Trump's Industrial Economy policies just took down their latest scalp, so to speak.  One week after Bloomberg reported that the White House was considering a 10% stake in one of the largest North American lithium mining companies, Lithium Americas, on Tuesday afternoon, the US government agreed to acquire a stake in the company, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said Tuesday on Bloomberg TV, giving a boost to the Canadian company as it develops its Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada. The deal is the Trump administration’s latest effort…

Crude oil benchmarks were trading even lower midday Wednesday, at prices lower than they’ve dipped for several months, even as OPEC+ emphasizes that it is committed to a calibrated increase in crude output, rejecting media speculation of a sweeping jump in inventory.  Still, it involves additional supply, and as of the time of writing, that continued to put downward pressure in markets already showing signs of strain.  The expanded cartel’s decision to add barrels amid soft demand has empowered the bears, dragging both Brent…

Crude oil benchmarks were trading even lower midday Wednesday, at prices lower than they’ve dipped for several months, even as OPEC+ emphasizes that it is committed to a calibrated increase in crude output, rejecting media speculation of a sweeping jump in inventory.  Still, it involves additional supply, and as of the time of writing, that continued to put downward pressure in markets already showing signs of strain.  The expanded cartel’s decision to add barrels amid soft demand has empowered the bears, dragging both Brent…

Natural Gas Intel has reported exclusively that pipeline gas flows from the United States into Mexico are being reduced because certain volumes are failing to meet specification requirements. The issue, tied to compositional limits such as nitrogen, sulfur, and moisture, has forced curtailments and left more gas stranded in the Permian basin. For the Waha hub in west Texas, the immediate effect is additional supply without an outlet, and hence, wider discounts to Henry Hub. The Waha hub has long been the most fragile point in the Permian chain,…

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is working to restore offsite power to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, the head of the UN agency said on September 30. IAEA Secretary-General Rafael Grossi said he was working with both sides in the military conflict to resolve the matter as soon as possible. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier that the situation at the power plant had become critical after entering the seventh day of an emergency. The power supply to the plant is being maintained by diesel…

Major U.S. oil companies and their top managers were targeted by sanctions by a Yemeni body affiliated with the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, for what they say is violating a Houthi embargo. The Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC), a Houthi-affiliated body created last year to liaise between the Houthis and commercial shipping operators, sanctioned 13 U.S. oil companies, nine executives, and two assets linked to the U.S. “The HOCC will employ all available means and instruments to confront any hostile measures taken by any State…

Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 1.8 million barrels during the week ending September 26, after shrinking by 600,000 barrels in the week prior, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 416.5 million barrels according to government data, which is still 4% 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 suggested that crude…

OPEC’s second largest producer, Iraq, plans to increase its oil production capacity to 5.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the year, up from about 4.4 million bpd now, Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani told the Rudaw news outlet on Wednesday.  “The plan is to reach sustainable production capacity this year at a rate of 5.5 million barrels per day through expansion in well drilling and rehabilitation operations, building surface facilities and pipelines, and increasing water injection to maintain reservoir pressure,”…

OPEC’s second largest producer, Iraq, plans to increase its oil production capacity to 5.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the year, up from about 4.4 million bpd now, Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani told the Rudaw news outlet on Wednesday.  “The plan is to reach sustainable production capacity this year at a rate of 5.5 million barrels per day through expansion in well drilling and rehabilitation operations, building surface facilities and pipelines, and increasing water injection to maintain reservoir pressure,”…

OPEC’s second largest producer, Iraq, plans to increase its oil production capacity to 5.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the year, up from about 4.4 million bpd now, Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani told the Rudaw news outlet on Wednesday.  “The plan is to reach sustainable production capacity this year at a rate of 5.5 million barrels per day through expansion in well drilling and rehabilitation operations, building surface facilities and pipelines, and increasing water injection to maintain reservoir pressure,”…

The highly anticipated LNG Canada terminal exported its first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on 30 June 2025 from its facility in Kitimat, British Columbia, marking the nation’s entry into the exclusive LNG export club. LNG Canada, a joint venture between Shell (40%, lead partner), Petronas (25%), PetroChina (15%), Mitsubishi (15%), and Korea Gas (5%), achieved the milestone six years after it took the final investment decision (FID). Western Canada has seen extremely low gas prices – primarily driven by an oversupply from operators…

