Traffic at the Strait of Hormuz remains at the lowest in more than two months as security concerns have intensified with recent attacks on ships and persistent threats to shipping in the region. After a brief respite between the middle of June and early July, when traffic at Hormuz rose with the tentative opening of the chokepoint as part of the now-dead U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, traffic of all vessels, including commodity carriers, plunged to a two-month low as of the end of July. And it hasn't recovered, despite U.S. attempts to…

Namibia is rapidly emerging as Africa’s next major oil producer while neighboring South Africa, which controls roughly two-thirds of the same Orange Basin petroleum province, remains years behind in developing essentially the same petroleum system. The Orange Basin, an offshore deepwater petroleum province spanning the Atlantic maritime border between the two countries, is estimated to contain more than 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Yet while Namibia has attracted a succession of world-class discoveries and moved rapidly toward commercial…

The world is running short on fuels—the warning was first issued by some analysts who were watching the physical market rather than futures charts. Now, Big Oil is joining the chorus of warnings, with Shell, Exxon and Chevron all saying that prices at the pump are set to stay higher, regardless of where crude oil prices go. “The constraint pain point in the energy system is refining," Exxon’s chief financial officer Neil Hansen told Bloomberg in an interview last week. This, according to him, is “something that perhaps the…

Continental Resources, the company founded by shale billionaire Harold Hamm, looks to expand in Vaca Muerta as international companies vie to develop Argentina’s proven prolific shale patch. Continental is set to bid in this year’s bid round for acreage in Vaca Muerta in the biggest auction in the basin in a decade, sources with knowledge of the plans have told Bloomberg. Bids will be opened on August 19. The province of Neuquén, where most of Vaca Muerta is located, has launched the biggest licensing round in the shale play…

China is winning the race for global clean energy dominance. Beijing has outspent every other country on Earth for years now, and controls critical global clean energy supply chains. Over the same time period, the United States has taken a major step back from clean energy objectives under the Trump administration, giving Beijing even more leverage. But while China’s ascension to global energy superpower status may seem like a foregone conclusion against this backdrop, the United States may have a unique opportunity to even the playing field…

Over 1,600 days into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 10-day special military operation and the situation for the Kremlin continues to deteriorate. Since Moscow ordered its troops illegally into Ukraine on 24 February 2022, more than 450,000 of them have been killed, with another 1 million wounded or missing. Ukraine’s extraordinary development of its own military -- including a stunning build-out of its drone capabilities -- now means Russian monthly casualties have reached the critical negative replacement rate -- meaning that there…

Russian crude processing fell to its lowest level in more than two decades in July after Ukraine expanded its drone campaign from refineries to tankers, pipelines and export infrastructure, according to The Moscow Times, citing Bloomberg analysis.  Russian refineries processed an estimated 3.6 million barrels per day in July, the lowest monthly level since May 2002 and roughly one-third below the seasonal average. Between 2020 and 2025, Russian refineries typically processed between 5.3 million and 5.6 million barrels per day during the same…

Russian crude processing fell to its lowest level in more than two decades in July after Ukraine expanded its drone campaign from refineries to tankers, pipelines and export infrastructure, according to The Moscow Times, citing Bloomberg analysis.  Russian refineries processed an estimated 3.6 million barrels per day in July, the lowest monthly level since May 2002 and roughly one-third below the seasonal average. Between 2020 and 2025, Russian refineries typically processed between 5.3 million and 5.6 million barrels per day during the same…

We are still in the early innings of the earnings season, with roughly a third of S&P 500 companies having returned their second quarter scorecards. And, it’s shaping up to be yet another bumper earnings season: according to FactSet data, 86% of those companies have exceeded Wall Street’s earnings projections while 80% have beaten revenue expectations. The Energy sector is reporting the highest earnings growth clip of all 11 market sectors at 128.2% Y/Y, well above the S&P 500 average at 37.9%, thanks in large part to higher…

Desperate to blunt the threat posed by Ukrainian drone attacks, the operator of Wildberries, Russia’s leading e-commerce platform, is looking to lease warehouse space in neighboring Kazakhstan. In response to a series of recent Ukrainian drone strikes across Russia that have destroyed at least 10 percent of Wildberries’ inventory, representatives of RMB Group, the e-commerce platform’s parent company, are scouring Kazakhstan and are “ready to occupy all available warehouse space in the country,” according…

