India’s government is asking domestic refiners to provide timely and accurate data on a weekly basis of imports of Russian and U.S. crude, as New Delhi plans to show the data to the U.S. Administration as it seeks a trade deal, sources with knowledge of the efforts told Reuters on Friday.   “We want timely and accurate data on Russian and U.S. oil imports so that, when the U.S. asks for information, we can provide verified figures instead of them relying on secondary sources,” an anonymous Indian government official…

Recently, many people have begun talking about the US having a k-shaped economy. In it, a handful of wealthy people are doing very well financially, while many others are falling further and further behind. I expect that the low wages of the majority of workers will soon lead to adverse impacts on businesses, governments, and international organizations. This phenomenon is likely to lead to a very uneven world economic downturn in 2026. The world economy is subject to the laws of physics. The world economy seems to be reaching growth limits because…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict The situation in Venezuela has further escalated after a drone strike on a port facility linked to the Maduro government, an incident Trump publicly said was carried out by the United States, without details, with later reports attributing the strike to a CIA operation. Nothing has been formally confirmed. Venezuelan authorities accused U.S. intelligence of direct involvement and raised security measures following the attack. This coincides with more maritime interdiction warnings and the release of more political…

Earlier this week, Aden airport (in Yemen’s interim capital) was shut after a dispute between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and UAE-aligned STC forces over control of airport operations and security. Government officials attempted to assert authority over the site, which was refused by STC security forces on the ground, leading to a total suspension of flights.  Aden is the interim capital and the main southern logistics hub. The closure shows that the government cannot impose decisions at key infrastructure sites and that Saudi…

Coal India Limited, the biggest coal producer in the world’s second-biggest coal user, opened this year its online coal supply auctions directly to buyers in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, as Indian coal supply has swelled amid weaker-than-expected demand in recent months.  Amid an oversupply of coal and weaker demand, India and its top state coal producer are looking to optimize domestic supply and monetize exports to neighboring countries. Until 2026, only middlemen could bid in Coal India’s online supply auctions. This has now…

China’s largest and deepest offshore gas field has shipped its 100th cargo of condensate, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China’s top offshore crude oil and natural gas producer, said on Friday.  Production of the first phase of the gas field, Deep Sea No. 1, began in 2021, with the second development phase commencing in 2025, said the company quoted by Chinese state news agency Xinhua.  In 2025, total oil and gas output at Deep Sea No. 1 topped 4.5 million tons of oil equivalent, which would be comparable…

Nigeria’s state-owned oil and gas company NNPC this week reported crude oil and condensate production of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) for November 2025, up by 1.3% from October levels.  Natural gas output fell slightly to 6.97 million standard cubic feet per day (mscfd) in November, compared with 6.99 mscfd for the previous month. NNPC’s profit after tax and revenues rose in November from October. Going forward, the company plans to “Intensify collaboration with our partners through year-end and into 2026 to ensure improved…

Turkey will start drilling in a deepwater offshore location in Somalia next month in what would be the country’s first foray in deepwater drilling, Ankara’s energy minister told media today. Alparslan Bayraktar did not provide details about the drilling program, only noting that the Somalian project would be Turkey’s first deepwater exploration project abroad, according to Reuters. The move follows Turkey and Somalia inking an energy exploration deal in 2024, which fits with Turkey’s energy supply diversification plans and…

Oil prices inched higher in early Asian trading on January 2, the first trading session of 2026, as geopolitical tensions continued to provide support after the major benchmarks posted their steepest annual losses since 2020. At the time of writing, Brent crude was up 0.30% at $61.03 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate had climbed 0.30% to $57.59 per barrel. The gains follow a turbulent 2025 in which both benchmarks fell by nearly 20%, marking their worst annual performance since the pandemic-driven collapse in 2020.  Prices found…

Oil prices inched higher in early Asian trading on January 2, the first trading session of 2026, as geopolitical tensions continued to provide support after the major benchmarks posted their steepest annual losses since 2020. At the time of writing, Brent crude was up 0.30% at $61.03 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate had climbed 0.30% to $57.59 per barrel. The gains follow a turbulent 2025 in which both benchmarks fell by nearly 20%, marking their worst annual performance since the pandemic-driven collapse in 2020.  Prices found…

