Brazil has announced the permanent offering of 91 oil blocks across key basins, aiming to attract significant investment and bolster energy security. The Ministry of Mines and Energy revealed that the next auction cycle, slated for 2025, could bring in an estimated 2.4 billion reais ($394 million) in signing bonuses. The blocks are spread across strategic regions: 39 in Minas Gerais’ São Francisco Basin, 41 and a marginal accumulation field in the Potiguar Basin, and 11 in the coveted pre-salt area. Companies can express interest in…

The unexpected 60-day agreement to halt the ongoing military confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel could have significant consequences for the region, Israeli and Arab sources indicate. The US-France-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon’s extremist militia Hezbollah, supported by Iran and Russia, and Israel could bring some stability to Lebanon and the region, experts suggest. The 60-day ceasefire, if upheld by the warring parties, should lead not only to the removal of Hezbollah from the Lebanese-Israeli border region but also to the…

A recent report in Bloomberg has collected and analyzed five years of satellite images monitoring the South China Sea off Malaysia to detail something which should come as no surprise: Iran and China's sanction-busting activity regarding Iranian oil exports has been going strong. The working assumption of the report is that it is Washington's responsibility - and that of its global allies - to better monitor and enforce sanctions. Bloomberg is essentially calling on the American Empire to better enforce its stranglehold on the Islamic Republic.…

The government of African country Uganda plans to wholly finance a $4-billion oil refinery through equity, The EastAfrican news outlet reports. The government and its partner in the project, Alpha MBM Investments, an investment firm from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have decided not to continue searching for finance on the international financial markets, according to Uganda’s Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa. The Uganda Refinery Project is a plan of the East African country to have a 60,000 barrels of oil per day refinery built at Kabaale…

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi says his country may change its nuclear doctrine and develop a bomb if UN sanctions are reimposed on Tehran. Speaking to reporters on November 28 in Lisbon, Portugal, Araqchi said Iran had long had the technical know-how to build a bomb but doing so "is not part of Tehran’s security strategy," according to Iranian media. His comments come as negotiators from Iran and the E3 (Britain, France, and Germany) are scheduled to meet in Geneva to discuss a range of issues, including Iran’s nuclear program…

Ukraine hit on Friday an oil depot in Russia’s southern region of Rostov amid an escalation of attacks from both Russia and Ukraine in recent days. Early on November 29, Ukraine hit the Atlas oil depot in the Rostov region, the Ukrainian army’s General Staff said on their Telegram channel.  The depot, part of the Russian military-industrial complex, supplies petroleum products for the Russian army, the Ukrainian army said, adding that the depot caught fire as a result of the strike. Ukraine also destroyed a radar station in Russia…

Ukraine hit on Friday an oil depot in Russia’s southern region of Rostov amid an escalation of attacks from both Russia and Ukraine in recent days. Early on November 29, Ukraine hit the Atlas oil depot in the Rostov region, the Ukrainian army’s General Staff said on their Telegram channel.  The depot, part of the Russian military-industrial complex, supplies petroleum products for the Russian army, the Ukrainian army said, adding that the depot caught fire as a result of the strike. Ukraine also destroyed a radar station in Russia…

The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire takes out just one strand of the geopolitical premium in oil prices, with a lot of uncertainties remaining for 2025, including the Trump Administration’s sanctions against Iran and the Russia-Ukraine war, according to David Fyfe, chief economist at Argus. “It’s a complex picture, but you’ve essentially got several strands of geopolitical complications,” Fyfe told CNBC on Friday. The geopolitical complications are underpinning crude on the one hand, but they also bring heightened concerns…

Brent Crude oil prices are expected to average $74.53 a barrel next year, the monthly Reuters poll of dozens of analysts showed on Friday, as the experts downgraded their price outlook for the seventh consecutive month. Brent Crude prices are set to average $74.53 per barrel next year as weaker global demand growth and enough supply would offset the impact of a potential delay to the OPEC+ cuts, said 41 analysts and economists in the survey. Last month, the analysts had expected Brent Crude prices to average $76.61 per barrel in 2025. The analyst…

It's been a relatively calm week for oil prices despite plenty of developments on both the geopolitical and fundamental front, but prices might just begin to climb next week. Thanksgiving has disrupted a highly eventful week that saw OPEC+ ramp up its shuttle diplomacy as the oil group postponed its December 1 meeting. Despite that move, ICE Brent settlements moved in a very narrow bandwidth of less than $1 per barrel all week, between $72 and $73 per barrel. As the Russia-Ukraine war intensifies and Iran comes to the forefront of Trump’s…

