The oil markets are looking to finish the year on the back foot, with oil prices falling again amid expectations of a supply glut and Russia-Ukraine peace talks reviving. Nearly half of oil executives in the Dallas Fed’s latest survey have reported that their companies’ outlooks have worsened in the current year compared with last year as low oil prices take a toll. “Decreasing oil prices are making many of our firm's wells noneconomic,” one executive said in the new survey. “Natural gas is becoming an expense to operators.…

China has rattled Tehran by again backing the United Arab Emirates’s claim over three Persian Gulf islands controlled by Iran. Following a visit to Abu Dhabi by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the countries in a joint statement on December 13 highlighted Beijing’s “support for the efforts of the UAE to reach a peaceful solution to the dispute” over the three islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa. Notably, there is no explicit mention of Iran in the statement. In response, Iranian Foreign Ministry…

China’s dominance in the global electric vehicle market looks set to deepen as policy reversals in Europe and strategic pullbacks by U.S. automakers reduce competitive pressure just as Chinese EV makers push aggressively into overseas markets. China’s booming EV market has its own set of issues to address, especially the battery and manufacturing overcapacity denting the profits of the EV makers. However, the race to the bottom and the price wars in China’s electric vehicle market have sunk costs so much that China has a competitive…

President Trump’s massive naval build-up off the coast of Venezuela and the threat of invasion was labelled by the country’s illegitimate President Nicolas Maduro as a bloody grab for oil. Other Latin American leaders, notably Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro, are making similar assertions. A long history of U.S. intervention to secure vital fossil fuel resources, coupled with Venezuela controlling the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves totaling 303 billion barrels, supports this rationale. There are, however,…

Lithium-ion batteries dominate the tech world. You probably have at least one within reach right this moment, considering that lithium-ion batteries now power a whopping 70 percent of all rechargeable devices, from your smartphone to electric vehicles, and even power utility-scale energy storage. And while the tech industry is eager to diversify battery design to relieve its dependency on this “white gold”, lithium continues to dominate the sector – and will likely remain essential for a long time to come.  While lithium…

U.S. natural gas futures have reversed their recent decline, climbing more than 3% on Thursday to trade above $4 per MMBtu thanks to near-record flows of natural gas to LNG export plants. Gas deliveries to the eight major U.S. LNG facilities have averaged 18.6 Bcf/d so far this month, above November’s average at 18.2 Bcf/d. Meanwhile, one of its three liquefaction trains at Freeport LNG’s export terminal in Texas has returned to service, with the terminal increasing its volumes. However, the rebound might be short-lived, with predictions…

U.S. natural gas futures have reversed their recent decline, climbing more than 3% on Thursday to trade above $4 per MMBtu thanks to near-record flows of natural gas to LNG export plants. Gas deliveries to the eight major U.S. LNG facilities have averaged 18.6 Bcf/d so far this month, above November’s average at 18.2 Bcf/d. Meanwhile, one of its three liquefaction trains at Freeport LNG’s export terminal in Texas has returned to service, with the terminal increasing its volumes. However, the rebound might be short-lived, with predictions…

Texas battery storage operators are pushing back after ERCOT changed how power is priced and dispatched, effectively asking batteries to behave more like power plants while reducing some of the market opportunities that made them profitable in the first place. For years, battery storage has been described as a game-changer for wind and solar and with a very good reason. The biggest problem of both is the fact their output depends on constantly changing weather. Batteries, however, can store whatever excess electricity wind and solar produce and…

The abrupt resignation of Nigeria’s top petroleum regulator shortly after the launch of one of the country’s largest oil block auctions in years has sparked fresh concerns. Gbenga Komolage, head of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, and Farouk Ahmed, head of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, have both resigned. Their exits came after Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man and the owner of the giant Dangote Refinery, criticized Ahmed for allowing cut-price fuel imports that threaten…

Israel's agreement to supply Egypt with 130 billion cubic meters of natural gas worth $35 billion through 2040 has been approved after pressure from Washington, with Egypt emphasizing the deal is "purely commercial," according to Egypt's State Information Service, adding that the deal was struck by private energy companies with zero government involvement. Under the agreement, Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX), NewMed Energy (OTCPK:DKDRF)(TASE: NWMD) and Ratio Petroleum Energy (TASE: RTPT) will supply Egypt with natural gas from Israel's Leviathan gas field,…

