Reports about recovering oil flows in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea have dominated headlines over the past couple of weeks. Yet oil prices have only moved higher, suggesting barrel numbers alone are not enough to convince the world everything’s back to normal. It isn’t. According to the latest Kpler numbers, October oil exports out of the Middle East in total are in fact higher than they were before the U.S. and Israel launched their first strikes on Iran at the end of February. Flows out of the Strait of Hormuz alone have averaged…

The United Kingdom has invested heavily in expanding its renewable energy capacity in recent years to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and support a green transition. However, one major problem stands in the way of it achieving this goal – its unprepared transmission infrastructure. Despite several new wind and solar projects coming online, the U.K. still relies heavily on natural gas due to grid inefficiencies that are delaying the shift to green energy. The U.K. is spending up to £50 million a day to balance its power grid, as…

The United Nations says that it is now an inevitability that the world will fail to meet the legally binding goals set forth by the Paris climate accord as a result of “decades of insufficient climate action”. The Paris Agreement, ratified in 2015, targeted limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages, with a fallback target of 2?, with the understanding that this looser allowance would lead to far more devastating consequences for global ecosystems, human health, the economy, and future generations.…

The host of the United Nations’ COP31 climate summit, Turkey, is encouraging wealthy countries participating in the conference to spend more on climate support than on defence. This follows Turkey’s announcement in September that it plans to invest heavily in developing its renewable energy capacity in the coming years. However, Turkey also intends to expand its oil and gas production, which could be at odds with its climate aims. COP31 will be held in the southern Turkish province of Antalya from 9th – 20th November with a first-of-its-kind…

The Iran war has made oil tanker voyages so inefficient that vessel availability has crumbled and freight costs have soared to record-highs, all but erasing the incentive for shipping crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Asia. The cost of shipping crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to China soared to as high as $80 million earlier this month. That’s ten times the average tanker rates that had held for years before the Iran war. Freight rates have eased from the record highs seen in early October, but they were still about $60 million for…

Singapore’s shipping-fuel market is adding another layer of cost to Asian trade. Disrupted supplies from the Middle East and Russia, resilient bunker demand and prohibitive freight rates have pushed high-sulphur fuel oil above the price of the crude used to produce it. Seasonal relief from Gulf producers and additional Chinese export allowances could ease the squeeze towards year-end, particularly for very-low-sulphur fuel oil. But with replacement cargoes expensive to transport and Russian supplies vulnerable to further disruption, a return…

Syria is undergoing countrywide reconstruction after more than a decade of conflict, which caused extensive infrastructure damage and led to millions of people being displaced. As Syrians rebuild their lives, the government has big plans for economic diversification and growth to support long-term recovery. Thanks to its favourable geographic position, this includes the development of a strong energy sector that could help eventually establish Syria as a regional hub. Syria is now led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who formed a transitional government…

A geothermal startup aiming to source energy directly from undersea volcanoes just hit a major milestone that could bring round-the-clock clean energy to cities on the northwest coast of the United States and serve as a critical proof of concept for other regions, with particular relevance for the other 14 countries situated along the Pacific Ring of Fire.  Seattle-based energy startup Endurance Energy just announced that it successfully created net-positive energy from its underwater geothermal plant in a world first. The company successfully…

United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted offshore wind since coming into office last year, as he strives to expand the country’s fossil fuel sector and shift the focus away from renewable energy. Trump has sought to halt the development of several offshore wind projects and has even resorted to paying companies to relinquish their leases on areas off the U.S. coast to instead invest in oil and gas projects. Now, Trump is looking to rescind approval for Connecticut’s first offshore wind project, Revolution Wind, as…

On October 9, hours after a phone call between President Trump and President Putin, the Treasury Department issued a six-month waiver allowing Russian diesel to be sold on the global market. The stated aim is to bring down fuel prices before the November 3 midterms. But I believe the deal is more consequential than that. It fits a larger strategy: for the United States to control as much of the world’s energy supply as possible, while denying it to its chief rival, China. A pattern, not a one-off The strategy began in Venezuela. Since US…

