A political plot twist is unfolding in Florida as top Republicans—including Governor Ron DeSantis—came out against a Trump administration proposal that could reopen the eastern Gulf of Mexico to offshore oil and gas leasing. The opposition wasn’t about party lines. It was about geography, economics, and a stretch of water the Pentagon relies on heavily for testing and readiness drills. The Interior Department’s draft plan, released Thursday, floats the possibility of future leasing in the eastern Gulf—an area Congress…

The IEA's most recent report is grabbing plenty of headlines, with some accusing the organisation of “bending to political pressure” after it backtracked on its previous prediction that oil demand would peak by 2030. While the reason for this U-turn is indeed questionable, as the agency's estimates should always have been data-driven, it should be seen as a welcome shift. If we stop looking at energy consumption only via electricity and look instead at the whole picture, it becomes clear that demand, especially in the Global South,…

U.S. LNG developer NextDecade plans to expand further its Rio Grande export project with a sixth train, for which it has just initiated the pre-filing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).   NextDecade has already approved and is building five trains at its flagship Rio Grande LNG export facility in Brownsville, Texas. All of these trains are expected to come online by the early 2030s.     The company is now seeking with the FERC further expansion at Rio Grande LNG that includes a sixth liquefaction…

When a 25-year-old Chinese construction worker died at a vast solar power plant site in Bosnia-Herzegovina this summer, few expected the incident to snowball into one of the most significant legal blows against Chinese-backed projects in the country. The accident at the Aurora Solar site near the southern Bosnian city of Stolac triggered an inspection that uncovered 71 illegal Chinese workers in October. Authorities quickly deported them, ruled construction of the $116 million project illegal, and opened investigations into the possible misuse…

Russian oil and gas revenues are poised to slump by 35% this month from a year earlier as the price of Russia’s crude has plunged and the local currency strengthened.  Russia’s budget is expected to receive $6.63 billion (520 Russian billion rubles) from oil and gas in November, a decline of 35% compared to the same month of 2024, Reuters calculations showed on Monday.  Oil and gas revenues make up the single largest budget income item for the Russian Federation, which relies on these revenues for heavy spending on its war…

The international crude benchmark, Brent, could dip to the $30s per barrel handle by 2027 as oversupply could overwhelm the market, according to a JP Morgan forecast posted by users on X.   Brent Crude prices have dropped by 14% year to date, and traded relatively stable at $62.59 per barrel early on Monday, as the oil market awaits news from the renewed negotiations on peace in Ukraine.  The U.S. and Ukraine held on Sunday in Geneva what the two sides described as “highly productive” talks and agreed to continue intensive…

Supertanker rates on the route between the Middle East and China hit their highest in five years as traders sought alternatives to Russian crude, Bloomberg has reported, citing a daily rate of $137,000 for last Friday. Friday was when the latest U.S. sanctions against Russia’s two top exporters, Rosneft and Lukoil, came into effect, spurring action to secure alternative supplies for Asian markets. The daily VLCC rate represented a 576% increase since the start of the year. VLCC rates on other routes also rose to the highest since 2020, at…

Growing domestic and export demand for Permian’s natural gas is pushing pipeline developers to invest in new pipeline capacity in the U.S. Gulf Coast. Chemical and manufacturing industries and data centers looking for reliable energy supply drive increased domestic consumption, while the booming LNG exports from the Texas and Louisiana coasts, and at least half a dozen new export plants expected to start up by the end of the decade, are prompting new-built or expanded links to feed gas to the LNG facilities. With a favorable in-state regulatory…

The global electric vehicle sector is facing massive uncertainty. Policy whiplash, the end of a leasing era, and a crowded market are creating a complicated landscape for EV makers, and a price war could be coming down the pike. Times are very tough for EV makers, but may be shaping up to be better than ever for EV buyers. A record number of EV leases will be returned in the United States in 2026, causing a surge in used EV supplies and therefore making the used vehicles more affordable than ever before. At least 243,000 EV leases are set to expire,…

New oil and gas drilling could commence in California if President Donald Trump gets his way, as the U.S. federal government continues to support a “Drill, baby, drill” approach to fossil fuel production.  In November, the Trump administration plans to allow new oil and gas drilling off the California coast, according to a draft plan shared with the Washington Post. This would be the first time in several decades that new exploration operations were permitted. The document outlines a plan for six offshore lease sales along the…

