The United States is looking to increase its exports of crude oil and natural gas to India—the world’s most heavily import-dependent nation. As such, India is a tasty morsel for any producing country with extra barrels. Yet there is a reason that the U.S. is not already a major supplier to the subcontinent—there are simply too many obstacles on this course. Last week, Washington’s ambassador to New Delhi, Sergio Gor, said on X that he’d met with India’s energy minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, to discuss “Expanding…

A couple of weeks ago, we reported that traders had ramped up bearish bets on oil prices, with traders pouring nearly $1 billion into the ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Crude Oil ETF (SCO), a leveraged bet on falling prices following war-driven highs. This massive buildup in bearish sentiment came shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 2-week ceasefire on April 7, which sent oil prices plunging nearly $20 per barrel from recent highs. And now fresh reports have emerged that something far more sinister could be lurking in financial…

China looks to further boost its footprint in neighboring Asian markets as the energy crisis is straining fuel supply to Southeast Asia. As the region became the first victim of the fuel crunch due to the Middle East war, Cambodia broke ground on its first gigawatt-scale hydropower project to boost its renewable energy output and reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels. The start of construction at the Upper Tatay pumped storage hydropower BOT project could not be timelier as the Iran war is reducing fuel supplies to Cambodia and other Southeast…

The oil market is heading into unknown spaces. To paraphrase Starship Enterprise, “Oil markets ('Space' the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before”. As we can now see, there is a moment in every crisis when the language of markets, which is normally based on price discovery, marginal barrels, and supply-demand balance, quietly but dangerously stops making sense. For the oil…

I was recently fueling up my wife's car in Tempe, Arizona when I noticed something I hadn't seen in a while: an "I did that!" sticker pointed at the price on the pump. Those stickers were everywhere during the gas price spike under President Biden. Now they're back — with the same message, but a different president. It’s true that fuel prices have spiked under both administrations. But the reality is more complicated than a sticker on a pump suggests. To understand what really happened, you have to look at the underlying market forces…

Inflation is expected to jump to 3.3 per cent as the first effects of the war in Iran will be recorded in a new set of data. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is expected to reveal that inflation inched up in the year to March due to soaring fuel prices and tremors across financial markets. Economists polled by Bloomberg predicted that the consumer price index (CPI) inflation print would come in at 3.3 per cent, compared to three per cent for February. The acceleration in price growth could dampen hopes of improved stability, posing a challenge…

Air Canada has announced the suspension of several key routes, including major U.S. connections, after jet fuel prices nearly doubled in the wake of the Iran-United States war that kicked off in late February.  According to Air Canada, all service from Toronto and Montreal to John F. Kennedy International Airport will be suspended starting June 1, 2026, and resume on October 25, 2026, while flights to Salt Lake City and Jacksonville will also be suspended. Air Canada will, however, maintain service to the New York area through LaGuardia and…

Air Canada has announced the suspension of several key routes, including major U.S. connections, after jet fuel prices nearly doubled in the wake of the Iran-United States war that kicked off in late February.  According to Air Canada, all service from Toronto and Montreal to John F. Kennedy International Airport will be suspended starting June 1, 2026, and resume on October 25, 2026, while flights to Salt Lake City and Jacksonville will also be suspended. Air Canada will, however, maintain service to the New York area through LaGuardia and…

Kazakh officials are working with international development banks and the UN Development Programme to address a burgeoning water shortage that threatens to throttle economic growth. Regional analysts say the water deficit, combined with the need to rapidly boost power-generation capacity, are two of Kazakhstan’s most formidable obstacles to achieving President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s modernization agenda. “The shortage of the resource has moved into the category of severe macroeconomic challenges, comparable in importance to access…

The national average price of gasoline in the United States has dipped below the $4 mark for the first time in weeks, with data compiled by GasBuddy from more than 12 million individual price reports across more than 150,000 gas stations revealing that the national average fell by 9 cents from a week ago to $3.97 per gallon, with further drops to $3.65-$3.85 possible in the near future. However, AAA reported the national average at $4.042 per gallon on Monday, down from $4.125 a week ago. The disconnect comes from different methodologies used by…

