ADNOC Logistics and Services has placed a $900-million order for four newbuild LNG carriers to expand its fleet as Abu Dhabi’s national oil company seeks to boost gas exports to seize the global rise in LNG demand. ADNOC Logistics and Services on Friday announced a newbuilding order for an additional four next-generation LNG carriers with a total value of approximately $900 million, or 3.3 billion UAE dirhams. The newly-built vessels will be constructed at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, China, and are expected to be delivered in 2029. This…

August WTI crude oil traded higher during the week ending July 10, with prices last at $71.84 through Thursday evening, up $3.38, or 4.94%. The contract posted a wide weekly range, climbing from a low of $67.82 to a high of $76.08 before pulling back late Thursday. The week's advance was driven by one dominant theme: growing concern over global oil supplies. Traders added a larger risk premium to crude prices as renewed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East raised questions about the security of oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Those…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict A UK High Court ruling has ended Nord Stream AG’s attempt to recover $662 million in insurance claims from the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, with a judge ruling it a standard war-risk exclusion and relieving insurers of liability (Lloyd’s and Arch). The court also rejected Nord Stream AG’s argument that separate damage to one section of the pipeline had been caused by a ship’s anchor rather than explosives. This ruling establishes an important legal precedent…

The U.S. launched another major round of strikes across Iran this week, targeting roughly 90 military sites, including coastal radar installations, anti-ship missile batteries, drone launch positions, command networks and IRGC naval assets around Hormuz.  Tehran responded within hours with missile and drone attacks against U.S. military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar while insisting it will continue enforcing its own navigation regime through the Strait.  For Tehran, control of Hormuz is now the top strategic objective. Western…

ADNOC Logistics and Services has placed a $900-million order for four newbuild LNG carriers to expand its fleet as Abu Dhabi’s national oil company seeks to boost gas exports to seize the global rise in LNG demand. ADNOC Logistics and Services on Friday announced a newbuilding order for an additional four next-generation LNG carriers with a total value of approximately $900 million, or 3.3 billion UAE dirhams. The newly-built vessels will be constructed at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, China, and are expected to be delivered in 2029. This…

Every great economic era has been defined by a fight over a single resource. In the 19th century, it was coal, and the British Empire was built on top of it. In the 20th century, it was oil, and the modern Middle East and American postwar dominance were both shaped by who controlled the flow. In the early 21st century, semiconductors became the world’s most critical asset, sparking the rise of Taiwan, growing trade tensions with China, and the creation of several multi-trillion-dollar tech giants. The next fight is already underway, and almost…

While financial desks obsess over paper structures and Brent crude briefly flirted with contango, the broader market is missing the forest for the trees. Brent crude’s recent rebound from $71 to $79 a barrel is not merely a brief short-covering bounce; it is the first tremor of an underlying structural deficit. The financial side of the market has become completely decoupled from a complex, fragmenting physical reality. The real story isn't a long-term supply glut—it is an artificial, short-term distortion masking critically low inventories…

Oil prices spiked again on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump declared that the ceasefire deal with Iran is over and vowed to strike Iran again, effectively ending the tentative peace deal barely a month after signing. Iran struck three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday that were using an alternative route near Oman's coast rather than the northern corridor controlled by Tehran, prompting retaliatory attacks by the United States. Iran has threatened to completely close the Strait of Hormuz again and strike twice as…

The Federal Reserve still thinks energy prices are headed lower even as missiles are flying again in the Middle East. New York Fed President John Williams said Thursday that the market's expectation for oil prices to ease over the next six to 12 months remains "a pretty reasonable baseline," despite the collapse of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire framework and renewed attacks threatening energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. That optimism may prove difficult to maintain. Oil markets have spent the past week whipsawing between hopes for diplomacy and…

A United States firm just got one step closer to realizing the development of a thorium reactor – using a 3D printer. The Florida-based advanced nuclear energy company AMPERA successfully fabricated a nuclear reactor module using a 3D printer, which will serve as the basis for what the firm hopes will be the first thorium-powered nuclear power system that is entirely factory-built, subcritical, and solid-state. “This next-generation nuclear core and pressure vessel sets the foundation for factory-built, mass-produced nuclear energy,”…

