Nevada is now hosting the largest solar plus battery energy storage system project in the United States after Primergy Solar and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners announced that the Gemini Solar + Storage project in Clark County is now fully operational. Gemini is one of the latest such sites in the U.S. amid a rapid expansion of solar plus storage projects in the country. Gemini, located just 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas, generates enough reliable clean energy to power around 10% of Nevada's peak power demand, Primergy Solar…

While there is plenty to be bullish about in oil markets today, rising concerns over Chinese demand are weighing on oil prices.Friday, July 19th, 2024The consistent stream of positive news for oil from the United States, crowned by a largely unexpected 5-million-barrel drop in US crude stocks, has been offset by disappointment in China’s future outlook. The Third Plenum of China’s Central Committee barely saw any tangible pledges, with the lack of constructive takeaways reverberating across commodities. With Friday trading disrupted…

1. Russia Seaborne Oil Exports Plunge on OPEC+ Compliance and Higher Runs - Russia’s crude oil exports have plunged to a 7-month low, averaging only 3.1 million b/d over the past four weeks, coming on the back of the country’s growing OPEC+ compliance and a recovery in domestic refining. - Russia’s crude production came in at 9.078 million b/d in June as per the country’s Energy Ministry, which is still about 100,000 b/d higher than its assumed OPEC+ target but well below output levels seen in Q1.   - The…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict An oil tanker struck by Houthis in the Red Sea earlier this week has exploded, leaving a 200-kilometer-long oil slick. The Liberian-flagged tanker, the Chios Lion, was carrying a cargo of crude when it was struck by a drone boat that rammed into its side. With Venezuela’s presidential elections just over a week away, Maduro has arrested the head of security for opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who is really the driving force behind the opposition presidential candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez.  Discovery…

An Israeli drone strike this week along the Beirut-Damascus road on Syria’s border with Lebanon killed a key Syrian businessman who also serves as the regime’s oil supply kingpin. The businessman, prominent Baraa Katerji, a key ally of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, represents one of the highest-profile strikes against a pro-Iranian figure in recent months and also coincides with an escalation of cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Katerji was a highly significant figure for the Syrian regime. He’s…

Unless you live under a rock, you are probably aware that there was an attempt on Donald Trump’s life this week. So far, the knee-jerk reaction of many of his supporters, that the shooter was some kind of hate-filled left winger, seems to be off, as the young man involved was a registered Republican, known by many to be a conservative. It looks more like just another case of a young man who was fighting some personal demons shooting at a high-profile target, but that doesn’t mean that Trump won’t see some benefit from the attack…

Crude oil prices demonstrated resilience this week, recovering from early losses to finish higher on Thursday. Despite conflicting economic signals globally, several key factors fueled a bullish sentiment in the oil market. These positive influences ultimately outweighed initial concerns, propelling prices upward as the week progressed. U.S. Inventory Decline: A Major Bullish Catalyst The most significant factor driving oil prices higher this week has been the substantial decrease in U.S. crude oil inventories. The Energy Information Administration…

Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) reported on Friday a higher net income for the second quarter compared to the first quarter and to the same period of 2023, as continued strength in international drilling demand offset weaker activity in North America. Halliburton, one of the world’s top three oilfield services providers and leader in the U.S. fracking services market, booked a net income of $709 million, or $0.80 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2024. The profit was in line with analyst expectations.    The…

Natural gas production in Egypt, which has seen a massive new gas field come on stream in the Mediterranean in recent years, has plunged to the lowest level in about six years, as the North African country is now importing LNG to meet growing demand. Egypt’s natural gas production fell in May to the levels last seen in February 2018, according to data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) cited by Bloomberg. Egypt has been exporting LNG to Europe, but it usually halts these exports during the summer months, to meet soaring…

Economic growth, higher demand for cooling amid heat waves, the rapid rise of data centers, and continued electrification are set to push the growth in global electricity demand to one of the highest paces in the past 20 years in 2024 and 2025, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. Electricity demand is set for growth of about 4% globally this year, higher than the 2.5% growth last year, the IEA’s Electricity Mid-Year Update report showed. The expected growth this year would be the highest since 2007, excluding…

