Forecasts of milder weather in the weeks ahead and the proposed U.S. peace plan for Ukraine pushed down on Friday European benchmark natural gas prices to their lowest level since May 2024.  Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, traded down by 2.5% at $35 (30.38 euros) per megawatt-hour (MWh) at 11 a.m. in Amsterdam. This was the lowest the benchmark price has been since May 2024, as the latest weather models predict milder temperatures in the weeks ahead after the current cold snap in northwest Europe. …

News of Zelenskyy considering the peace proposal comes on the same day that new U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil officially take effect, targeting key subsidiaries in an effort to restrict Kremlin revenue from fossil-fuel sales. November 21st, 2025. Donald Trump’s 28-point peace proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war has become the main talking point of oil markets this week, with potentially higher Russian supply capping ICE Brent futures below $63 per barrel. Refined products markets, in the meantime, are exploding as middle distillate…

For a quarter century, China has been the dominant driver of rising global carbon emissions. Its rapid industrialization, swelling electricity demand, and unprecedented construction boom have shaped the world’s carbon trajectory more than any other country. But the latest data show something atypical on China’s relentless climb higher: a pause. New analysis from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) shows that China’s CO? emissions were essentially flat in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the year before.…

Equinor has started delivering natural gas to Prague’s gas and electricity company Pražská plynárenská under a 10-year long-term agreement for supplies into the Czech Republic, the Norwegian energy major said on Friday.  The gas deliveries, which started in October, will last until 2035. Information on volumes, terms and conditions are confidential, Equinor said.   Pražská plynárenská will use the gas to supply households and businesses in the capital city of Prague and other parts…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict This week is the clearest escalation yet in U.S.-Venezuela relations. Trump has allegedly signed a covert-action finding authorizing CIA operations inside Venezuela, moving the U.S. posture from pressure to active shaping. At the same time, there is a carrier group already positioned in the Caribbean, and we’ve seen a revival of back-channel chatter during which Maduro has tested the idea of a 2-3 year transition and which DC has already rejected. Both the covert and military options are now in play for…

Libya’s fuel-smuggling economy has moved well beyond leakage and petty diversion. It is now a structured parallel system tied into the state’s own operating channels, with both eastern and western power centers benefiting. As we have repeatedly said, this is the fake stability that keeps the country from erupting into civil war again.  The revenue loss (north of $20B from 2022-2024) tracks with the period when refinery runs, allocation schedules, and tanker dispatches were repeatedly adjusted in ways that created excess product…

Crude oil spent last week trading with a bearish tilt as the market digested a rapid sequence of supply and geopolitical developments. The tone heading into Friday was defined by weakness, with WTI settling at $58.66 on Thursday, down $1.38 or 2.30%, after traders reassessed the impact of a potential Russia-Ukraine diplomatic framework and the likelihood of looser sanctions. Earlier support driven by Russian export disruptions faded quickly once flows resumed, leaving the market more responsive to surplus signals than temporary outages. While refined-product…

The COP30 climate summit is ditching an earlier draft of a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, according to the latest draft of negotiating texts at the global gathering in Belem, Brazil.  Many countries at COP30 have mobilized and supported a so-called “roadmap” to transition away from fossil fuels. But the latest draft document of the summit has removed reference to transitioning away from fossil fuels entirely, Reuters reports.  While more than 80 countries joined the call for a roadmap to move away from fossil…

UK households will pay slightly higher energy bills in the first quarter of 2026 after energy market regulator Ofgem on Friday raised the Energy Price Cap by 0.2%, against expectations of a 1% drop.   The UK has a so-called Energy Price Cap in place, which protects households from excessively high bills by capping the price that energy utility providers can pass on to them. Energy bills in Britain have declined from the record highs in 2022 and 2023, but they are still about 35% higher compared to before the Russian invasion of Ukraine…

UK households will pay slightly higher energy bills in the first quarter of 2026 after energy market regulator Ofgem on Friday raised the Energy Price Cap by 0.2%, against expectations of a 1% drop.   The UK has a so-called Energy Price Cap in place, which protects households from excessively high bills by capping the price that energy utility providers can pass on to them. Energy bills in Britain have declined from the record highs in 2022 and 2023, but they are still about 35% higher compared to before the Russian invasion of Ukraine…

