Refining margins in the U.S, northwest Europe, and Asia have jumped to two-year highs as diesel and gasoline markets tighten with no sign of immediate relief.   Refinery closures in recent years, planned maintenance after the summer, unplanned repairs due to outages, and Ukrainian attacks crippling Russia’s oil product exports have tightened the refined petroleum markets everywhere. Forecasters and traders expect a glut on the crude market to depress further benchmark crude futures going into 2026, but the strength in gasoline and middle…

Previously, we reported that the pivot by Indian refiners away from Russian oil has triggered a spike in oil product prices even as crude prices remain largely unchanged. To wit, ICE Brent-Gasoil crack spreads doubled from the $15-17/bbl range held in the first half of the year, to a 21-month high above $32/bbl, good for a nearly 70% increase in the year-to-date. Gasoil is a middle distillate mainly used in commercial and agricultural sectors for off-road vehicles, machinery, and generators. And now reports have emerged that the distillates market…

Three years ago, Germany led an EU-wide offensive against Russian pipeline gas imports. These imports were no longer wanted in Europe because of the war in Ukraine. They would be replaced with LNG—for a short while—because the EU, and Germany, were firmly on their way to net zero. Now, Germany is in the LNG game for the long haul, building import terminals with a target of over 70 million tons annually—including from Russia. Reuters this week published an overview of Germany’s efforts to boost imports of liquefied natural…

E-waste is a massive and rapidly growing issue as more and more of our electronic devices reach the end of their life and end up in landfills. Today, e-waste is the fastest growing solid waste stream on the planet.  Finding new ways to breathe life into old electronics or to harvest their valuable components for upcycling, such as costly metals and rare earth minerals, is not only critical to closing this wasteful loop, but could also be an enormous economic advantage for the tech manufacturing sector. One of these newest innovations tackles…

MP Materials shares surged on Wednesday after the company announced a joint venture with Saudi Arabia’s Ma’aden to build a rare-earths processing and magnet manufacturing hub in the kingdom, a move that positions the U.S. producer inside one of the world’s fastest-growing critical-minerals investment programs. The partnership will give MP a new downstream base in the Gulf as Saudi Arabia accelerates its bid to become a major player in the global rare earth supply chain.The companies will establish a refinery and separation plant…

MP Materials shares surged on Wednesday after the company announced a joint venture with Saudi Arabia’s Ma’aden to build a rare-earths processing and magnet manufacturing hub in the kingdom, a move that positions the U.S. producer inside one of the world’s fastest-growing critical-minerals investment programs. The partnership will give MP a new downstream base in the Gulf as Saudi Arabia accelerates its bid to become a major player in the global rare earth supply chain.The companies will establish a refinery and separation plant…

Iraqis voted in a parliamentary election on 11 November and, though pre-election surveys predicted a record-low turnout, the final total turnout was 56.11% according to the Independent High Electoral Commission.  (Turnout for the 2021 parliamentary election was 43.3%.) Incumbent prime minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani’s Construction and Development Coalition, won 46 seats in the 329-seat Council of Representatives of Iraq. Now the election is over and Sudani faces the task of building a governing coalition. (After the 2021 election,…

Is AI in a bubble? When will the bubble burst? Are there signs? Well, we don’t have a crystal ball, but there are signs. On the markets, several prominent investors have spoken. Peter Thiel, one of the best-known tech investors, has sold his entire position in Nvidia. SoftBank, a huge Japanese tech investor is unloading its shares, too. Meanwhile, Michael Burry, of Big Short fame, warns of an impending bubble burst. And the head of Swedish fintech Klarna, a man with major AI holdings, said that he’s thinking of hedging his positions…

One week ago we said that "hundreds of billions" of dollars are about to be loaned out to nuclear projects by the US government. Well, the first billion is about to be wired.  The Wall Street Journal reports Constellation Energy has secured a $1 billion federal loan from the Energy Department's Loan Programs Office (LPO) to restart the Unit 1 reactor at the Three Mile Island reactor plant in Pennsylvania, recently renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center. Constellation has said it would pay about $1.6 billion to restart the plant in 2027. …

