Central to Iraq’s medium-term target to raise its crude oil production capacity to over 6 million barrels per day (bpd), up from around 4.1 million bpd this year, is the supergiant Rumaila field. One of the very largest oil fields in the world, it began production in the 1950s and, together with the Kirkuk field, has produced around 80% of the country’s cumulative oil production since then. Over the years, it remained a microcosm of the positives and negatives that characterise Iraq’s oil industry: blessed with an early abundance…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 609,000 barrels in the week ending February 13, after increasing by 13.4 million barrels in the week prior. Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) keep climbing week after week. The Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories rose by 200,000 barrels to 415.4 million barrels in the week ending February 13. This is 310.1 million barrels shy of maximum capacity. US production stopped its fifth week in a row losing…

Some of you may remember devouring those paperbacks with lurid, futuristic covers, imagining the worlds conjured up by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury: the planetary entrepreneurs, the galactic empires, and the firemen who burned books. Back in 1941, Asimov wrote a story about solar power space stations that beamed the energy to Earth.  Arthur C. Clarke later (1951) laid out how to use satellites for communications in The Exploration of Space, but he also noted a German idea, from decades earlier, to put mirrors…

Europe’s carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) market is structurally fragmented. A small group of early movers has built full capture-to-storage systems, while most continental countries remain at the project stage, and France sits in this second tier. Despite its low-carbon power mix, France must cut emissions by about 3% per year, roughly three times its historical pace, to halve emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. According to Rystad Energy, this path requires rapid CCUS deployment and deep integration into…

When Winter Storm Fern swept across much of the United States in mid-January 2026—bringing snow, ice, and sustained sub-zero temperatures from Texas to New England—millions of Americans braced for power outages. In some areas, those fears were realized. Tennessee alone reported more than 245,000 customer outages at peak conditions. At the same time, natural gas prices spiked dramatically, exceeding $30 per MMBtu at certain constrained delivery points within the PJM Interconnection. Yet despite the severity and duration of the storm,…

Giant oil and commodity traders, including Vitol and Trafigura, alongside French Oil & Gas multinational TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE), have won tenders to supply Libya with diesel and gasoline in a clear effort to cut imports of Russian fuel, Reuters reported on Wednesday.  Libya is moving to reboot its oil sector, 15 years after the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi fractured the country’s energy infrastructure and investment climate. Authorities are targeting an increase in crude production from around 1.4 million barrels…

Giant oil and commodity traders, including Vitol and Trafigura, alongside French Oil & Gas multinational TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE), have won tenders to supply Libya with diesel and gasoline in a clear effort to cut imports of Russian fuel, Reuters reported on Wednesday.  Libya is moving to reboot its oil sector, 15 years after the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi fractured the country’s energy infrastructure and investment climate. Authorities are targeting an increase in crude production from around 1.4 million barrels…

Global investment in the energy transition hit a record $2.3 trillion in 2025, good for a 8% increase from 2024, driven by massive spending on electric transport, renewable energy, and grid infrastructure, BloombergNEF has reported. Clean energy spending exceeded total fossil fuel supply investment for the second consecutive year, highlighting accelerated efforts to decarbonize, despite slowing growth rates in some sectors like solar. Electrified Transport was the largest investment category after attracting $893 billion, up 21% from 2024, driven…

Canada-based energy firm, Ovintiv Inc. (NYSE: OVV), has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Oil & Gas assets in the Anadarko Basin in Oklahoma to an undisclosed buyer for $3 billion in cash. The assets include ~360,000 net acres, representing nearly all of the company's holdings in the Anadarko region.  Ovintiv currently produces roughly 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from these assets, consisting of 27,000 bbl/d of oil and condensate, 240 MMcf/d of natural gas and 23,000 bbl/d of natural gas liquids. The…

A European Commission spokeswoman on February 17 confirmed that Brussels was in touch with Ukraine regarding the Druzhba pipeline that has been damaged since late January, preventing Russian oil from flowing to Hungary and Slovakia. "We are in contact with Ukraine on the timeline for reparation of the Druzhba oil pipeline and how quickly this might be up and running," Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told journalists in Brussels, adding the EU executive was ready to call an emergency coordination group with relevant parties to discuss alternative routes to fuel…

