Oil and gas prices are hogging headlines, but while the world watches the Middle East, U.S. officials have been busy elsewhere. Chile, the world’s biggest supplier of one particular critical mineral, is in talks with the U.S. on a supply agreement for rhenium—an element seen as vital for national security. Rhenium is a genuinely rare element that has an extremely high melting point of around 3,180 degrees Celsius, which makes it extra resistant to both heat and wear, according to the USGS. This, in turn, makes rhenium highly prized…

Cuba finally reconnected its power supply on Tuesday after an extended blackout swept the island as the United States tried to choke off the island’s energy supply. Blackouts lasted nearly 30 hours as Donald Trump engineered an oil blockade and publicly ruminated about whether he would have the “honor of taking Cuba.” But the move, rather than isolating Cuba, may have just deepened its ties with China. Cuba, which is already beleaguered with an obsolete and fragile power system, saw its grid collapse under the weight of the weekslong…

The Trump administration is drawing a clear line as oil prices surge: no export ban. With Brent crude pushing $110 per barrel and U.S. gasoline prices nearing $4 a gallon, pressure is building in Washington to respond to the fallout from the Iran war. But officials are signaling they won’t reach for one of the most disruptive policy tools on the table—restricting U.S. crude exports. “Oil and gas export restrictions are not under consideration,” a Trump official said on Thursday, according to the Financial Times. That reassurance…

The UK government has reduced steel import quotas and raised tariffs to 50 per cent outside unit limits as part of a strategy to save the industry, an “bold” move that is likely to draw criticism from economists and opposition groups.  Quotas for imports free from the higher tariffs will be reduced by 60 per cent from July. The government has set a target for domestic production to support half of steel demand in the UK. “Making steel in the UK is vital for national security, critical infrastructure and the wider economy,”…

Qatar’s LNG outage will span years. Repairs to damage at Qatar’s massive Ras Laffan complex will take three to five years to complete, according to QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi, cited by Reuters, turning what markets initially treated as a wartime disruption into a lengthy structural supply loss. About 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity is now effectively sidelined for years to come. Up until now, traders were focused on the timing. When flows might resume, when the Strait of Hormuz might reopen, when force majeures would be…

Diplomatic engagement has replaced aggressive rhetoric, as Azerbaijan strives to keep tensions with neighboring Iran from boiling over again. In the immediate aftermath of Iranian drone strikes in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan on March 5, officials in Baku adopted a bellicose stance, warning that further acts of aggression against Azerbaijan would result in “Iron Fist” retaliation. They also demanded that those responsible for the drone strikes be held accountable. Over the last 10 days or so, however, Baku’s tone has…

India expects to nearly quadruple its solar power capacity and triple wind power-generating assets within ten years, according to the new Generation Adequacy Plan published by the country’s Central Electricity Authority.  India projects to have a total of 509 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity installed by the end of the 2035-2036 fiscal year, up from 140 GW installed solar PV capacity as of January 2026.   For wind power, the country expects 155 GW of installed capacity within a decade, up from 55 GW as of January this…

India expects to nearly quadruple its solar power capacity and triple wind power-generating assets within ten years, according to the new Generation Adequacy Plan published by the country’s Central Electricity Authority.  India projects to have a total of 509 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity installed by the end of the 2035-2036 fiscal year, up from 140 GW installed solar PV capacity as of January 2026.   For wind power, the country expects 155 GW of installed capacity within a decade, up from 55 GW as of January this…

India expects to nearly quadruple its solar power capacity and triple wind power-generating assets within ten years, according to the new Generation Adequacy Plan published by the country’s Central Electricity Authority.  India projects to have a total of 509 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity installed by the end of the 2035-2036 fiscal year, up from 140 GW installed solar PV capacity as of January 2026.   For wind power, the country expects 155 GW of installed capacity within a decade, up from 55 GW as of January this…

Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz are still rising, and Europe is still falling back on the same instinct: worry about supply, brace for higher prices, and revive talk of more domestic oil and gas production. It is an understandable reflex. It is also the wrong one. Europe cannot drill its way out of globally traded fossil fuel price shocks. It cannot wish away maritime chokepoints. And it cannot keep pretending that more North Sea exploration will shield it from crises whose price effects are set far beyond European waters. If Europe wants real…

