Insurance costs for ships transporting oil across the Black Sea have surged from approximately $200,000 to $2.5 million per vessel in recent months, increasing crude transportation costs and putting additional pressure on fuel prices in Bulgaria, according to the manager overseeing Lukoil's operations in the country, local media reported.  Evgeni Simeonov, Lukoil's special commercial manager in Bulgaria, told Bulgarian National Television on Monday that the increase reflects mounting risks to commercial shipping following repeated attacks…

Insurance costs for ships transporting oil across the Black Sea have surged from approximately $200,000 to $2.5 million per vessel in recent months, increasing crude transportation costs and putting additional pressure on fuel prices in Bulgaria, according to the manager overseeing Lukoil's operations in the country, local media reported.  Evgeni Simeonov, Lukoil's special commercial manager in Bulgaria, told Bulgarian National Television on Monday that the increase reflects mounting risks to commercial shipping following repeated attacks…

Insurance costs for ships transporting oil across the Black Sea have surged from approximately $200,000 to $2.5 million per vessel in recent months, increasing crude transportation costs and putting additional pressure on fuel prices in Bulgaria, according to the manager overseeing Lukoil's operations in the country, local media reported.  Evgeni Simeonov, Lukoil's special commercial manager in Bulgaria, told Bulgarian National Television on Monday that the increase reflects mounting risks to commercial shipping following repeated attacks…

Insurance costs for ships transporting oil across the Black Sea have surged from approximately $200,000 to $2.5 million per vessel in recent months, increasing crude transportation costs and putting additional pressure on fuel prices in Bulgaria, according to the manager overseeing Lukoil's operations in the country, local media reported.  Evgeni Simeonov, Lukoil's special commercial manager in Bulgaria, told Bulgarian National Television on Monday that the increase reflects mounting risks to commercial shipping following repeated attacks…

Europe's main natural gas price benchmark is headed for multi-year highs despite the "energy ceasefire" reported between Russia and Ukraine over the weekend and improving Strait of Hormuz energy flows. Europe is heading into the Northern Hemisphere winter without Qatari LNG exports and with storage levels well below 15-year lows. Dutch TTF futures trade around 83 euros per megawatt-hour, the highest level since early 2023. The September pullback to around 70 euros per megawatt-hour was short-lived. "Even without Qatari LNG exports, Europe…

Oil prices climbed to their highest levels in nearly two weeks on Monday morning as fresh attacks on Saudi Arabia and oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz put Middle East supply risks back at the center of the market, outweighing President Donald Trump's announcements of additional Russian diesel supplies and a Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire. West Texas Intermediate was trading at $93.78 per barrel, up $1.93, or 2.10%, on Monday morning, while Brent crude rose $2.09, or 2.00%, to $106.80 per barrel, according to Oilprice.com data. The renewed…

Oil prices climbed to their highest levels in nearly two weeks on Monday morning as fresh attacks on Saudi Arabia and oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz put Middle East supply risks back at the center of the market, outweighing President Donald Trump's announcements of additional Russian diesel supplies and a Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire. West Texas Intermediate was trading at $93.78 per barrel, up $1.93, or 2.10%, on Monday morning, while Brent crude rose $2.09, or 2.00%, to $106.80 per barrel, according to Oilprice.com data. The renewed…

Oil prices climbed to their highest levels in nearly two weeks on Monday morning as fresh attacks on Saudi Arabia and oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz put Middle East supply risks back at the center of the market, outweighing President Donald Trump's announcements of additional Russian diesel supplies and a Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire. West Texas Intermediate was trading at $93.78 per barrel, up $1.93, or 2.10%, on Monday morning, while Brent crude rose $2.09, or 2.00%, to $106.80 per barrel, according to Oilprice.com data. The renewed…

Blackouts have started to hit households and smaller Indian factories and steel mills as coal inventories at many power plants plunge while electricity demand soars amid warmer weather and much lower hydropower output. Demand has been exceeding supply in recent weeks, leading to power cuts for households in some areas, as well as smaller factories and smelters, Bloomberg reported on Monday.  The record El Niño has led to the weakest monsoon season in India in a decade and raised temperatures to above normal for this time of year. This…

