Washington is making it clear to New Delhi: any path forward on a U.S.–India trade deal runs through Russia’s oil fields. In recent talks, U.S. trade negotiators told Indian counterparts that curbing purchases of Russian crude is critical to lowering America’s punitive tariffs and unlocking a deal, sources told Reuters on Friday. India is pushing back. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal called the negotiations “constructive,” but New Delhi is making room for strategic wiggle; officials have floated substituting Russian…

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday. The total rig count in the US rose to 549, according to Baker Hughes, down 38 from this same time last year. US drillers added 6 oil rigs in the week, according to the data, reaching 424. Year over year, this represents a 60-rig decline. The number of gas rigs fell by 1 to 117 active rigs, which is 18 over this tame time last year. The miscellaneous rig count rose by 2 to 8. The latest EIA data…

Several terminal operators in China’s Shandong province plan to ban entry to old vessels and such with fake or suspicious certificates in a move that appeared to be aimed at the shadow fleet, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting a notice from the operators it has reviewed. The terminal operators Qingdao Haiye Oil Terminal Co, Qingdao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal Co, Qingdao Gangxin Oil Products Co, and Qingdao Lixing Logistics Co, last week issued an official notice for the Huangdao Port. The communication, seen by Reuters, will ban – effective…

Several terminal operators in China’s Shandong province plan to ban entry to old vessels and such with fake or suspicious certificates in a move that appeared to be aimed at the shadow fleet, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting a notice from the operators it has reviewed. The terminal operators Qingdao Haiye Oil Terminal Co, Qingdao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal Co, Qingdao Gangxin Oil Products Co, and Qingdao Lixing Logistics Co, last week issued an official notice for the Huangdao Port. The communication, seen by Reuters, will ban – effective…

Amid all the threats and counterthreats related to warnings NATO is prepared to shoot down Russian aircraft this week, Germany has in a major policy U-turn, called for the European Union to use frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine's defense. Berlin's stance the whole time Europe has tried to gain consensus on this issue was marked by prior reluctance, but German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in a newly published op-ed for the Financial Times said the bloc needs to urgently establish a legal framework through which to unlock the assets, calling…

Canadian producers are temporarily shutting in natural gas wellheads amid a record-low negative pricing at the key Alberta gas hub.  The price of natural gas at the AECO Hub, the Canadian benchmark price for natural gas on the Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL) system, has been weak all summer and plunged below zero earlier this week.  On Thursday, the daily spot price at the AECO averaged minus 5 cents per million British thermal units (MMBtu), per pricing data of LSEG cited by Reuters. Earlier in the week, the price had slumped to as…

Canadian producers are temporarily shutting in natural gas wellheads amid a record-low negative pricing at the key Alberta gas hub.  The price of natural gas at the AECO Hub, the Canadian benchmark price for natural gas on the Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL) system, has been weak all summer and plunged below zero earlier this week.  On Thursday, the daily spot price at the AECO averaged minus 5 cents per million British thermal units (MMBtu), per pricing data of LSEG cited by Reuters. Earlier in the week, the price had slumped to as…

Canadian producers are temporarily shutting in natural gas wellheads amid a record-low negative pricing at the key Alberta gas hub.  The price of natural gas at the AECO Hub, the Canadian benchmark price for natural gas on the Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL) system, has been weak all summer and plunged below zero earlier this week.  On Thursday, the daily spot price at the AECO averaged minus 5 cents per million British thermal units (MMBtu), per pricing data of LSEG cited by Reuters. Earlier in the week, the price had slumped to as…

Oil saw a strong rally this week as attacks on Russian oil infrastructure and rising geopolitical risk continue to fuel the rally. 26 September, 2025Moscow’s restrictions on fuel exports, including a full export ban on gasoline and a partial one on diesel, have lifted ICE Brent futures above $70 per barrel this week, further buoyed by market participants distrusting OPEC+’s unwinding of its 2.2 million b/d voluntary cuts, seeing only a fraction of promised barrels in the market. Iraq will be the key price indicator of the upcoming weeks,…

French LNG terminals operator Elengy has issued force majeure notices to customers that its three import facilities in France will not be receiving cargoes until October 2 due to a prolonged strike, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Friday.  France is gripped by a nationwide strike over pay and salary negotiations in the energy sector, which has resulted in lower electricity output at French nuclear power plants and other energy facilities in recent days.  The strike has been affecting LNG terminals, too.  Elengy operates the…

