Saudi Arabia is expected to slash the prices for its crude bound for Asia in January to the lowest premium to benchmarks in five years, as the world’s largest crude exporter looks to preserve market share amid ample supply and falling spot Middle East benchmarks.  Saudi oil giant Aramco will likely reduce the official selling price (OSP) of its flagship Arab Light crude grade by $0.30-$0.40 per barrel to a premium of $0.60-$0.70 a barrel to the average Oman/Dubai benchmark for loadings to Asia in January, a Reuters survey of Asian refining…

Saudi Arabia is expected to slash the prices for its crude bound for Asia in January to the lowest premium to benchmarks in five years, as the world’s largest crude exporter looks to preserve market share amid ample supply and falling spot Middle East benchmarks.  Saudi oil giant Aramco will likely reduce the official selling price (OSP) of its flagship Arab Light crude grade by $0.30-$0.40 per barrel to a premium of $0.60-$0.70 a barrel to the average Oman/Dubai benchmark for loadings to Asia in January, a Reuters survey of Asian refining…

Oil prices were headed for a fourth consecutive monthly loss early on Friday as a data center glitch forced CME Group to halt trading in futures and options, disrupting oil futures trades as well as equities, bonds, and foreign exchange. “Due to a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers, our markets are currently halted,” CME Group, of which NYMEX is part, said in early Asian trade on Friday. “Support is working to resolve the issue in the near term and will advise clients of Pre-Open details as soon as they are available.”…

From the beginning of Donald Trump’s first term in office in 2017 to the start of his second term earlier this year, the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia shifted between tense and downright hostile. Those years included an Oil Price War, the de facto Saudi leader labelled a murderer, and all lines of communication between the two sides grinding to a complete halt. However, as Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) sat next to each other at a black?tie dinner at the White House last week – with the former designating…

As the Trump Administration looks to broker a Ukraine-Russia peace deal, analysts and traders seek to anticipate how a potential agreement could change energy flows in Europe. To be sure, a peace deal is far from certain, as stumbling blocks and differences remain, while Russia has not weighed in on the plan yet. White House envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow next week to discuss the peace plan with the Kremlin as Russia appears reluctant to accept any offer that doesn’t fully meet all its demands. Even if a deal is reached –…

Sentiment in oil markets remains overwhelmingly negative, driven by perceived market oversupply and negative global demand indicators. Brent crude for January delivery was trading at $63.10 per barrel in Thursday’s intraday session, little changed from $62.97 a week ago while the corresponding WTI contract ticked up slightly to $58.70/bbl from $58.46. Meanwhile, the recent rally in oil product prices has cooled off, with ICE Gasoil-Brent crack dropping from a 35.84/bbl peak on 18 November to ~$26/bbl. This is partly due to the easing of panic…

Hawaii has a plan to generate all of its energy from low-emission sources by 2045. It is a bold plan, as the state’s administration admits, and it is also a plan that will see Hawaii start importing liquefied natural gas. Hawaiians pay the highest electricity rates in the United States. They pay even more than Californians, who also have an administration with significant ambitions in the net-zero transition. With Hawaii, however, the reasons for the high rates include its geographical isolation, which makes it necessary to ship fuel oil…

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and its partner, Heirs Energies, have successfully doubled natural gas production at a key oil block, OML 17, as part of a broader strategy to boost domestic supply and ease the country's electricity shortages. The increase comes from the OML 17 oil and gas field, operated by Heirs Energies in a joint venture with the NNPC. A "rigless well intervention" unlocked an additional 135 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (MMscf/d), enough to feed multiple power plants, directly contributing to an…

After the discovery of oil in Suriname’s territorial waters in January 2020, the government in the capital Paramaribo pitched its hopes on an oil boom matching that of neighboring Guyana. You see, decades of economic mismanagement, excessive spending, and corruption wreaked havoc on the former Dutch colony’s economy. Over the last decade, gross domestic product (GDP) collapsed, plunging by over 10%, hitting Suriname’s population of over 600,000 particularly hard. This exploded in violence during February 2023, with protestors…

China’s independent refiners—the country’s infamous “teapots”— just got their first sip of 2026 crude import quotas. And the timing couldn’t be better for a physical market drowning in unsold sanctioned barrels. Trade sources say Beijing has handed out roughly 8 million tons so far across 21 refiners, a noticeable bump from the 6.04 million tons issued this time last year. Hengli Petrochemical pulled the biggest ladle at 2 million tons, with Rongsheng taking 750,000 tons and Shenghong and Hongrun getting…