Nuclear power is currently having its "Silicon Valley" moment. After decades of being treated as a dinosaur technology—too slow, too expensive, and too politically toxic—the industry has pivoted toward something it calls the Small Modular Reactor (SMR). The goal is to stop building energy cathedrals and start building energy appliances. The market fundamentals are finally in place for a new era. Global electricity demand is rising at twice the rate of total energy demand, pushed over the edge by the relentless growth of AI data centers…

The Van Allen radiation belts are massive, doughnut-shaped regions of charged particles trapped by Earth's magnetic field. When the Sun blasts Earth with strong solar wind or solar storms, energetic particles are injected into these belts, increasing their overall energy levels. Now, the Van Allen radiation belts are "fully charged," according to space weather observer Stefan Burns. He warns that these belts of energetic particles have been building up due to repeated solar storms over the past few months. "The next solar storm to hit could cause…

Two decades into a successful career manufacturing interiors for the world’s leading auto brands, Tomas, a former senior manager with an Italian multinational company, walked away from the car industry in the autumn of 2025. “I think it's doomed,” the Czech man told RFE/RL, explaining the main reason he walked away from the business. “The industry is doomed.” Tomas has asked that his surname not be used in this story. Europe’s storied car industry is under threat from a flood of high-quality Chinese vehicles…

For more than a decade, Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies have stayed private for longer than ever before, buoyed by deep pools of capital and sovereign wealth funding. But, as interest rates remain higher, AI infrastructure costs balloon and some of the world’s largest private firms mature into businesses of national, and increasingly geopolitical, importance, the public markets are creeping back into view. This is not an IPO boom, with executives continuing to insist they are in no rush, and in many cases, they are probably…

Geothermal is one of the few renewable energy sectors that President Donald Trump has not tried to quash in favour of fossil fuels in the United States. There is significant promise for the future of geothermal power in the United States, even though most projects are still in the nascent stage of development. Both public and private funding are expected to bolster the sector in the coming years.  According to the European Commission, geothermal energy is a renewable energy source harnessed from the thermal energy stored in rocks and fluids…

If 2025 taught us anything, it was that energy markets remain governed by fundamentals, not slogans. The year opened with expectations of policy-driven disruption and geopolitical shocks. It closed with supply, demand, and infrastructure constraints doing what they usually do: overruling expectations. Oil prices fell even as global tensions persisted. Electricity demand grew faster than grids could react. And technologies widely assumed to be on borrowed time proved far more durable than many forecasts suggested. Rather than breakthroughs or collapses,…

Following the Nobel Prize for graphene's discovery in 2010, the gee-whiz nanomaterial has been lauded as a "wonder material" with endless theoretical applications, including graphene super batteries, leading to a "sugar rush" of investor excitement and high valuations of graphene makers such as Applied Graphene Materials Plc. (OTCQB:APGMF) and First Graphene Limited (OTCMKTS:FGPHF). Unfortunately, the actual pace of commercial adoption has been much slower than initially anticipated, causing huge market corrections as expectations realigned with…

South Korea’s move to kill coal will almost certainly have repercussions on two of its largest energy customers, Australia and the United States. A decision on the polluting fossil fuel was made at the COP30 climate conference in Brazil, when South Korea’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment announced plans to retire most of the country’s coal-fired power plants by 2040, and to at least halve its carbon emissions by 2035. Forty of the plants already have confirmed closure dates. South Korea has been criticized for not…

The energy transition is often sold as a story of ethereal "green" progress, but if you look at the balance sheets of the companies actually building it, the story is written in soot and high-voltage electricity. While the financial press spends its time obsessing over the price of lithium or the latest solid-state battery breakthrough, a much more grounded, and expensive, reality is setting in. We are entering the era of the engineered anode. New data suggests the market for ultra-high-purity (UHP) graphite is on a trajectory to hit $1.43 billion…

Iran's leadership is facing mounting pressure from abroad and emerging dissent from within as street protests over its reeling economy and the threat of a new round of military strikes hang over the country. Demonstrations were reported in several cities, with markets and shops shuttered and students holding rallies at universities, on December 30. This follows two days of demonstrations that saw security forces launch volleys of tear gas to disperse crowds. People were chanting anti-government slogans to protest a sharp weakening of the currency.…