, returning 16.4%, marking its third straight year of double-digit gains. Interestingly, all 11 market sectors finished in the green, underscoring the broad market momentum. Not surprisingly, the tech sector topped the performance tables once again with a 24.6% gain thanks to the ongoing AI data center buildout and semiconductor upcycle. Industrials delivered an impressive 19.3% return, thanks to infrastructure investment, reshoring activity…

Despite a 20% slump in oil prices in 2025, the world’s biggest international oil firms saw their stocks rise by 4% to 18%, breaking the correlation between crude prices and oil stocks. Last year, investors appreciated the returns that were kept despite the oil price slide. They also cheered the strategic pivot of European majors to focus back on boosting their upstream production, Exxon and Chevron’s record-breaking Permian output, the synergies the U.S. supermajors began reporting from recent multi-billion-dollar acquisitions, and…

This week, BP announced it would take a $4–$5 billion hit to its Q4 earnings from winding down its energy transition business. The announcement followed a similar one from Ford, which said in December it would incur $19.5 billion in losses due to a substantial curtailment of its EV plans. These two are far from the only ones losing money on what was, a few years ago, considered a sure-return investment. And that’s bad news for net-zero plans. BP did not go into detail about the specific nature of the impairments it would book for the…

The United States is rushing to sell off millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil after the Trump administration ousted and detained leader Nicholas Maduro on January 3. Trump has been extremely vocal of his plans to capitalize on Venezuela’s oil reserves – the largest in the world – and build his “very own oil empire” capable of going toe-to-toe with OPEC.  Already, the United States Department of Energy is organizing the sale of about 50 million barrels of oil that the United States seized from Venezuelan tankers…

Russia’s oil-and-gas budget suffered a painful blow in 2025. Revenues from the sector fell 24% to 8.48 trillion roubles, the weakest showing since 2020. That matters because oil and gas still bankroll roughly a quarter of the federal budget, and that budget is being chewed up by defense and security spending at a pace hard to ignore. This is not because Russia pumped less crude. Oil prices fell more than 18% last year. That is the sharpest annual drop since the pandemic crash. On top of that, the rouble strengthened—bad timing. When…

Russia’s oil-and-gas budget suffered a painful blow in 2025. Revenues from the sector fell 24% to 8.48 trillion roubles, the weakest showing since 2020. That matters because oil and gas still bankroll roughly a quarter of the federal budget, and that budget is being chewed up by defense and security spending at a pace hard to ignore. This is not because Russia pumped less crude. Oil prices fell more than 18% last year. That is the sharpest annual drop since the pandemic crash. On top of that, the rouble strengthened—bad timing. When…

The UK economy grew more than expected in November last year, official data has shown, reflecting businesses’ nerves about Rachel Reeves’ Budget measures.  New Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed growth in the UK economy inching up Business analysts warned over several months that pre-Budget speculation had dampened spending and investment levels.  The figures will also pile pressure on Reeves and the rest of the Labour government, with economic growth being the party’s central mission. …