The bell may be tolling for a long-standing Russian-Kazakh space program following the launch of a “nanosatellite” jointly developed by Kazakhstan and China and launched into orbit by a Chinese rocket. The launch of the Dier-5 spacecraft on December 13 placed the satellite into an orbit roughly 330 miles above Earth, according to a Kazakh government statement. It took a team of specialists from Kazakhstan’s Al-Farabi University and Northeastern Polytechnical University in Xi’an, China, just a little over one year to develop…

Millions of barrels of Nigerian and Angolan crude remain unsold in the December and January loading programs, as they struggle to compete with ample supply and cheaper cargoes, traders and analysts have told Reuters.  Nigeria alone had about 20 million unsold cargoes as of December 17, two traders told the publication. In addition, there are a lot of Angolan cargoes still waiting for buyers for the December and January loadings.  As many as 26 cargoes remain unsold, signaling that there is a lot of supply from other producers and much…

Millions of barrels of Nigerian and Angolan crude remain unsold in the December and January loading programs, as they struggle to compete with ample supply and cheaper cargoes, traders and analysts have told Reuters.  Nigeria alone had about 20 million unsold cargoes as of December 17, two traders told the publication. In addition, there are a lot of Angolan cargoes still waiting for buyers for the December and January loadings.  As many as 26 cargoes remain unsold, signaling that there is a lot of supply from other producers and much…

After 15 years of delay, redesign, and skepticism, the Sea Lion oil project has finally crossed the line from ambition to execution. On December 10, partners Navitas Petroleum (Israel) and Rockhopper Exploration (UK) took a long-awaited final investment decision (FID) on what will become the largest deepwater oil development in the South Atlantic outside Brazil. Few projects of comparable scale have taken so long to move from discovery to sanction, and fewer still have done so under such persistent political, legal and financial headwinds. With…

Oil tankers carrying Russian oil appear to be avoiding the fastest Black Sea route to the Turkish straits and travel along the Georgian and Turkish coasts to avoid drone attacks from Ukraine, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.  In recent weeks, several ships linked to Russia have been hit by Ukrainian drones in the Black Sea. All targeted vessels were empty at the time of the strikes.   At least two tankers that have loaded oil from Novorossiysk, the Russian port on the Black Sea, have recently traveled along…

Recent moves by Washington and Brussels show diplomatic tracks heading in opposite directions with regard to Belarus, highlighting a growing divide between the allies on how to deal with Europe's security. On one side of the Atlantic Ocean, the United States is engaging Minsk and its authoritarian ruler, Aleksandr Lukashenko, by easing sanctions in exchange for the release of political prisoners, including 123 last weekend. That contrasts starkly with what's happening in Brussels, where European Union officials are still adding to their restrictive…

Bloomberg Opinion columnist and chief energy correspondent Javier Blas posted a chart on X from the International Energy Agency's new global coal report showing that coal demand jumped to an all-time high this year, despite years of efforts by the green-industrial complex to end its very existence. "Global coal demand rose to an all-time high in 2025, up 0.5% y-on-y to 8,845 million tons (also, @IEA revised up 2024)," Blas wrote on X, adding, "Now, IEA says 2025 will mark a peak, with consumption dropping over the next 5 years. Time…

Global oil demand jumped in October from the previous month and from October last year amid a rebound in India’s product demand, the latest data by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Thursday. Oil demand increased by 677,000 barrels per day (bpd) in October from September, according to the most recent data self-reported by 48 countries to JODI.  Compared to last year, global oil demand rose by 2.4 million bpd in October, the data showed.  China reported total product demand falling by 150,000 bpd and crude…

Global oil demand jumped in October from the previous month and from October last year amid a rebound in India’s product demand, the latest data by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Thursday. Oil demand increased by 677,000 barrels per day (bpd) in October from September, according to the most recent data self-reported by 48 countries to JODI.  Compared to last year, global oil demand rose by 2.4 million bpd in October, the data showed.  China reported total product demand falling by 150,000 bpd and crude…

The global energy system is entering a pivotal new phase. Rystad Energy’s latest scenario analysis shows that all net growth in global electricity supply in 2025 – around 1,070 terawatt-hours – will come from low-carbon sources, including renewables and nuclear power. This marks a structural shift: renewables are no longer competing at the margins but are now driving all incremental power generation. For investors, this signals that clean-power growth is moving from policy-driven to market-driven, reshaping long-term return potential…