Numbers Report – September 26, 2025 In the latest edition of the Numbers Report, we will take a look at some of the most interesting figures put out this week in the energy and metals sectors. Each week we’ll dig into some data and provide a bit of explanation on what drives the numbers.  Let’s take a look.  OPEC+ Unwinds Cuts, But Real Output Trails Promises OPEC+ countries have agreed to unwind the first tranche of 2.2 million b/d voluntary cuts and have already started to bring back supply from the second tranche…

The arbitrage window for American crude shipments to Asia could soon close amid surging tanker rates and cheaper Middle Eastern oil which is also closer to the world’s top demand region than the U.S. Gulf Coast.   The rates for chartering a supertanker, the so-called very large crude carrier (VLCC) capable of transporting up to 2 million barrels of oil, from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Asia has jumped to $70,000 per day in recent weeks, according to data from the Baltic Exchange cited by Bloomberg. The rates for supertankers on the Middle…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Russian influence operations are saturating Moldova’s election cycle, targeting the pro-EU government with disinformation on energy insecurity, corruption, and minority rights. Moscow’s play is not necessarily to deliver a clean win for its preferred proxies, but to fracture Moldova’s EU consensus and force a hung or contested outcome. Monitoring teams are already tracking coordinated online pushes tied to Russian assets, while local opposition networks amplify the same themes on the ground.…

The two-state solution is dead in practice, even if diplomats keep it alive in their talking points. The map no longer allows for a contiguous Palestinian state. Settlements, security roads, and military zones have carved the West Bank into islands. The E1 package (a strategic settlement plan on the eastern flank of Jerusalem) is the clearest indicator of intent. By linking Maale Adumim to East Jerusalem, it severs the West Bank north-south and detaches East Jerusalem from any future Palestinian capital. European capitals long treated E1 as a red…

WTI crude was up $2.89, or 4.63%, through Thursday’s close, trading at $65.29 — the highest level since early September. The move was driven by a repricing of near-term supply risk, after traders began unwinding positions built on expectations for the resumption of Kurdish oil exports. Roughly 230,000 barrels per day (bpd) were expected to restart through Turkey, but the deal fell apart when producers demanded payment guarantees before allowing flows to resume. With those barrels still offline, the market quickly reversed course. Shorts…

Exports from the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan will resume on Saturday, September 27, following agreements reached between Iraq’s federal government, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and a group of international oil companies, Norway-based oil producer DNO ASA said on Friday.  However, DNO, one of the major foreign producers in Kurdistan, will not ship its crude directly to the Iraq-Turkey pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.  Instead, DNO will deliver the Kurdistan Regional Government’s share of sales…

The OPEC+ group is not hiking oil production as much as the headline figures in the agreement suggest, as some members are close to capacity while others are compensating for previous overproduction. This could come as a relief to the market, which expects a major oversupply later this year and early next year. The OPEC+ members have so far delivered three-quarters of the increases that began in April 2025. The rise could drop to half of the volumes promised later this year, Reuters reported on Friday, citing data, traders, and analysts. Between…

Crude oil prices today were set for their sharpest weekly rise since early June, when Israel launched a missile strike on Iran. This time, the jump was triggered by the news that Russia would introduce curbs on diesel exports, suggesting supply tightness. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $69.59 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate was changing hands for $65.21 per barrel. Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said an already operating ban on gasoline exports would be extended until the end of the year, and a ban on…

The era of falling breakeven costs in the U.S. shale patch may soon come to an end, and a new era of higher costs and depleted core inventory could reduce America’s sway in meeting the global demand growth. That’s the latest take from analytics firm Enverus Intelligence Research, which said in a new report this week that the marginal cost of U.S. oil supply is projected to rise from $70 per barrel WTI price at present, to as much as $95 per barrel by the mid-2030s. The expected $15 per barrel surge in costs would be driven by a shift…

Giant oil and gas trader Mercuria reportedly has begun physical trading in uranium, becoming the first major commodity company to do so, according to Reuters. If officially confirmed, which it has not been, it will mean that Mercuria joins the ranks of Wall Street banker Citibank, Natixis (part of French financial group BPCE) and other deep-pocketed traders who are betting on a nuclear energy boom driven by surging global electricity demand. The World Nuclear Association has predicted that demand for nuclear fuel will double by 2040 as technology…