Japan has pledged to buy more American energy products as part of the July trade deal with the United States, but no Japanese refinery is built to handle 100% U.S.-sourced crude, Japan’s refining industry says. In July, the U.S. completed what President Donald Trump touted on Truth Social as “a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made.”  Under the trade agreement, Japan’s goods imported in the United States will face a 15% tariff, lower than the 24% proposed in early April and the 25% tariff…

China has boosted imports of Russia’s flagship Urals crude, as refiners buy additional volumes of discounted oil while India is hesitant amid U.S. threats over its purchases of Russian oil. China is the top buyer of Russian crude, but most of its imports consist of the ESPO grade shipped from Russia’s port of Kozmino in the Far East. Urals, on the other hand, is being shipped from the ports in western Russia to India, and China hasn’t imported much of the grade due to higher shipping costs and longer voyages.   However, with…

A Lukoil refinery in the Russian city of Volgograd is on fire after being hit by Ukrainian drones overnight, Andrey Bocharov, governor of the Volgograd region, said on Tuesday. The Volgograd refinery is Lukoil’s second-biggest crude processing facility in Russia and a key fuel supplier to the southern federal district in the country. Russia has said it had shot down 13 Ukrainian drones over the Volgograd region on August 19, the Kyiv Independent reports. The attack on the Volgograd refinery is the latest in a series of at least half a dozen…

Over the past couple of years, uranium and nuclear energy markets have enjoyed a renaissance thanks to surging global power demand and the global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Last year, uranium prices hit an all-time high, with U.S. production of yellowcake growing more than a dozen-fold to 700,000 pounds as producers looked to leverage high prices. However, uranium is no longer trading on legacy sentiment, with prices moving more on fundamentals characterized by tight physical supply, underbuilt production pipelines,…

On August 15, just as the much-anticipated meeting between President Trump and President Putin was taking place, a development of potentially far-reaching consequences but little immediate attention surfaced in Moscow. President Putin signed an alteration to his 2022 decree that had transferred the Sakhalin-1 project fully under Russian jurisdiction, this time supplementing it with conditions for the possible return of foreign companies to the venture. The change carries more weight than the quiet timing suggested. At its core lies Russia’s…

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) became the key global emergency energy source from the moment that Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Unlike pipelined energy that requires time-consuming infrastructure build-out and contract negotiations before it can be moved anywhere, LNG can be bought in the spot market when required and move swiftly to wherever it is needed. As increasing sanctions have hit Russia’s previously enormous global oil and gas exports, LNG’s crucial importance to the world’s energy balance has, if anything,…

Global oil supply at current rates may not be enough to meet rising demand if it grows at the pace expected by OPEC, according to the latest resource estimate by intelligence firm Rystad Energy. Recoverable oil resources, including estimates for undiscovered fields, have stabilized at approximately 1.5 trillion barrels globally. However, in the most significant revision in resources over the last 10 years, Rystad Energy has lowered its estimate by around 456 billion barrels for yet-to-find resources. That’s because frontier exploration has…

The return of previously curtailed oil production by OPEC+ members is killing U.S. shale growth, with industry executives referring to it as a “price war” to the Financial Times. A prediction by the IEA of a deep oil glut is not helping, either. The shale industry is facing tough times. “We are not going to be putting any more rigs out until prices get back and stabilise in the $75 range ahead. You will see US production start to drop in the fall and into 2026,” the chief executive of Latigo Petroleum, Kirk Edwards, told…

Let’s start with the punchline: a wave of canceled hydrogen megaprojects is not a disaster, it’s a sign of success. The sector is maturing fast, shedding the glam tours and stick-to-the-basics players who couldn’t deliver, and leaving room for quietly effective pioneers. The hype bubble burst (and rightly so) Between 2021 and today, low-carbon hydrogen demand is still tiny—just under 1 million tonnes in 2023 out of a total global hydrogen demand of 97 million tonnes, and mostly still fossil-based. Meanwhile, the Hydrogen…

Brent crude rose 1.02% to $66.52 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) climbed 0.96% to $63.40 on Monday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump. Traders are watching closely for potential shifts in U.S. sanctions on Russian exports, a key driver of global supply dynamics. Prices held steady as traders judged that immediate risks to Russian supply had eased following last week’s Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska, where the two leaders discussed a broader peace framework, according…

