China moved this week to take tighter control of its rare earths producers amid an escalating tit-for-tat battle with Washington over everything from tariffs and semiconductor warfare to pressure over Iran and Hormuz. At the same time, an ominous Pentagon deadline looms large, with the entire American defense system to be banned from using any Chinese-origin rare earths materials beginning in January 2027. With fewer than eight months on the clock, Washington is sounding the alarms at full blast, and the Department of War is leading the clarion…

Over the past couple of months, physical oil cargo premiums have surged as markets reacted to the threat of physical supply disruption, forcing buyers to pay significantly higher prices for guaranteed, prompt delivery of crude oil. As the conflict escalated and Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, buyers scrambled to secure immediate, non-Middle Eastern "prompt barrels", driving up the spot price premiums for available cargoes. North Sea Forties crude spiked to nearly $150 a barrel by mid-April, exceeding the 2008 peak. Many commodity experts predicted…

The Middle Eastern crisis has prompted a reprioritization among international oil companies. Previously unattractive drilling destinations are suddenly looking quite attractive—even Alaska. The oldest oil and gas producing part of the United States has for years been out of the spotlight as the industry moves to cheaper and faster-growing locations. The only news of any substance about Alaska recently was the Biden administration’s approval of the Willow project, led by ConocoPhillips, which was set to boost the state’s oil output…

Researchers are increasingly employing artificial intelligence to help them solve some of the biggest challenges facing the energy sector – including, ironically enough, the massive spike in energy demand caused by large language models themselves. The current and projected rise in energy demand from AI data centers is driving a wave of investment into next-gen energy alternatives that can create huge amounts of baseload power without emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases. One of these potential ‘silver bullet’ technologies…

Two and a half months after the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began, the Islamic Republic is moving closer to selectively controlling tanker flows through the Strait of Hormuz in a sign that access to the critical chokepoint may never be as unconditionally free as it was before February 28. The suggestion that Iran has a large degree of operational control over vessels attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz is being reinforced by reports that two of Iran’s neighbors most severely affected by the de facto closure of the oil and LNG…

For two decades, OPEC ministers, Wall Street analysts, and oil traders have been speaking about the global crude market as if traditional rules still apply. OPEC’s kingpin, Saudi Arabia, is still seen as the swing producer, while OPEC+ is viewed as the balancing mechanism. US shale remains the marginal barrel, while global oil prices are supposedly driven by visible fundamentals such as inventories, demand growth, geopolitical disruptions, and refinery margins. At present, however, that world does not exist anymore. Behind the fog of geopolitical…

War in the Middle East has reshaped near-term energy market expectations, with direct implications for hydrocarbon supply affecting power sectors across liquified natural gas (LNG) imports, oil imports, and spot gas-dependent economies, mainly in Europe and Asia. While Middle Eastern countries retain access to abundant domestic fossil fuels, the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the crisis extends disruption beyond hydrocarbons. The combination of conflict proximity, supply chain vulnerability, capital diversion, and institutional resilience…

Electric company annual reports describe technological risk in the vaguest of terms, asserting that firms face numerous, generalized risks— boiler plate to provide legal cover just in case something happens, such as an ET invasion. What specific risks do the companies face? You’ll never know from reading their reports. Anyway, it often takes years for something to happen in the utility industry, so why bother worrying now? Brokerage reports, generally optimistic, focus on a utility’s rate base growth (mostly their assets), AI…

Saudi Arabia's oil giant Aramco expects to raise at least $10 billion from a potential sale and leaseback deal for its real estate assets, including its Dhahran Camp residential community in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing sources with knowledge of the plans. Through a potential deal with real estate and infrastructure funds, Aramco, the world's top crude exporter and biggest international oil company, continues to look to capitalize on its assets and raise billions of U.S. dollars despite the ongoing…

Saudi Arabia's oil giant Aramco expects to raise at least $10 billion from a potential sale and leaseback deal for its real estate assets, including its Dhahran Camp residential community in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing sources with knowledge of the plans. Through a potential deal with real estate and infrastructure funds, Aramco, the world's top crude exporter and biggest international oil company, continues to look to capitalize on its assets and raise billions of U.S. dollars despite the ongoing…

