The world is installing wind turbines and solar panels faster than ever, but coal still generates more electricity than any other source, and by a huge margin. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects coal-fired power plants to generate 10,974 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2026, nearly one-third of the 33,313 TWh of electricity produced worldwide. Natural gas is a distant second at 6,976 TWh, followed by hydropower at 4,536 TWh, solar at 3,289 TWh, wind at 2,898 TWh and nuclear at 2,871 TWh. In other words, coal will generate nearly as much electricity…

For most of the past six months, traders active on the commodity futures markets have been mostly optimistic. They have taken every statement by President Donald Trump about peace talks or victory over Iran at face value, betting on a speedy end of the war. Now, it has started to dawn on many that this is not happening. The physical squeeze is catching up with the market. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that a diesel shortage that has been brewing since spring is now growing increasingly severe and about to become even more…

Russia has been subject to many months of a ramped-up long-range drone campaign out of Ukraine, chiefly targeting oil refineries as well as industrial sites - and most recently expanding to online retail companies and attacks on private sector businesses.  Tuesday saw one of the single biggest drone waves on Moscow of the war, for example, with at least 600 sent against the capital region, resulting in widespread panic and some casualties. Making matters worse for the Russian population, several gas station networks have introduced new restrictions…

Oilfield services giant SLB is preparing to reactivate as many as 15 drilling rigs in Venezuela, potentially removing one of the biggest obstacles to increasing the country’s crude production. SLB and energy-focused private equity firm Formentera Partners are working on separate efforts to increase Venezuela’s drilling capacity, executives said at an industry conference in Houston on Wednesday. Formentera is discussing importing rigs with international service companies, while SLB is focused on equipment already inside Venezuela. SLB…

The oil market has remained complacent for months amid the worst disruption in global supply, with crude oil futures rarely topping $100 per barrel over the six months in which tanker traffic at the Strait of Hormuz is a trickle compared to pre-war levels. While market participants have been putting too much hope of a resolution of the conflict in their bets on future crude prices, product supply of the fuel of the economies – diesel – has been shrinking.     So much has the diesel market tightened in recent months that…

Trafigura Group and several other traders delivered more than 20,000 tons of copper into LME warehouses on Tuesday, the biggest one-day build in on-warrant stock since April, and the squeeze that had gripped the London market for the past week came apart. The cash-to-three-month spread settled at a $248-a-ton backwardation, down from as much as $545 on Monday, which was the widest since 2021. Trafigura was behind a large share of the metal placed on warrant, according to people familiar with the deliveries, and traders expect more to follow in…

Kyrgyzstan has provided some clarity on the source of the recent blackout that impacted four states in Central Asia, while vigorously denying blame for the cascading outage.  Power outages were first reported in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek during the afternoon of August 14 before spreading to southern Kazakhstan and portions of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry initially attributed the disruption, which lasted several hours, to a “sudden change in the power flow” of the regional grid.  Confusion…

The world’s largest battery-electric aircraft has completed its first flight using just $5 worth of electricity, with Heart Aerospace’s 25,000-pound X1 demonstrator flying for 27 minutes and putting a megawatt-scale electric propulsion system through its first airborne test. Heart Aerospace’s X1 demonstrator flew for 27 minutes from Plattsburgh International Airport in New York, climbing to 1,100 feet, with its electric propulsion system delivering more than one megawatt of power. The aircraft weighs more than 25,000 pounds at…

The world’s largest battery-electric aircraft has completed its first flight using just $5 worth of electricity, with Heart Aerospace’s 25,000-pound X1 demonstrator flying for 27 minutes and putting a megawatt-scale electric propulsion system through its first airborne test. Heart Aerospace’s X1 demonstrator flew for 27 minutes from Plattsburgh International Airport in New York, climbing to 1,100 feet, with its electric propulsion system delivering more than one megawatt of power. The aircraft weighs more than 25,000 pounds at…

Romania spent more than 2 million euros this month detonating rocks and sinking barges in the Danube, trying to shove enough water toward the Cernavoda nuclear plant to keep its reactors cool. It didn’t work.  On Aug. 13, Nuclearelectrica began a controlled shutdown of the plant’s second reactor, the first time drought has taken Cernavoda fully offline since 2003. That is about a fifth of Romania’s electricity. Dacia and Ford idled their Romanian factories to free up power for everyone else. Europe’s drought has its…