Naval and coast guard vessels from several European countries have forced a Chinese commercial ship to anchor in the Baltic Sea after suspecting it deliberately sabotaged undersea internet infrastructure. International investigators believe the crew aboard Yi Peng 3, a Chinese bulk carrier transporting Russian fertilizer, dragged its anchor for more than 100 miles across the Baltic seabed, damaging internet cables that run across it. As a result, two different internet links--one between Finland and Germany and another between Sweden’s Gotland…

Canada’s oil-producing province of Alberta is fighting the federal government on the plan to cap emissions from oil and gas production, which Alberta and the industry see essentially as a cap on output. Early this month, Canada’s federal government unveiled its draft regulations to drive significant emissions cuts at one of the most polluting sectors of the economy. However, the oil and gas sector is of huge importance to Alberta and its economy, as well as to Canada’s economy, exports of goods, and economic growth. Emission Cap…

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell again this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Wednesday, after falling in the week prior. The total rig count fell by a single rig for the third week in a row, landing at 582 total rigs, according to Baker Hughes, 43 years fewer than a year ago.  The number of oil rigs fell by two this week to 477—down by 28 rigs compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs rose by one rig, landing at 100, but down 16 rigs this year.…

The share of electricity in China generated from coal dipped below 60% of the total for the first time since the start of the year. Some have seen this as a win for the country’s transition efforts. Alas, it is a temporary one. China’s share of coal power generation in the total mix stood at 58.7% over the first ten months of the year, Reuters’ Gavin Maguire reported this week. This is down from 61.6% for the same period of 2023 and 61.8% for the first ten months of 2022. This may seem like a small but significant victory for…

As Israel hastens its attacks on Iranian proxies in Syria, amid the fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syrian rebels in the north are resurging to ride these tailwinds with a significant offensive on government-controlled areas. The rebel offensive, launched on Wednesday, was reported to have captured a Syrian military base and around 40 towns and villages controlled by the pro-Iranian Assad government. The offensive represents a unification of anti-government rebel forces in Syria, combined with a deadly Israeli attack, and poses a significant…

As Israel hastens its attacks on Iranian proxies in Syria, amid the fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syrian rebels in the north are resurging to ride these tailwinds with a significant offensive on government-controlled areas. The rebel offensive, launched on Wednesday, was reported to have captured a Syrian military base and around 40 towns and villages controlled by the pro-Iranian Assad government. The offensive represents a unification of anti-government rebel forces in Syria, combined with a deadly Israeli attack, and poses a significant…

China and Russia have agreed to cooperate more deeply in developing Arctic shipping routes amid deteriorating conditions between both countries and the West. The two countries will jointly develop the Northern Sea Route – which spans 5,600km (3,500 miles) from the Barents Sea near Scandinavia, Chinese media have reported.  Last month, two Chinese heavy-lift vessels key to commissioning the second train arrived off the coast of the sanctioned Russian Arctic LNG 2 project after a five-week journey through challenging early winter sea ice,…

Ocean Leonid Investments Ltd, a hedge fund linked to secretive Iranian oil trader Hossein Shamkhani, has informed its London employees that it will go into liquidation, Bloomberg has reported.  The development comes just months after the UK government cracked down on the oil-trading kingpin’s empire, known for moving Iranian and Russian crude around the world. Previously,  Bloomberg reported that Companies House, the UK corporate register, issued notice that London-based Nest Wise Trading Ltd. is to be dissolved within months due…

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has backed the country’s energy windfall tax and rejected a suit targeting a levy introduced two years ago, Bloomberg has reported, with the suit filed by 22 power producers who argued the levy was unconstitutional. “In this exceptional situation, the redistribution of the so-called surplus revenues achieved creates an appropriate balance between the favored electricity producers and the burdened electricity consumers,” the court has ruled. Two years ago, shortly after oil and gas prices…

Contrary to expectations for a self-defeating flood of new energy production under the second Trump admin, Exxon’s Upstream President Liam Mallon said that oil and gas producers in the US will not raise output significantly in the coming years despite calls from President-Elect Donald Trump to “drill, baby, drill." “I think a radical change is unlikely because the vast majority, if not everybody, is primarily focused on the economics of what they’re doing,” Mallon said on Tuesday at a conference…