The global gas market could remain tight well into next year as Europe enters the heating season with the lowest levels of gas in storage in over a decade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report on Tuesday.  Despite the strengthened interconnectivity of the various regional gas markets in recent years, thanks to expanded spot trading and a higher number of destination-flexible LNG cargoes, the Strait of Hormuz crisis has seriously affected gas markets in Europe and Asia, according to the IEA’s Global Gas Security…

The global gas market could remain tight well into next year as Europe enters the heating season with the lowest levels of gas in storage in over a decade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report on Tuesday.  Despite the strengthened interconnectivity of the various regional gas markets in recent years, thanks to expanded spot trading and a higher number of destination-flexible LNG cargoes, the Strait of Hormuz crisis has seriously affected gas markets in Europe and Asia, according to the IEA’s Global Gas Security…

Brent crude plunged more than $6 per barrel Tuesday morning, falling from $107.24 to $100.80 before recovering to around $104 shortly after 10 a.m. Eastern, as traders reacted to a succession of conflicting reports about U.S.-Iran peace negotiations. The selloff followed Monday's 7.6% decline, which left Brent at $104.77. Prices initially rebounded overnight after reports of U.S. strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island, near the Strait of Hormuz, before reversing sharply Tuesday morning. The first abrupt decline began moments before a Bloomberg-attributed…

Brent crude plunged more than $6 per barrel Tuesday morning, falling from $107.24 to $100.80 before recovering to around $104 shortly after 10 a.m. Eastern, as traders reacted to a succession of conflicting reports about U.S.-Iran peace negotiations. The selloff followed Monday's 7.6% decline, which left Brent at $104.77. Prices initially rebounded overnight after reports of U.S. strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island, near the Strait of Hormuz, before reversing sharply Tuesday morning. The first abrupt decline began moments before a Bloomberg-attributed…

The United States struck Iran's strategic Qeshm Island on November 2, US officials confirmed, in the latest in a series of previously undisclosed military operations against Iran that have continued even as President Donald Trump plays down the prospect of renewed large-scale fighting. The strikes come just hours before the November 3 US midterm elections and follow a shift in Trump’s public rhetoric. After weeks of warning that Washington could resume a major military campaign against Tehran after the vote, the president ruled out an immediate…

“The biggest oil deal in world history” between the Trump Administration and North American Blue Energy Partners may not live up to the hype as the privately held and previously little-known company could face steep challenges in developing Venezuela’s huge oil resources, Reuters reported, citing more than a dozen oil workers, contractors, and experts from the industry. Following the capture of Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces in January, the U.S.-backed interim Venezuelan government has made changes to the legal, regulatory, and…

Germany has missed its gas storage target for the start of winter. Now, the EU’s largest economy faces a difficult heating season as the European gas benchmark topped 100 euros per MWh last week and has stayed there since. Higher prices may turn out to be the smaller problem. A supply crunch would be worse. Every European Union member state has an obligation to secure enough natural gas ahead of winter to fill 80% of storage capacity. Germany has failed to do that, only filling its storage to about 61%. This is problematic because Germany…

Africa now has a bank built to finance the oil and gas projects Western banks and development lenders have dropped under their climate commitments. Afreximbank and the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO) formally established the Africa Energy Bank (AEB) at its inaugural general meeting in Abuja on October 31. That was more than four years after the two institutions began work on it and some 20 months behind schedule.  Abuja beat bids from six countries, including Ghana, Algeria, South Africa and Benin, to host the bank.…

Polls open Tuesday with prediction markets already leaning one way, as Polymarket traders were pricing a Democratic sweep of both chambers at about 71 percent, a Democratic House with a Republican Senate at 24 percent and a Republican sweep at 5 percent. It is a long way from February, when Republicans had about a 60 percent chance of keeping the Senate on both major markets, and the slide since the Iran war began on Feb. 28 has followed rising gas prices and a sinking approval rating for President Donald Trump more closely than any campaign event.…

U.S. President Donald Trump’s core vision of the future of global oil and gas is to have as much of that supply as possible coming from his self-proclaimed ‘Americas’ region, which is directly in the U.S.’s sphere of influence. Venezuela is one of the key countries from which this increased production is designated to flow, which is why Washington is focusing so much of its efforts on encouraging heavy investment from American oil and gas giants into the country. It is in this context that very recent changes to Venezuela’s…