The United States military has attacked three alleged drug boats in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean as the U.S. continues its crackdown on narcotics trade and enforces a blockade on illicit oil shipments from Venezuela.   Earlier this week, the Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted three lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations, the U.S. Southern Command said late on Tuesday.  “Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and…

The United States military has attacked three alleged drug boats in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean as the U.S. continues its crackdown on narcotics trade and enforces a blockade on illicit oil shipments from Venezuela.   Earlier this week, the Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted three lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations, the U.S. Southern Command said late on Tuesday.  “Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and…

The United States military has attacked three alleged drug boats in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean as the U.S. continues its crackdown on narcotics trade and enforces a blockade on illicit oil shipments from Venezuela.   Earlier this week, the Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted three lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations, the U.S. Southern Command said late on Tuesday.  “Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and…

Oil prices surged nearly 3% on Wednesday after peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Geneva ended abruptly after only two hours. The failure to reach a breakthrough heightened market fears that sanctions and supply restrictions on Russian oil will persist longer than previously anticipated. Brent crude for April delivery was up 2.74% to trade at $69.15 per barrel at 8.20 am ET in Wednesday’s morning session while WTI crude for March delivery gained 2.79% to change hands at $64.05 per barrel. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called…

Nigeria’s struggles to pump to its OPEC+ quota over the past year have resulted in a loss of $1.31 billion gross revenue for the biggest African oil producer, according to data calculated by Business Insider Africa.  The cumulative underproduction for Nigeria between January 2025 and January 2026 is estimated at about 18.12 million barrels. Multiplied by the official average price of the country’s flagship Bonny Light crude, $72.08 per barrel, the lost revenues for OPEC’s top African producer amount to $1.31 billion, Business…

Nigeria’s struggles to pump to its OPEC+ quota over the past year have resulted in a loss of $1.31 billion gross revenue for the biggest African oil producer, according to data calculated by Business Insider Africa.  The cumulative underproduction for Nigeria between January 2025 and January 2026 is estimated at about 18.12 million barrels. Multiplied by the official average price of the country’s flagship Bonny Light crude, $72.08 per barrel, the lost revenues for OPEC’s top African producer amount to $1.31 billion, Business…

Nigeria’s struggles to pump to its OPEC+ quota over the past year have resulted in a loss of $1.31 billion gross revenue for the biggest African oil producer, according to data calculated by Business Insider Africa.  The cumulative underproduction for Nigeria between January 2025 and January 2026 is estimated at about 18.12 million barrels. Multiplied by the official average price of the country’s flagship Bonny Light crude, $72.08 per barrel, the lost revenues for OPEC’s top African producer amount to $1.31 billion, Business…

Libya’s first oil field licensing round since the removal of Muammar Gaddafi as leader in 2011 has seen a slew of major Western international oil companies (IOCs) choose to either re-enter the country after a long absence or bolster their existing operations in a stunning success for Tripoli. As part of the National Oil Corporation’s (NOC) target of lifting oil production to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2028, it announced last year that 22 offshore and onshore blocks would be licensed in the initial bidding round. Perhaps the…

Geopolitics, growing oil supply, longer voyages, and disruptions due to sanctions and altered shipping lanes pushed crude oil tanker rates to multi-year highs at the end of 2025. After a dip in January, rates started climbing again this month in what shipping executives described as a fundamental shift in the market for very large crude carriers (VLCC) capable of carrying around 1.9 million barrels to 2.2 million barrels of crude.   This shift is a major buying spree from South Korea’s Sinokor shipping group and Italian billionaire…

Back in March 2024, the Federal Government of Somalia and the Republic of Türkiye signed a major offshore hydrocarbon exploration and production agreement in Istanbul. This strategic partnership allowed Turkey’s state-owned energy company, Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), to conduct 3D seismic surveys and drill for oil and gas in both offshore blocks and three land blocks covering roughly 16,000 square kilometers, with the additional agreement for onshore exploration signed in early 2025.  Turkey wasted little time, dispatching…