Energy trading in London and Singapore was affected on Friday morning by a massive worldwide outage, which also affected banks, airlines, airports, and media organizations. The news services platform of the London Stock Exchange, airlines, banks, and media organizations went down in the early hours of Friday, reportedly due to a failure in Microsoft 365 and Azure services. Microsoft said on Friday that its cloud services have been restored after suffering an outage. “A small subset of services is still experiencing residual impact,”…

Energy trading in London and Singapore was affected on Friday morning by a massive worldwide outage, which also affected banks, airlines, airports, and media organizations. The news services platform of the London Stock Exchange, airlines, banks, and media organizations went down in the early hours of Friday, reportedly due to a failure in Microsoft 365 and Azure services. Microsoft said on Friday that its cloud services have been restored after suffering an outage. “A small subset of services is still experiencing residual impact,”…

Two large oil tankers, including one known to have carried oil from Iran and Venezuela, were on fire near Singapore early on Friday, according to Singaporean authorities which said that all crew on both vessels are accounted for. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said it was alerted in the early morning local time on Friday to a fire onboard both a Singapore-flagged tanker, Hafnia Nile, and a São Tomé and Príncipe-flagged tanker, Ceres I, about 55 km (34 miles) northeast of Pedra Branca within Singapore’s…

Oil prices fell in Friday trade in Asia and were poised for a second straight weekly decline as concerns about demand more than offset falling U.S. crude inventories and rising odds of a September interest rate cut from the Fed. Early on Friday, the U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, was down by 0.6% and traded at around $82.30, while Brent Crude, the international benchmark, fell by 0.56% to $84.63. Both benchmarks were on track to post a weekly decline of about 0.3%.   Prices rose on Wednesday and early on Thursday, pushed up by a larger-than-expected…

A total of 78% of Americans are concerned about their rising energy bills, an exclusive CNET Money survey has shown. Around 80% of U.S. adults in all regions, including the Northwest, Midwest, South, and West, said that their finances have been impacted by growing home energy costs, according to the survey. Moreover, 32% of Americans are leaning on borrowing, payment plans, or assistance programs to afford their energy bills. Another 39% are cutting on non-essential purchases, and 24% are cutting on essentials to cope with the rise in…

In a recent OilPrice article, I argued that new demand from AI Data centers would be bullish for the natural gas market. In this article, I will extend that discussion and explain why I believe there is a dramatic reset coming for gas-focused E&P stocks. Exactly when isn’t part of the discussion here, but I will lay out a compelling investment thesis for stocks exposed to this commodity. It’s tough to be a gas bull, but it's natural gas, I mean. Over most of the past decade, that point of view has pretty well guaranteed you a broken…

It’s been seven decades ever since scientists started working on nuclear fusion technology, with the allure of almost limitless clean energy proving too powerful to resist. Unfortunately, milestones have fallen time and again, giving rise to the running joke that a practical nuclear fusion power plant could be decades, if not centuries, away.  For nearly two decades, the world’s hopes of building a practical nuclear fusion plant have rested on France-based International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), funded and…

Last week, a delegation led by Senator Sodiq Safoyev, First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan (and former ambassador of Uzbekistan to the United States), visited Washington, D.C. to continue the republic’s campaign for repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment and establishment of normal trade relations with the United States. Jackson-Vanik, which many consider a relic of the Cold War, still applies to the Central Asia republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.…

Fossil fuels will remain part of the energy mix for decades to come – if we don’t extract our own resources from the North Sea, our loss will be other polluters’ gain, says Andy Mayer The new government’s plans to capitulate to the likes of Just Stop Oil by banning new drilling licences in the North Sea will do nothing to prevent climate change. Global warming is driven mainly by the consumption of fossil fuels for energy not their extraction. The UK currently consumes 75-80 percent of our primary energy in the form of fossil…

Trinidad and Tobago's High Court has reaffirmed its decision to recognize U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips' arbitration claim against Venezuela. This ruling, which could potentially freeze Trinidad's payments to Venezuela for joint natural gas projects, marks a significant development in the ongoing dispute over expropriations of oil Conoco's oil assets by the Venezuelan government. In May, the court's original decision allowed ConocoPhillips to enforce a $1.33 billion claim against Venezuela by targeting compensation from joint energy ventures. Despite…