The national average price of gasoline in the United States has dipped below the $4 mark for the first time in weeks, with data compiled by GasBuddy from more than 12 million individual price reports across more than 150,000 gas stations revealing that the national average fell by 9 cents from a week ago to $3.97 per gallon, with further drops to $3.65-$3.85 possible in the near future. However, AAA reported the national average at $4.042 per gallon on Monday, down from $4.125 a week ago. The disconnect comes from different methodologies used by…

The national average price of gasoline in the United States has dipped below the $4 mark for the first time in weeks, with data compiled by GasBuddy from more than 12 million individual price reports across more than 150,000 gas stations revealing that the national average fell by 9 cents from a week ago to $3.97 per gallon, with further drops to $3.65-$3.85 possible in the near future. However, AAA reported the national average at $4.042 per gallon on Monday, down from $4.125 a week ago. The disconnect comes from different methodologies used by…

This week brings with it the 22 April deadline marking the end of the two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. The on-again/off-again/on-again closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Tehran, and Washington’s naval blockade specifically on Iranian ports, can broadly be seen as part of the ongoing negotiations for peace that began on 8 April, with the mood surrounding the talks having swung as wildly on both sides as the state of the blockades. Even before the recent spate of hostilities, mediating Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi declared…

Kuwait has declared force majeure on shipments of crude oil and refined products after disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz prevented some vessels from entering the Persian Gulf. The move comes as tensions in the Strait escalated again following the U.S. seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel in the waterway. According to Reuters, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation has notified customers that it is invoking contractual clauses allowing it to withhold certain scheduled deliveries after the blockade hindered access to the Gulf. The measure is not expected…

Kuwait has declared force majeure on shipments of crude oil and refined products after disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz prevented some vessels from entering the Persian Gulf. The move comes as tensions in the Strait escalated again following the U.S. seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel in the waterway. According to Reuters, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation has notified customers that it is invoking contractual clauses allowing it to withhold certain scheduled deliveries after the blockade hindered access to the Gulf. The measure is not expected…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticized an easing of sanctions on Russian energy, writing on X that "every dollar paid for Russian oil is money for the war." His statement on April 19 comes after the United States prolonged its Russian oil waiver earlier in the week with figures showing that Moscow nearly doubled its oil revenue in March amid soaring energy prices as Iran continues to disrupt shipping on the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Zelenskyy claimed that more than 110 tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet are currently at sea,…

India has recently raised the number of Russian insurers allowed to provide protection and indemnity (P&I) cover for ships docking at Indian ports, as Indian refiners are once again boosting imports of Russian crude thanks to a U.S. waiver. The number of Russian insurers eligible to cover marine indemnity and protection has been raised to 11, up from eight previously, India's Directorate General of Shipping has said, as carried by Reuters. India has recently allowed new Russia-based insurers to provide cover for ships docking at Indian ports,…

India has recently raised the number of Russian insurers allowed to provide protection and indemnity (P&I) cover for ships docking at Indian ports, as Indian refiners are once again boosting imports of Russian crude thanks to a U.S. waiver. The number of Russian insurers eligible to cover marine indemnity and protection has been raised to 11, up from eight previously, India's Directorate General of Shipping has said, as carried by Reuters. India has recently allowed new Russia-based insurers to provide cover for ships docking at Indian ports,…

The price of oil has been driven higher by the latest round of escalations in the Middle East, renewing fears of a drastic global energy shock. Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil prices – jumped over six per cent on Monday morning to over $96. It follows a weekend of tensions where shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has once again ground to a halt following a brief opening on Friday. The regime in Tehran has warned that the new closure will remain in place until the US blockade is lifted. In a Truth Social post on Sunday,…

China is on track to import record-high volumes of ethane from the United States this month as Chinese and other Asian petrochemicals producers rush to secure replacement feedstock amid plunging naphtha and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supply from the Middle East. China is expected to import as many as 800,000 tons of U.S. ethane in April, which would be a record high for any month and about 60% higher compared than the usual monthly imports of the feedstock from the United States, per estimates from Chinese consultancy JLC cited by Bloomberg.…