India has agreed to deepen its energy trade with the United States in a bid to avoid the introduction of higher tariffs on exports by President Donald Trump. In recent months, Trump has threatened several countries with tariffs if they do not import larger quantities of U.S. gas, to varying success. India, like several other Asian countries, has decided that agreeing to increase imports is the best way to help avoid its economy being hit hard by restrictions on trade with the U.S. This week, India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Hardeep…

Australia may still stand as the world’s third-largest LNG exporter (behind Qatar and the United States) but the foundations of that success are faltering. The September 2025 start-up of the Barossa Project, designed to feed Darwin LNG, and ConocoPhillips’ November drilling success in the Otway Basin offer welcome headlines, but they do little to offset the deeper structural imbalance now shaping Australia’s national gas landscape. Most production remains concentrated in Western Australia and Queensland, far from the south-eastern…

For decades, the joke was that nuclear fusion would always be 30 years away. Harnessing the process that powers our sun here on Earth was a lofty thought experiment ripped from the pages of a science fiction novel that smacked of futurism rather than pragmatism. But in the last few years, the rate of technological breakthroughs has sped up astronomically, finally making commercial fusion a matter of when, not if.  Achieving fusion here on Earth requires staggering levels of heat – in the region of 100 million degrees Celsius –…

The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted in 2023 that the global peak in oil demand would likely take place by 2030, as governments worldwide introduced plans for a green transition and fossil fuel companies began to diversify their portfolios to include renewable alternatives. However, this month, the IEA has backtracked on this prediction, stating that oil demand could continue growing through to 2050. This reflects a U-turn by many countries on climate commitments and by oil and gas companies on energy diversification efforts.  In…

Africa is at a clean energy crossroads. Cheap solar panels and critical lines of funding from China are affording the continent the opportunity to develop the African clean energy sector, but this access to affordable supply chains and abundant international investment comes at the cost of the continent’s energy sovereignty. African leaders must now decide if they want to take the low-hanging fruit of cooperation with China, or take the much harder road of forging their own supply chains for aid-free energy independence. Africa is in a tough…

After selecting Rolls-Royce as the United Kingdom’s preferred bidder to build the country’s first small modular reactors (SMRs), the government has confirmed the start of project development in Wales. The development of SMR technology is expected to help the U.K. expand its nuclear power capacity, as well as become a competitive SMR power. However, the United States Trump administration, which recently signed an agreement with the U.K. for SMR development, does not support the choice of a British company for the development of the technology. …

An experimental Chinese nuclear plant reportedly just crossed a historic threshold, successfully operating the world’s first thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR). The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics has broken a major scientific barrier by successfully converting thorium to uranium in a historic first. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that the breakthrough, which took place at an experimental reactor out in the Gobi Desert, is “poised to reshape the future of clean sustainable…

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is in Kyrgyzstan as part of a three-country tour of Central Asia to reaffirm Beijing’s status as the region’s top trading partner following US diplomatic inroads at a high-profile summit in Washington earlier this month. US President Donald Trump hosted the five Central Asian presidents at the White House in early November for a summit focused on tapping into the region’s abundant and strategic critical mineral wealth. While not in the spotlight, China’s growing economic and political influence…

I’ve followed the promise of small modular reactors (SMRs) and next-generation nuclear in several of my earlier pieces on OilPrice. The argument is familiar: nuclear provides low-carbon baseload, ensures energy security, and will one day deliver affordable, clean power. It sounds persuasive, until you look at the numbers. New nuclear remains slow, expensive, and deeply reliant on state support. In today’s European power markets, where renewables are already driving prices to record lows or even negative territory, the idea that nuclear…

Turkmenistan is home to over two-thirds of the 25 largest methane emissions sites identified worldwide so far in 2025, according to an academic monitoring initiative. Researchers at UCLA’s Stop Methane Project mapped over 3,100 methane plumes at oil & natural gas extraction “sites in dozens of countries of all income levels and in all world regions.” They based the findings on data provided by Carbon Mapper, a non-profit working to fully chart “greenhouse gas emissions to empower mitigation action.” …