Copper mining giant BHP is investing US$555 million (AUS$840 million) in several projects at its Olympic Dam copper operations in South Australia to boost production and processing capabilities at the site.   With the investment, BHP will fund an underground access tunnel into the Southern Mine Area, providing access to a new section of the resource, viewed as critical for global technology development and the energy transition. BHP’s investment will also fund a new backfill system to deliver paste fill via underground pipes to…

The U.S. government has now officially shut down after Republicans and Democrats failed to come to an agreement on a stopgap bill to fund operations. The impact of this shutdown will not stop at furloughed staff or shuttered museums. In energy, a shutdown lands with real force. It deprives markets of the official data that guide trading, erodes confidence in demand signals, lifts financing costs, and slows permits for the projects that underpin future supply. Oil, gas, and power don’t stop moving, but they move in murkier conditions, and…

Oil prices recovered slightly in early Asian trading on Wednesday after two straight sessions of steep declines, as traders weighed the prospect of a larger OPEC+ output increase against signs of tighter U.S. crude inventories.  At the time of writing, Brent futures for December delivery had climbed to $66.17 while WTI was trading at $62.50, up 0.21% on the day. The modest uptick comes after a sharp selloff earlier this week. On Monday, both Brent and WTI fell more than three percent, marking their steepest daily losses since August 1. The…

Oil prices recovered slightly in early Asian trading on Wednesday after two straight sessions of steep declines, as traders weighed the prospect of a larger OPEC+ output increase against signs of tighter U.S. crude inventories.  At the time of writing, Brent futures for December delivery had climbed to $66.17 while WTI was trading at $62.50, up 0.21% on the day. The modest uptick comes after a sharp selloff earlier this week. On Monday, both Brent and WTI fell more than three percent, marking their steepest daily losses since August 1. The…

Previously, we reported that U.S. oil production has maintained its upward trajectory in the current year even as oil prices have remained depressed. According to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. crude oil production hit an all-time high of 13.58 million barrels per day (mb/d) in June 2025, exceeding the previous record set in October 2024 by 50 thousand barrels per day (kb/d), and the pre-COVID November 2019 high by 582kb/d. Commodity experts at Standard Chartered have predicted that U.S. production will continue to…

Encouraged by the U-turn in the U.S. energy policies under President Trump, investors are back to backing oil and gas majors as the self-righteous ESG hype is waning, especially in corporate America. For all the environmental, social, and governance craze of the past few years in markets, ESG has done value investors one big favor—it has helped sink the valuations of oil and gas companies to bargain levels, alongside the oil price crash of 2020, of course. These super-low valuations of Big Oil and other oil and gas firms have encouraged bargain…

BP (NYSE:BP) is moving forward with plans to develop an offshore drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico worth $5 billion. It is expected to take five years for the Tiber-Guadalupe oil and gas project to come online. In 2030, the floating platform will have the capacity to produce 80,000 barrels of oil per day, en route to BP increasing its US upstream output to more than 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Reuters said the announcement underscores the British energy major’s commitment to the US region to rebuild its oil and gas business,…

Three months ago, shares of rare earths companies ripped higher after MP Materials (NYSE:MP) unveiled a game-changing deal with the U.S. Department of Defense that marks the most aggressive federal intervention in the rare earths space in decades. The DoD-backed investment package will see the Nevada-based producer build out a fully domestic magnet supply chain and lock in long-term pricing support for neodymium-praseodymium, the critical alloy used in everything from fighter jets to iPhones.  MP shares doubled in a matter of days, with the…

Recent months have underscored how Canada’s implementation of its tariff rate quota (TRQ) system is reshaping the market for oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and linepipe. The system, rolled out this summer, is already influencing procurement strategies as companies adapt to tighter import channels and higher costs. Rystad Energy expects mild upward pressure on Canadian OCTG and linepipe prices in the medium term as demand from pipeline projects grows and competition for limited import quotas intensifies. The TRQ system took effect in two…