The United States is dipping into its Strategic Petroleum Reserve again, this time to keep crude flowing to a Louisiana refinery while oil prices climb above $117 per barrel. The reserve, meanwhile, is already at its lowest level since 1982. The Department of Energy on Friday authorized an emergency exchange of up to 400,000 barrels to Phillips 66's Lake Charles refinery, citing a temporary disruption to crude deliveries. The oil will come from the reserve's West Hackberry site in Louisiana and is available for immediate delivery. Lake Charles…

The United States is dipping into its Strategic Petroleum Reserve again, this time to keep crude flowing to a Louisiana refinery while oil prices climb above $117 per barrel. The reserve, meanwhile, is already at its lowest level since 1982. The Department of Energy on Friday authorized an emergency exchange of up to 400,000 barrels to Phillips 66's Lake Charles refinery, citing a temporary disruption to crude deliveries. The oil will come from the reserve's West Hackberry site in Louisiana and is available for immediate delivery. Lake Charles…

The United States and Canada are locked in an energy trade war – sort of. Although United States President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have lobbed plenty of blisteringly high tariffs, not to mention threats and insults, at each other over the course of their respective tenures, they have not touched one very important commodity – oil and gas. This is because the nations are simply too dependent on each other to sever the ties between their respective fossil fuel empires, making true independence a purely pyrrhic…

The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed a revolutionary new battery that could power the country’s return to the moon while potentially also revolutionizing the way that we power electric vehicles here on Earth. The new technology can function at extremely cold temperatures, opening new possibilities for powering lunar rovers and tools, and could eventually make batteries for terrestrial applications safer, more versatile, and more efficient.   “The technology could eventually…

Oil traders sold futures equivalent to at least 6 million barrels of crude in just two minutes on March 23, shortly before President Donald Trump backed away from threats to strike Iranian power plants. Now, the federal regulator overseeing those trades says it has been looking into the activity. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig said Friday that the agency's enforcement division has been examining oil trading during the Iran war, including the unusual surge preceding Trump's announcement. "Our enforcement division has…

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States remained unchanged for the second week in a row this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, with the total rig count in the US staying at 603, up 53 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 1, to 460 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 40 above this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 1 to 132, which is 11 more than this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the…

Brent crude nears $120 as escalating Saudi-Houthi tensions fuel another weekly oil price rally, putting fresh pressure on Trump. Friday, October 23, 2026 The slow creep of oil prices towards the $120 per barrel mark is a nightmarish scenario for US President Trump, even though there has been little fundamental change in the crude oil markets. A slight drop in freight rates and a ubiquitous flattening of backwardated curves lowered differentials of most grades globally, offsetting some of the pressures coming from higher crude benchmarks. Be that…

US officials publicly accused Russia of threatening a Finnish-operated commercial satellite that provides imagery and intelligence to Ukraine and other nations, calling the move "deliberately reckless." In response to the accusations, made during a United Nations debate on October 21, Russia broadly described US claims as "absurd" and accused Washington of its own "aggressive military space ambitions." The back-and-forth came days after a Russian military satellite known as Kosmos-2612 moved "dangerously" near to ICEYE-X36, a satellite registered…

In contrast with the international benchmark futures prices, the prices of physical crudes from the Middle East have softened this week, as oil continues to flow out of the Persian Gulf in ship-to-ship transfers offshore Oman and producers offer competitive prices to Asian buyers. Some crude grades from Iraq and Oman have sunk into deep discounts to the physical Dubai benchmark. Iraq’s Basrah Medium, for example, was recently sold at a discount of $10 per barrel to the Dubai benchmark, compared to near parity to Dubai crude a month ago, traders…

In contrast with the international benchmark futures prices, the prices of physical crudes from the Middle East have softened this week, as oil continues to flow out of the Persian Gulf in ship-to-ship transfers offshore Oman and producers offer competitive prices to Asian buyers. Some crude grades from Iraq and Oman have sunk into deep discounts to the physical Dubai benchmark. Iraq’s Basrah Medium, for example, was recently sold at a discount of $10 per barrel to the Dubai benchmark, compared to near parity to Dubai crude a month ago, traders…