China’s independent refiners—the country’s infamous “teapots”— just got their first sip of 2026 crude import quotas. And the timing couldn’t be better for a physical market drowning in unsold sanctioned barrels. Trade sources say Beijing has handed out roughly 8 million tons so far across 21 refiners, a noticeable bump from the 6.04 million tons issued this time last year. Hengli Petrochemical pulled the biggest ladle at 2 million tons, with Rongsheng taking 750,000 tons and Shenghong and Hongrun getting…

China’s independent refiners—the country’s infamous “teapots”— just got their first sip of 2026 crude import quotas. And the timing couldn’t be better for a physical market drowning in unsold sanctioned barrels. Trade sources say Beijing has handed out roughly 8 million tons so far across 21 refiners, a noticeable bump from the 6.04 million tons issued this time last year. Hengli Petrochemical pulled the biggest ladle at 2 million tons, with Rongsheng taking 750,000 tons and Shenghong and Hongrun getting…

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has just returned from a trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he extracted a $70 billion investment pledge from the Gulf state. The funding is expected to include energy, AI logistics, mining and other strategic industries. Fed up with Donald Trump’s tariffs, Canada’s new government is on a mission to double non-US exports over the next decade and unleash $1 trillion in new investment in Canada over five years, according to a Nov. 21 press release. In conjunction with the UAE announcement,…

Angola inaugurated on Thursday its first plant to process non-associated natural gas as the African oil producer looks to develop a standalone gas industry, too. The plant, worth $4 billion, was inaugurated by Angola’s President João Lourenço in the presence of Minerals and Petroleum Minister Diamantino Azevedo. The gas processing facility was built in the Soyo municipality by New Gas Consortium (NGC), which is a first for Angola as it targets to develop and produce non-associated gas located in the offshore gas fields. Historically,…

The Cloud" might be the greatest branding trick in history. It sounds fluffy, ethereal, and notably light. It implies that our digital lives…our emails, our crypto wallets, our endless scrolling…exist in some vaporous layer of the atmosphere, detached from earthly constraints. But if you actually drive out to Loudoun County, Virginia, or stare at the arid plains of Altoona, Iowa, you realize the Cloud is actually just a very big, very loud, and very hot factory. We’ve been telling ourselves a lovely story about the energy transition.…

As industry concerns over an AI bubble mount, the scale of data center ambitions continues to grow. As of mid-October, the US data center pipeline reached 245 GW of planned capacity, driven by a handful of enormous, speculative projects. These projects, and the renewable deals hyperscalers are signing, skew heavily toward Texas. More than a quarter of pipeline capacity targets the state, whose pipeline nearly doubled from 35 GW in Q1 to 67 GW in Q3.  Data Center Alley gives way to Data Center Prairie   It is conventional wisdom that…

Tankers of the Russian shadow fleet have increased the use of flying false flags this year and exported $5.4 billion (4.7 billion euros) worth of Russian oil between January and September, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said in a new report. A total of 113 Russian ‘shadow’ vessels flew a false flag during their operations in the first nine months of 2025, the analysis found. In volumes, 13% of Russian oil transported by ‘shadow’ vessels between January and September 2025 took place on vessels flying…

Tankers of the Russian shadow fleet have increased the use of flying false flags this year and exported $5.4 billion (4.7 billion euros) worth of Russian oil between January and September, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said in a new report. A total of 113 Russian ‘shadow’ vessels flew a false flag during their operations in the first nine months of 2025, the analysis found. In volumes, 13% of Russian oil transported by ‘shadow’ vessels between January and September 2025 took place on vessels flying…

After decades of reliance on coal, South Korea has announced plans to close all coal-fired power plants by 2040. For Australia, this signals a likely steep decline in its coal exports in the coming decades, as one of its main trade partners reduces its coal use. The Australian government is now preparing for a fall in its coal exports, as South Korea, the third-biggest importer of Australian coal, plans to shift away from the “dirtiest fossil fuel”. Australia expects to export around $1.5 billion worth of thermal coal to South Korea…

OPEC+ members are expected to stick with their decision to pause oil production increases when the group meets online this Sunday, signaling a cautious approach amid growing signs of oversupply and persistent weakness in prices. Delegates told reporters the meeting is likely to be “straightforward,” with ministers simply reaffirming the policy agreed earlier this month to suspend output hikes during the first quarter of 2026. The pause, driven largely by Saudi Arabia and its partners, reflects concern that global inventories are rising…