Blackouts have started to hit households and smaller Indian factories and steel mills as coal inventories at many power plants plunge while electricity demand soars amid warmer weather and much lower hydropower output. Demand has been exceeding supply in recent weeks, leading to power cuts for households in some areas, as well as smaller factories and smelters, Bloomberg reported on Monday.  The record El Niño has led to the weakest monsoon season in India in a decade and raised temperatures to above normal for this time of year. This…

The energy sector came roaring back in the third quarter of 2026. After finishing at the bottom of the sector rankings in Q2, Energy gained 16.5% in Q3, easily outpacing every other sector and the S&P 500’s 2.0% return. That was a remarkable turnaround, but the headline sector number doesn’t fully capture what happened beneath the surface, because returns varied dramatically across different parts of the energy business. The biggest winners weren’t the companies producing oil and gas. They were the companies turning crude…

Despite attacks on Saudi Arabia’s energy and transport infrastructure in recent weeks, the Kingdom’s energy resilience remains strong, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at the WPC Energy Congress in Riyadh on Monday. “Energy resilience is beyond barrels of spare capacity, of pipelines and gigawatts of generation,” Prince Abdulaziz said, as carried by Bloomberg. “It must also be measured by the ability to maintain, repair, reroute, substitute and recover. Above all, it must be measured by the ability…

As has been proven time and time again in multiple scenarios: ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way around any sanctions’ and, despite looming deadlines to end all Russian oil and gas imports -- with promises to keep reducing them before that -- the European Union (EU) appears to be continuing to play a sanctions-skirting game with Moscow. Under the strict terms of Regulation (EU) 2026/261, a hard legal cliff drops on 1 January 2027, completely banning all long-term Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, followed by…

Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick plans to force a House vote on legislation blocking Russian oil purchases, challenging President Donald Trump's decision to ease restrictions on Russian diesel exports as lawmakers warn the move could help finance Moscow's war against Ukraine. Fitzpatrick (Republican-Pennsylvania), co-chair of the House Ukraine Caucus, announced on October 10 that he would introduce the Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act. “We will be introducing bipartisan legislation to block any and all purchases of Russian…

Oil prices climbed to their highest levels in nearly two weeks on Monday morning as fresh attacks on Saudi Arabia and oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz put Middle East supply risks back at the center of the market, outweighing President Donald Trump's announcements of additional Russian diesel supplies and a Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire. West Texas Intermediate was trading at $93.78 per barrel, up $1.93, or 2.10%, on Monday morning, while Brent crude rose $2.09, or 2.00%, to $106.80 per barrel, according to Oilprice.com data. The renewed…

Two more tankers were attacked near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, one in Hormuz and the other off the coast of Oman, Argus has reported, citing ship-tracking data and the Indian shipping minister. One of the targets was a Suezmax loaded with Iraqi crude, which had set sail on October 8, the Indian top shipping official said. It was hit by an unknown projectile that caused fire on board and, at the time of writing, two sailors were still missing.  The other tanker was a product carrier that was hit by a drone. That attack was reported earlier…

President Trump's announcement of an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine appears to be considerably narrower than initially suggested, with a White House official telling Axios that the proposal only covers attacks on oil refineries and with no official confirmation from Moscow as of yet. Trump announced the apparent breakthrough on social media on Sunday, describing it broadly as an energy ceasefire and claiming the agreement was to go into effect immediately.  Effective Immediately: An ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and…

President Trump's announcement of an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine appears to be considerably narrower than initially suggested, with a White House official telling Axios that the proposal only covers attacks on oil refineries and with no official confirmation from Moscow as of yet. Trump announced the apparent breakthrough on social media on Sunday, describing it broadly as an energy ceasefire and claiming the agreement was to go into effect immediately.  Effective Immediately: An ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and…

Nuclear energy stocks have suffered heavy losses over the past year, even as technology companies commit billions of dollars to securing nuclear electricity for AI data centers. The Global X Uranium ETF (URA) has lost more than 20% over the past 12 months, compared with gains exceeding 40% for the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE). Investors have grown increasingly concerned about valuations, financing requirements and the long development timelines for companies that don’t yet generate any meaningful commercial revenues. The market has…

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve held just 283 million barrels of oil at the end of September, according to Reuters, the lowest level since October 1982, back when the reserve was still being filled for the first time. It's a scary-looking number, and most of the coverage has treated it that way. But the barrel count is the easy part of this story. Oil came out of those Gulf Coast salt caverns fast, because that's exactly what the system was built to do. Getting it back in is slower, more expensive and more dependent on things nobody controls.…