President Donald Trump demanded that U.S. oil companies immediately lower gasoline prices on Monday after crude futures plunged following his decision to suspend another planned military strike on Iran. In a Truth Social post, Trump instructed producers to “get your consumer (retail!) Oil Prices DOWN, NOW!” Trump singled out Chevron CEO Mike Wirth after the executive appeared on television discussing the company’s business. Trump said Wirth failed to acknowledge the administration’s role in restoring Chevron’s position…

President Donald Trump demanded that U.S. oil companies immediately lower gasoline prices on Monday after crude futures plunged following his decision to suspend another planned military strike on Iran. In a Truth Social post, Trump instructed producers to “get your consumer (retail!) Oil Prices DOWN, NOW!” Trump singled out Chevron CEO Mike Wirth after the executive appeared on television discussing the company’s business. Trump said Wirth failed to acknowledge the administration’s role in restoring Chevron’s position…

President Donald Trump demanded that U.S. oil companies immediately lower gasoline prices on Monday after crude futures plunged following his decision to suspend another planned military strike on Iran. In a Truth Social post, Trump instructed producers to “get your consumer (retail!) Oil Prices DOWN, NOW!” Trump singled out Chevron CEO Mike Wirth after the executive appeared on television discussing the company’s business. Trump said Wirth failed to acknowledge the administration’s role in restoring Chevron’s position…

As with all wars, particularly in the world’s main oil and gas repository of the Middle East, the U.S./Israel-Iran conflict has long threatened to widen out to include other interested parties aside from the main protagonists. The involvement of Washington’s and Tel Aviv’s allies so far has been limited to intelligence sharing and strictly defensive air support, rather than participating in offensive bombardments. For Tehran and its proxies, support from its key longtime sponsors China and Russia has been largely focused on diplomatic…

Georgia’s only oil refinery has begun replacing Russian crude with supplies from Kazakhstan and Libya as owner Black Sea Petroleum races to avoid European Union sanctions that will go into effect in January. The Kulevi refinery received and processed Kazakh crude in July and will continue taking Kazakh barrels during August, Black Sea Petroleum said Monday, as reported by Interfax news agency. A Libyan cargo is due to arrive between August 20 and August 30 under a supply agreement signed with an unnamed international company on July 3. The…

A monkey trap offers a reward such as food that, when grasped, makes the hand too large to withdraw from the hole in the trap giving access to that food. Unless the monkey lets go, the animal is stuck. Now, the obvious choice when danger arrives is to simply let go and run. But, supposedly, monkeys won't let go even as human hunters approach and then club them to death. The war with Iran has become the Trump administration's monkey trap; potential victory over Iran is the prize in the trap. Strangely, the only prize now available is something that…

European natural gas prices plunged at opening on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had called off a planned attack on Iranian energy sites and talks on a deal would begin this week. Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices, the Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, sank by 4% at the start of trade on Monday, following the 5% slump in oil prices amid renewed hopes that the U.S. and Iran are looking for a return to diplomacy. However, natural gas prices eased their losses mid-day as Europe faces another heatwave that boosts electricity…

European natural gas prices plunged at opening on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had called off a planned attack on Iranian energy sites and talks on a deal would begin this week. Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices, the Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, sank by 4% at the start of trade on Monday, following the 5% slump in oil prices amid renewed hopes that the U.S. and Iran are looking for a return to diplomacy. However, natural gas prices eased their losses mid-day as Europe faces another heatwave that boosts electricity…

European natural gas prices plunged at opening on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had called off a planned attack on Iranian energy sites and talks on a deal would begin this week. Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices, the Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, sank by 4% at the start of trade on Monday, following the 5% slump in oil prices amid renewed hopes that the U.S. and Iran are looking for a return to diplomacy. However, natural gas prices eased their losses mid-day as Europe faces another heatwave that boosts electricity…

Venezuela's long-awaited oil revival has been slower than many in Washington anticipated, according to the Wall Street Journal. Seven months after Nicolás Maduro's removal, negotiations between the interim government and major U.S. energy companies remain bogged down, with no landmark investment deals despite the country's vast crude reserves. Rather than rushing back into the country, firms such as ExxonMobil and Chevron are taking a cautious approach. Executives remain wary of Venezuela's history of nationalizing foreign assets, unresolved…