A sanctioned Iranian tanker carrying about 500,000 barrels of liquefied petroleum gas slipped past the U.S. naval blockade and delivered its cargo to China, according to United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which says it filmed the ship at a Malaysian anchorage along the way. Tanker laden with Iranian LPG transiting the Gulf of Oman (Credit: ESA Copernicus & Marine Traffic) (ESA Copernicus & Marine Traffic) The vessel, the SOGL (IMO 9208227), loaded Iranian LPG at Assaluyeh Port in late August and got past the blockade on Sept. 1, UANI told…

In June 1973, during a hearing on the Watergate scandal erupting around President Richard Nixon, Sen. Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee, uttered the most famous words of his entire career: "What did the president know and when did he know it?" It turned out that Nixon knew a lot early on, and that led to his resignation from the presidency a little more than a year later. Since then, a form of that question has become central in investigations of many high-profile scandals, including public health calamities such as those related to leaded…

Sunday saw another vessel attacked in Persian Gulf regional waters. The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) reported that a ship was struck by two projectiles some 83 miles east of Ras al-Khafji, which is the Saudi town on the Kuwaiti border in the northern Persian Gulf. Significantly and unusually, this particular attack occurred hundreds of miles from the Strait of Hormuz itself. Also, in this instance, the vessel targeted was not a large tanker, but instead was a tugboat. "On Sunday evening, an Emirati-owned offshore tug was hit by a…

A year after forecasting that oil demand would keep rising until 2040, TotalEnergies has moved its peak forward to between 2035 and 2040, and says the Iran war could accelerate the energy transition. The company’s annual energy outlook, released on Monday, projects demand for petroleum products plateauing through the 2030s before a slow decline. Chief sustainability officer Aurélien Hamelle told reporters that demand could fall faster if EV sales keep growing. In November 2025, TotalEnergies forecast oil demand rising nearly 5% to…

A year after forecasting that oil demand would keep rising until 2040, TotalEnergies has moved its peak forward to between 2035 and 2040, and says the Iran war could accelerate the energy transition. The company’s annual energy outlook, released on Monday, projects demand for petroleum products plateauing through the 2030s before a slow decline. Chief sustainability officer Aurélien Hamelle told reporters that demand could fall faster if EV sales keep growing. In November 2025, TotalEnergies forecast oil demand rising nearly 5% to…

Concern is rising in Central Asia about the region’s ability to generate sufficient heat and electricity during the upcoming winter season. Worries are perhaps greatest at present in Kyrgyzstan, where demand has surged in recent weeks due to the early onset of cold weather. An October 29 report published by the 24.kg news agency highlighted that Central Asia’s power grid is fragile, at risk of breaking down in winter. It cited a Eurasian Development Bank study of the grid’s performance in 2024 that showed it was frequently overloaded,…

Oil prices plunged nearly 7% on Monday after Washington and Tehran both signaled they would give diplomacy a chance, wiping out part of the war premium that lifted crude through October. Brent traded at $105.60 per barrel, down $7.85, and WTI fell $7.20 to $96.92.  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that the Supreme Leader has granted the government “certain authorities” over peace talks and that Tehran “will try to resolve the problem with dialogue,” state media reported.  Foreign Minister Abbas…

Oil prices plunged nearly 7% on Monday after Washington and Tehran both signaled they would give diplomacy a chance, wiping out part of the war premium that lifted crude through October. Brent traded at $105.60 per barrel, down $7.85, and WTI fell $7.20 to $96.92.  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that the Supreme Leader has granted the government “certain authorities” over peace talks and that Tehran “will try to resolve the problem with dialogue,” state media reported.  Foreign Minister Abbas…

Oil prices plunged nearly 7% on Monday after Washington and Tehran both signaled they would give diplomacy a chance, wiping out part of the war premium that lifted crude through October. Brent traded at $105.60 per barrel, down $7.85, and WTI fell $7.20 to $96.92.  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that the Supreme Leader has granted the government “certain authorities” over peace talks and that Tehran “will try to resolve the problem with dialogue,” state media reported.  Foreign Minister Abbas…

Oil prices plunged nearly 7% on Monday after Washington and Tehran both signaled they would give diplomacy a chance, wiping out part of the war premium that lifted crude through October. Brent traded at $105.60 per barrel, down $7.85, and WTI fell $7.20 to $96.92.  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that the Supreme Leader has granted the government “certain authorities” over peace talks and that Tehran “will try to resolve the problem with dialogue,” state media reported.  Foreign Minister Abbas…