Iraq just bought itself another year. Turkey and Iraq are expected to sign a 12-month extension of the agreement governing the Iraq-Turkey crude oil pipeline within days, preventing a July 27 expiration that threatened one of Baghdad's few remaining viable oil export routes. Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said the agreement is in its final stages and will ensure crude continues flowing from Iraq to the Mediterranean export terminal at Ceyhan. It's only a one-year extension, but right now that's enough. Before the Iran war, the pipeline…

Iraq just bought itself another year. Turkey and Iraq are expected to sign a 12-month extension of the agreement governing the Iraq-Turkey crude oil pipeline within days, preventing a July 27 expiration that threatened one of Baghdad's few remaining viable oil export routes. Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said the agreement is in its final stages and will ensure crude continues flowing from Iraq to the Mediterranean export terminal at Ceyhan. It's only a one-year extension, but right now that's enough. Before the Iran war, the pipeline…

Iraq’s new prime minister, Ali Al-Zaidi, will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. on 14 July - shortly after America’s Independence Day on July 4th. Trump will no doubt highlight America’s struggle for independence and will press Al-Zaidi to make Iraq independent of Iran, but is Trump ready for an Iraq that is independent of America? It’s a good question because the same day the White House released the terms of the 14-point U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), The New Arab reported the U.S. delivered…

Citi's Robotics & Physical AI Leadership Conference wrapped up on Tuesday. The annual Citi Research event brings together robotics founders, investors, operators, and industry executives to assess the state of "physical AI." Analyst Heath Terry summarized the key takeaways Wednesday morning, painting a picture of the robotics industry moving from proof of concept to commercial deployment, while warning that scaling robots remains challenging. "Labor shortages, reshoring, and favorable regulatory tailwinds are accelerating enterprise demand,…

China has walked away from the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project, ending speculation over one of Georgia’s most important infrastructure projects. The Georgian government now says it wants to develop and operate the port on its own. Few infrastructure projects in the Caucasus have been as geopolitically embattled as Anaklia. The project was launched in 2016, with a consortium of Georgian and US companies taking the lead in construction. The Georgian Dream government eventually canceled the $2.5 billion contract in 2020 and hit pause for a few…

While much of the world spent 2025 debating peak oil, the United States was busy setting another production record. New data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that U.S. crude oil production, including lease condensate, averaged a record 13.6 million barrels per day last year, extending America’s run as the world’s largest crude producer. That streak began in 2018, when the United States overtook Russia. Since then, shale has done what shale does best: annoy OPEC, defy forecasts, and keep pumping. The 2025 figure…

When the UAE said it was leaving OPEC so it could boost production as much as it wanted, it sparked speculation, yet again, that OPEC was falling apart. The peace deal between the United States and Iran was a done deal in the eyes of oil traders, and the race for market share was on. Then the missiles started flying again, the U.S. president said the ceasefire is dead, and long-term oil disruption in the OPEC heartland came to the fore. Reuters’ Ron Bousso earlier this week suggested OPEC was on course to turn “from market manager to…

It is fair to say that the final day of the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8 got off to a tense start. Overnight, the United States had resumed strikes on Iran after an uneasy cease-fire. The entire conflict had shaken the military alliance, with US President Donald Trump slamming European allies for not helping out and questioning their “loyalty.” In his joint press appearance with the NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on July 8, he again ripped into European nations for delaying or preventing US airplanes from using bases on the continent…

Indonesia has recently welcomed the first cargo of Russian crude oil under a deal Southeast Asia’s biggest economy struck with Moscow in April. About 770,000 barrels of Russian crude oil was delivered to Indonesia’s port of Balikpapan at the end of June, per customs data by Big Trade Data cited by Bloomberg. This was the first shipment of crude oil from Russia to Indonesia since the two countries agreed in April, at peak Hormuz crisis, on a regular supply deal. Indonesia produces some 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd), but…

Indonesia has recently welcomed the first cargo of Russian crude oil under a deal Southeast Asia’s biggest economy struck with Moscow in April. About 770,000 barrels of Russian crude oil was delivered to Indonesia’s port of Balikpapan at the end of June, per customs data by Big Trade Data cited by Bloomberg. This was the first shipment of crude oil from Russia to Indonesia since the two countries agreed in April, at peak Hormuz crisis, on a regular supply deal. Indonesia produces some 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd), but…