Saudi Arabia's oil giant Aramco expects to raise at least $10 billion from a potential sale and leaseback deal for its real estate assets, including its Dhahran Camp residential community in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing sources with knowledge of the plans. Through a potential deal with real estate and infrastructure funds, Aramco, the world's top crude exporter and biggest international oil company, continues to look to capitalize on its assets and raise billions of U.S. dollars despite the ongoing…

The war with Iran is not going well. It is difficult to supply US troops with adequate food and other necessities. With summer arriving soon, the region will soon be an even more inhospitable place for ground troops to fight. An underlying problem is that the world economy was reaching resource limits even before the Iran War began, adding to the difficulties. The most pressing resource limit is distillate fuel oil–an industry term for what we think of as diesel and jet fuel. This fuel is heavily used in transportation. It is also used extensively…

Russia’s oil export revenues have continued to rise despite lower production thanks to high oil prices. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) monthly market report for May, Russia’s oil export revenues clocked in at $19.18 billion in April, good for a modest $180 million increase from March but a massive jump of $6.28 billion compared to April 2025. The increase in oil revenues came despite total output falling by 460,000 bpd to 8.8 million bpd, while total exports declined by 90,000 bpd to an average of 7.03 million bpd.…

Russia’s oil export revenues have continued to rise despite lower production thanks to high oil prices. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) monthly market report for May, Russia’s oil export revenues clocked in at $19.18 billion in April, good for a modest $180 million increase from March but a massive jump of $6.28 billion compared to April 2025. The increase in oil revenues came despite total output falling by 460,000 bpd to 8.8 million bpd, while total exports declined by 90,000 bpd to an average of 7.03 million bpd.…

Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 4.3 million barrels during the week ending May 8, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The decrease brings commercial stockpiles to 452.9 million barrels, according to government data, which is 0.3% below the five-year average for this time of year. According to weekly EIA data, crude oil inventories in the United States have decreased by a total 3.3 million barrels over the last 7 weeks. The EIA’s data release follows API’s…

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed a 50% reduction in the size of his official motorcade in a bid to conserve fuel amid mounting economic pressures from the ongoing global energy crisis. The cuts to Modi's security convoy, which typically spans 15 to 25 vehicles, will be coordinated through the Special Protection Group (SPG) to ensure that essential security components remain fully uncompromised. Modi has also instructed the SPG to integrate Electric Vehicles (EVs) into his official motorcade wherever feasible as part of ongoing…

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed a 50% reduction in the size of his official motorcade in a bid to conserve fuel amid mounting economic pressures from the ongoing global energy crisis. The cuts to Modi's security convoy, which typically spans 15 to 25 vehicles, will be coordinated through the Special Protection Group (SPG) to ensure that essential security components remain fully uncompromised. Modi has also instructed the SPG to integrate Electric Vehicles (EVs) into his official motorcade wherever feasible as part of ongoing…

US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are set to open a closely watched summit in Beijing as Washington and Beijing seek a fragile economic truce while maneuvering over Iran, Taiwan, and control of critical supply chains. Trump, who last visited China in 2017, will arrive on the evening of May 13 and engage in two days of talks and public appearances with Xi on May 14-15. The trip marks the two leaders' first face-to-face talks in more than six months as they try to stabilize ties strained by tariffs, mineral export controls,…

Global oil demand is set to exceed supply in the current year amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, reversing previous projections of a surplus. According to the May 2026 Oil Market Report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), global oil supply is projected to fall by 3.9 million bpd across 2026, with ~10.5 million bpd of Gulf oil production currently offline. Global demand is forecast to contract by 420,000 bpd due to surging prices, slow economic growth and widespread flight cancellations, with oil demand still set to outpace supply…

Global oil demand is set to exceed supply in the current year amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, reversing previous projections of a surplus. According to the May 2026 Oil Market Report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), global oil supply is projected to fall by 3.9 million bpd across 2026, with ~10.5 million bpd of Gulf oil production currently offline. Global demand is forecast to contract by 420,000 bpd due to surging prices, slow economic growth and widespread flight cancellations, with oil demand still set to outpace supply…