Brent crude rose 1.02% to $66.52 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) climbed 0.96% to $63.40 on Monday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump. Traders are watching closely for potential shifts in U.S. sanctions on Russian exports, a key driver of global supply dynamics. Prices held steady as traders judged that immediate risks to Russian supply had eased following last week’s Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska, where the two leaders discussed a broader peace framework, according…

Texas is preparing to cut off power to data centers during grid emergencies — a sign of just how strained the system has become. Over the Fourth of July, deadly floods swept across central Texas, disrupting infrastructure and causing widespread outages. Meanwhile, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has already seen multiple price spikes and conservation alerts — not because there wasn’t enough power, but because we couldn’t move it where it was needed. These aren’t isolated events. It’s not just…

U.S. solar equities surged on Monday after the Treasury Department issued updated guidance on renewable energy tax credits, delivering long-awaited clarity for developers and investors. The decision provided relief to residential solar providers, which had faced months of uncertainty over whether new federal rules would complicate access to subsidies. Shares of Sunrun gained nearly 9% on Monday, after sealing 5-day gains of nearly 30%, making it the strongest performer in the sector. SolarEdge is sitting on 5-day gains of nearly 22%, still tracking…

U.S. solar equities surged on Monday after the Treasury Department issued updated guidance on renewable energy tax credits, delivering long-awaited clarity for developers and investors. The decision provided relief to residential solar providers, which had faced months of uncertainty over whether new federal rules would complicate access to subsidies. Shares of Sunrun gained nearly 9% on Monday, after sealing 5-day gains of nearly 30%, making it the strongest performer in the sector. SolarEdge is sitting on 5-day gains of nearly 22%, still tracking…

In a shock development, crisis-prone Argentina, South America’s second-largest economy, recently emerged as the continent’s third-largest oil producer. The surge in unconventional hydrocarbon output from Vaca Muerta, one of the world's top five shale formations, is driving significant growth in oil and natural gas production. Argentina’s national oil company YPF is leading the shale play’s development and shaping up to be one of the best run state state-owned energy companies in Latin America. Despite being nationalized…

Brazil’s oil and gas regulator ANP has approved an 18-month extension of the exploration period for the Aram block in the Santos Basin pre-salt, pushing the deadline for Petrobras and China’s CNOOC to meet their commitments to June 30, 2029, according to BNamericas. The move gives the consortium more time to advance drilling in one of Brazil’s most promising pre-salt areas, seen as critical to maintaining oil supply self-sufficiency in the next decade. The Aram block was acquired in March 2020 during ANP’s 6th production-sharing…

Brazil’s oil and gas regulator ANP has approved an 18-month extension of the exploration period for the Aram block in the Santos Basin pre-salt, pushing the deadline for Petrobras and China’s CNOOC to meet their commitments to June 30, 2029, according to BNamericas. The move gives the consortium more time to advance drilling in one of Brazil’s most promising pre-salt areas, seen as critical to maintaining oil supply self-sufficiency in the next decade. The Aram block was acquired in March 2020 during ANP’s 6th production-sharing…

The UK’s largest bioethanol plant is to shut, its owner has said, after the government decided not offer the struggling factory an emergency funding settlement after months of fraught negotiations. Vivergo Fuels had been locked in talks over its future with the business department since June, after it warned an element of the UK-US trade deal had left its operations financially unviable. But in a statement on Friday, the ABF-owned firm said its Hull plant would not be able to continue operations after the government confirmed it would not…

Top U.S. and Iraqi officials have discussed the potential resumption of oil exports from Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan and the role of the U.S. oil companies operating in the country, the Iraqi foreign ministry said on Monday. Oil exports from Kurdistan have now been halted for two and a half years, after they were shut in in March 2023 due to a dispute over who should authorize the Kurdish exports. Despite some breakthroughs in negotiations in recent months, the disagreements have continued. Before the halt to…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, bolstered by the presence of key European allies, is set to meet President Donald Trump in a session that could help decide his embattled nation's future, even as Trump appeared to shift the burden to Zelenskyy to end the war with Russia. "President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight," Trump wrote on Truth Social in a series of posts late on August 17, hours ahead of the scheduled White House meeting. Trump, who has attempted to…