Saudi Aramco will supply full contractual crude volumes to at least three European refiners in September, offering deliveries from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and through ship-to-ship transfers off Malta as the war disrupts the kingdom’s normal export routes, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday via The Edge Malaysia. Two European refiners will take their barrels from Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir, while a third can choose between Sidi Kerir, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu or a ship-to-ship transfer off Malta, Bloomberg reported…

Saudi Aramco will supply full contractual crude volumes to at least three European refiners in September, offering deliveries from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and through ship-to-ship transfers off Malta as the war disrupts the kingdom’s normal export routes, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday via The Edge Malaysia. Two European refiners will take their barrels from Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir, while a third can choose between Sidi Kerir, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu or a ship-to-ship transfer off Malta, Bloomberg reported…

Saudi Aramco will supply full contractual crude volumes to at least three European refiners in September, offering deliveries from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and through ship-to-ship transfers off Malta as the war disrupts the kingdom’s normal export routes, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday via The Edge Malaysia. Two European refiners will take their barrels from Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir, while a third can choose between Sidi Kerir, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu or a ship-to-ship transfer off Malta, Bloomberg reported…

Inflation has leaped up following the reset of the energy price cap, official data has revealed, marking the likely beginning of a long run of increases in price growth.  The Office for National Statistics (ONS) put the consumer price index inflation reading at 2.9 per cent for the 12 months to July. The previous inflation reading was 2.6 per cent. Services inflation, a measure closely watched by Bank of England policymakers given it provides signals on wage pressures, eased to 3.4 per cent while core inflation, which strips out food and energy,…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is halting all trade, financial, and commercial ties with Iran until further notice, after saying Tehran had fired ballistic missiles targeting its territory. Late on Tuesday, the UAE’s Defense Ministry said that “assessments revealed the two ballistic missiles detected, originating from Iran, were targeting maritime navigation and fell into the sea.” A few hours earlier, the ministry had announced that the UAE’s air defense systems detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran towards…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is halting all trade, financial, and commercial ties with Iran until further notice, after saying Tehran had fired ballistic missiles targeting its territory. Late on Tuesday, the UAE’s Defense Ministry said that “assessments revealed the two ballistic missiles detected, originating from Iran, were targeting maritime navigation and fell into the sea.” A few hours earlier, the ministry had announced that the UAE’s air defense systems detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran towards…

Crude oil inventories in the United States saw a massive increase of 4.4 million barrels during the week ending August 14, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 428.8 million barrels, according to government data, which is now right about at the five-year average for this time of year. The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories had fallen by 328,000 barrels…

Ukraine hit a refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region overnight in a drone attack that sparked a fire, as Kyiv continues to pound Russian energy infrastructure to reduce Russian fuel supply. One of the refineries in Ufa, in the Bashkortostan republic, caught fire as a result of the attack, the region’s governor Radiy Khabirov said on Wednesday. Ufa and the area around it host three refineries, all owned and operated by Bashneft, a unit of Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft. The Ukrainian attack overnight caused “a small…

Ukraine hit a refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region overnight in a drone attack that sparked a fire, as Kyiv continues to pound Russian energy infrastructure to reduce Russian fuel supply. One of the refineries in Ufa, in the Bashkortostan republic, caught fire as a result of the attack, the region’s governor Radiy Khabirov said on Wednesday. Ufa and the area around it host three refineries, all owned and operated by Bashneft, a unit of Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft. The Ukrainian attack overnight caused “a small…

Ukraine hit a refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region overnight in a drone attack that sparked a fire, as Kyiv continues to pound Russian energy infrastructure to reduce Russian fuel supply. One of the refineries in Ufa, in the Bashkortostan republic, caught fire as a result of the attack, the region’s governor Radiy Khabirov said on Wednesday. Ufa and the area around it host three refineries, all owned and operated by Bashneft, a unit of Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft. The Ukrainian attack overnight caused “a small…