Alaska’s production outlook is shifting for the first time in nearly a decade, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday projecting that North Slope crude output will rise by some 13% next year as two large fields move into high-volume phases.  This would mark the strongest annual increase since the 1980s and a rare break from the long decline that has steadily reduced throughput on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS). The agency ties the anticipated jump to new wells and extended-reach drilling tied to major North…

Alaska’s production outlook is shifting for the first time in nearly a decade, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday projecting that North Slope crude output will rise by some 13% next year as two large fields move into high-volume phases.  This would mark the strongest annual increase since the 1980s and a rare break from the long decline that has steadily reduced throughput on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS). The agency ties the anticipated jump to new wells and extended-reach drilling tied to major North…

Alaska’s production outlook is shifting for the first time in nearly a decade, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday projecting that North Slope crude output will rise by some 13% next year as two large fields move into high-volume phases.  This would mark the strongest annual increase since the 1980s and a rare break from the long decline that has steadily reduced throughput on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS). The agency ties the anticipated jump to new wells and extended-reach drilling tied to major North…

Renewable energies are exploding in emerging economies as the economics of wind and solar make it the obvious choice in most national and regional contexts. What’s more, the rapidly changing economics of renewables are not just saving money for developing countries, they could soon be making money in considerable sums in many emerging economies. A recent study from Oxford University finds that low- and middle-income countries stand to benefit the most from adopting renewable energies, with potential GDP gains of around 10 percent in the next…

Poland suspects Russian intelligence services were behind an explosion on a major Polish railway line used to transport military goods and aid to Ukraine, an act Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an "unprecedented act of sabotage." In the first comments where a Polish official suggested Moscow was behind the attack over the weekend, Jacek Dobrzynski, a spokesperson for Poland's special services minister, said the blast was an attempt "to destabilize" and "spread fear." In a speech to Polish lawmakers after the extraordinary meeting, Tusk said that…

Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports hit a seven-month high in September as its production jumped to a 29-month high, the latest data by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Wednesday.  Even as Saudi refinery runs rose by 38,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September from August, crude oil shipments from the world’s top crude exporter increased by 53,000 bpd, according to the data.    The increase may not seem much but it was the highest level since February and above the 2020-2024 five-year average for…

Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports hit a seven-month high in September as its production jumped to a 29-month high, the latest data by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Wednesday.  Even as Saudi refinery runs rose by 38,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September from August, crude oil shipments from the world’s top crude exporter increased by 53,000 bpd, according to the data.    The increase may not seem much but it was the highest level since February and above the 2020-2024 five-year average for…

Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports hit a seven-month high in September as its production jumped to a 29-month high, the latest data by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Wednesday.  Even as Saudi refinery runs rose by 38,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September from August, crude oil shipments from the world’s top crude exporter increased by 53,000 bpd, according to the data.    The increase may not seem much but it was the highest level since February and above the 2020-2024 five-year average for…

Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 3.4 million barrels during the week ending November 14, after gaining 6.4 million barrels in the week prior, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 424.2 million barrels according to government data, which is 5% below 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 suggested that crude oil inventories…

The world’s oil demand jumped in September by 1.4 million barrel per day (bpd) compared to August and by 1.8 million bpd from a year earlier, driven by higher consumption in the United States and Indonesia, the monthly report by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Wednesday.  At the same time, global crude oil exports rose by 1.3 million bpd in September from August and by 1.5 million bpd compared to September last year, according to the most recent data self-reported by 44 countries to JODI and shared by the Riyadh-based…

The world’s oil demand jumped in September by 1.4 million barrel per day (bpd) compared to August and by 1.8 million bpd from a year earlier, driven by higher consumption in the United States and Indonesia, the monthly report by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Wednesday.  At the same time, global crude oil exports rose by 1.3 million bpd in September from August and by 1.5 million bpd compared to September last year, according to the most recent data self-reported by 44 countries to JODI and shared by the Riyadh-based…