Saudi Arabia made investment commitments of as much as $1 trillion during the visit of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the United States. The sum is a substantial increase on an original pledge of $600 billion, but it is also a sign that the relationship between two of the world’s largest oil producers is back on track. The relationship, dating back to the early 20th century, was rather damaged during the Biden administration, in part due to its focus on the energy transition, which put it at odds with Saudi Arabia as an economy heavily…

Previously, we reported that erstwhile high-flying nuclear energy stocks have crashed spectacularly, with the harsh reality of the long lead and construction times of nuclear facilities, coupled with the fact that some stocks in the space with zero revenues are in nosebleed territory, sending the sector into a tailspin. However, the nuclear sector is in good company: the entire U.S. stock market has lately been pulling back, with tech stocks selling off and the AI-driven boom running out of steam.  That said, one corner of the energy universe…

Since China restricted exports of rare earth elements early this year, Western countries have raced to create mine-to-magnet supply chains to reduce dependence on Chinese supply in the key military and automotive industries. The Trump Administration is ensuring funding through buying minority stakes in North American rare earth and lithium companies and projects, while companies in the U.S. and Europe are setting up alliances with miners and refiners to have magnet supply chains outside and independent of China. The West has realized it’s…

Russia’s largest oil producer just flashed a signal Moscow didn’t want to see: Rosneft is recommending its smallest interim dividend since the pandemic year of 2020. For a company that has spent the past two decades styling itself as a reliable cash machine for the Kremlin, a 11.56-ruble per share payout is not just stingy, it’s a symptom. The timing is exquisite. The proposed dividend lands one day before the Trump administration’s sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil formally hammer into place. Investors saw this coming.…

Russia’s largest oil producer just flashed a signal Moscow didn’t want to see: Rosneft is recommending its smallest interim dividend since the pandemic year of 2020. For a company that has spent the past two decades styling itself as a reliable cash machine for the Kremlin, a 11.56-ruble per share payout is not just stingy, it’s a symptom. The timing is exquisite. The proposed dividend lands one day before the Trump administration’s sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil formally hammer into place. Investors saw this coming.…

Many of the 80-plus countries at the COP30 climate conference in Brazil are pushing for a detailed road map that would phase out fossil fuels. Brazil has the presidency of the 30th conference of the parties under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the treaty signed in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro that binds the world to “avoid dangerous climate change”, without specifying how to do so. COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago is reportedly pushing for a decision on four issues that weren’t on the original agenda,…

Exxon Mobil has finally lifted force majeure on the long-stalled Rovuma LNG project in northern Mozambique, clearing the first real procedural hurdle the $30-billion development has seen in years. The company halted activity back in 2021 after escalating violence in Cabo Delgado forced both Exxon and TotalEnergies to abandon their sites. Total’s adjacent Mozambique LNG project declared force majeure first; Exxon followed soon after. The two projects share infrastructure, which meant neither could realistically move without the other. An Exxon…

The global floating solar panels market is projected to grow significantly over the next seven years, driven by increasing land scarcity, government mandates for renewable energy, and the technology's inherent efficiency benefits, according to a report from market research firm DataM Intelligence. The market, valued at $55.11 million in 2024, is forecast to increase to $84.90 million by 2032, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.55% from 2025 to 2032. This growth signals a shift in the solar industry, where floating photovoltaic…

The outcome of the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Washington, including his meeting with Trump and his entire entourage, has been successful, at least by media reporting. The impact of all is still to be seen, but from the start, MBS’s visit not just rebooted a strained political relationship. The primary outcome, based on all, is that it has reset the economic core of the US–Saudi partnership around Aramco. While the largest oil company in the world had already found its place in global power projections, Aramco…

India’s Reliance Industries has officially stopped importing Russian crude into its giant Jamnagar refining complex as of November 20—a sharp and early pivot that signals just how seriously Indian refiners are taking Washington’s latest sanctions squeeze on Rosneft and Lukoil. Reliance had the most to lose. For two years, it was India’s single largest buyer of Russian oil, backed by a long-term deal for nearly 500,000 bpd with Rosneft. Now, that relationship is effectively mothballed, at least for Jamnagar, as the company…