More buyers could be pushed to seek and contract LNG supply from producers outside the Middle East, such as the U.S. and Canada, if a prolonged war continues to choke supply from the Gulf region, a senior executive at Japan’s biggest LNG buyer, Jera, told Reuters.  “With 90 million metric tons from the Middle East absent from the global LNG market, the longer this persists, the greater the impact,” Ryosuke Tsugaru, Jera’s Senior Managing Executive Officer, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. A month before the…

Israel widened the scope of its attacks on Iran late on March 18, saying it launched air strikes in the north of the country, with Israeli media saying Iranian naval vessels were being hit on the Caspian Sea coast. As Israel attacked in the north, it also hit Iranian energy infrastructure sites in the Gulf, with Tehran retaliating by firing at Gulf Arab countries' oil and gas facilities, with the already widespread conflict threatening to spin out of control. Israel's attack in the north would be the first in that portion of Iran since the start…

U.S. crude loadings for Asia are set for a three-year in April as Asian refiners are accelerating buying of American oil to partially offset the loss of supply from the Middle East, traders with knowledge of recent purchases told Bloomberg on Thursday.   About 60 million barrels of American crude grades are set to be loaded for Asia next month, according to Bloomberg’s trade sources, as Asian refiners are scooping up non-Middle Eastern supply from all other regions since the de facto closed Strait of Hormuz has trapped most of the…

U.S. crude loadings for Asia are set for a three-year in April as Asian refiners are accelerating buying of American oil to partially offset the loss of supply from the Middle East, traders with knowledge of recent purchases told Bloomberg on Thursday.   About 60 million barrels of American crude grades are set to be loaded for Asia next month, according to Bloomberg’s trade sources, as Asian refiners are scooping up non-Middle Eastern supply from all other regions since the de facto closed Strait of Hormuz has trapped most of the…

Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices jumped by 35% at market open on Thursday, as fears of persistent gas supply disruptions intensified following the Iranian attack on Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City (RLIC), which hosts the world’s biggest LNG liquefaction complex.  The April 2026 contract of the Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures opened 35% higher on Thursday, before easing the gain to 24% as of 7:48 a.m. Amsterdam time.   All the futures prices through the March 2027 futures contracts are now trading above $69…

Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices jumped by 35% at market open on Thursday, as fears of persistent gas supply disruptions intensified following the Iranian attack on Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City (RLIC), which hosts the world’s biggest LNG liquefaction complex.  The April 2026 contract of the Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures opened 35% higher on Thursday, before easing the gain to 24% as of 7:48 a.m. Amsterdam time.   All the futures prices through the March 2027 futures contracts are now trading above $69…

REalloys (NASDAQ: ALOY) has announced a fully financed buildout of the largest heavy rare-earth metallization facility outside China, a project aimed squarely at one of the most fragile links in the Western defense supply chain just as Washington prepares to enforce its 2027 ban on Chinese-origin rare earth materials in U.S. weapons systems. The timing coincides with rapidly growing concern about supply availability. Chinese and Western media reports indicate Washington may have only two months of critical rare-earth inventories available for defense…

A month ago, any analyst suggesting international oil prices could soar all the way to $200 per barrel would have been laughed out of the studio. Now, some are beginning to acknowledge that this is a real possibility, and with good reason. Oil and fuel exports from the Middle East stood at 25.13 million barrels daily in February, Reuters reported this month, citing data from Kpler. By mid-March, this had plummeted by close to two-thirds, to 9.71 million barrels a day. Vortexa has even more worrying figures, putting the February daily average at…

China has offered to provide Taiwan with stable and reliable energy supplies if the island agrees to a peaceful reunification. Beijing claims that Taiwan would have better protection for its energy and resource security  under a "strong motherland," including affordable, cleaner and more stable energy supplies."We are willing to provide Taiwan compatriots with stable and reliable energy and resource security, so that they may live better lives," Chen Binhua, spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters. China continues to…

Asian countries have been criticized for years for not ditching coal fast enough. They were vindicated this month when the Middle East war cut off 20% of global LNG flows overnight after Qatar, Asia’s key term LNG supplier, shut in production and exports. China, India, South Korea, Japan, and the whole of Southeast and South Asia are using the coal buffers they have created in recent years. Their insistence that diversification and energy security are more important than headline emission reductions is paying off as spot LNG prices in Asia…