Vitol expects global oil demand to peak around the middle of the 2030s, due to forecasts of slower uptake of electric vehicles, the world’s biggest independent oil trader said in an updated oil outlook on Monday.   Peak oil demand is pushed back to the mid-2030s, mostly due to demand from the road transport sector, other sectors remain broadly unchanged, Vitol said, noting a marked contrast with its report from a year ago, in which the trading giant had expected demand to peak in the early 2030s and then decline.  Significant…

Vitol expects global oil demand to peak around the middle of the 2030s, due to forecasts of slower uptake of electric vehicles, the world’s biggest independent oil trader said in an updated oil outlook on Monday.   Peak oil demand is pushed back to the mid-2030s, mostly due to demand from the road transport sector, other sectors remain broadly unchanged, Vitol said, noting a marked contrast with its report from a year ago, in which the trading giant had expected demand to peak in the early 2030s and then decline.  Significant…

Vitol expects global oil demand to peak around the middle of the 2030s, due to forecasts of slower uptake of electric vehicles, the world’s biggest independent oil trader said in an updated oil outlook on Monday.   Peak oil demand is pushed back to the mid-2030s, mostly due to demand from the road transport sector, other sectors remain broadly unchanged, Vitol said, noting a marked contrast with its report from a year ago, in which the trading giant had expected demand to peak in the early 2030s and then decline.  Significant…

India’s decision to halt Russian oil purchases as part of a wider trade deal with the U.S. announced last week would mark the most dramatic rupture in Moscow–New Delhi energy ties in half a century if the commitment holds. And it comes at the precise moment Washington has been trying to force this break since the first weeks of the Ukraine war. For years, India has been one of the single biggest financial pressure?valves keeping Russia’s wartime economy alive — buying millions of barrels a day at steep discounts, refining…

Germany is proposing that renewable energy developers pay for connecting to the grid in new regulations that would replace the current system of first-come, first-served, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a new draft law it has seen.   The current congestion in the queue for grid connections and the regulations allowing the first applications to be connected is slowing renewables expansion.   “Connecting generation, storage, and consumption facilities to the electricity grid is facing ever greater challenges,” says…

Iran's foreign minister insisted on his country's right to enrich uranium, striking a defiant note as a US naval strike force sailed in regional waters amid weeks of unprecedented domestic turmoil inside Iran. Abbas Araqchi's comments followed talks between US and Iranian officials in Oman over the fate of Iran's nuclear programs. Tehran says its programs are peaceful in nature, aimed at generating electricity; Washington and other countries suspect Tehran is striving to build an atomic weapon. "Zero enrichment can never be accepted by us," Araqchi…

U.S. natural gas prices started the week with a further slide, after ending last week lower, as meteorologists predict warmer-than-usual weather ahead. In early morning Asian trade today, the U.S. benchmark traded at $3.20 per million British thermal units, down by 6.5% from Friday, when prices shed 2.5%, after a three-day climb earlier in the week, Bloomberg reported. Official weather forecasts say the cold spell is over and warmer weather will spread across much of the United States towards the end of this week. Earlier in the year, natural gas…

Indian refiners are still avoiding Russian oil as deals for delivery in April begin to be made, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed sources from the refining industry as well as traders. According to the report, the avoidance comes in anticipation of the trade deal between New Delhi and Washington, scheduled to be finalized in March. The deal would see the United States reduce import tariffs on Indian products, including a 25% special tariff that President Trump imposed on India in punishment for its buying of Russian crude oil. If the Reuters…

The United States has cemented its position as the world's leading exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) over the past couple of years, thanks to surging natural gas demand in Europe and Asia. U.S. LNG exports hit a record 111 million tons in 2025, surpassing 100 million metric tons for the first time, driven by high utilization and new capacity additions from projects like Plaquemines LNG. But this could be just the beginning of the U.S. LNG boom: the EIA has predicted that U.S. LNG export capacity will more than double by 2029, with an estimated…

The tax on carbon Europe introduced at the beginning of the year may have some surprising knock-on effects. The higher cost to producers for exporting goods that were produced using carbon-intensive methods to Europe may drive some to clean up operations. In India, some producers are exploring the potential for transitioning to green steel to reduce emissions and cut export costs to one of its biggest markets. India is one of the world’s main steel producers, and it has become a major supplier of the metal to the European market. India achieved…

Decarbonizing the world’s energy systems is necessary to prevent the world from warming more than 2º celsius over pre-Industrial averages – the cap that scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change – but achieving this kind of sweeping change introduces a litany of other economic and environmental drawbacks.  Utility-scale renewable energy projects are integral to any viable pathways toward decarbonization of the global economy, but the massive size of these developments presents a number…

The United Kingdom has big ambitions for its wind energy, already ranking at around sixth globally for its wind energy capacity. Having developed significant onshore and offshore wind capacity, the government aims to work more closely with the rest of Europe to establish the world’s largest ‘clean energy reservoir’. There is roughly 15.7 GW of operational onshore wind power in the U.K., with capacity increasing by around 739 MW in 2024 thanks to the development of projects such as the Viking (443MW), Kype Muir Extension (67.2MW),…

India imports 85% of the oil it consumes. A third of that comes from Russia—or used to come from Russia, until last November, when President Trump’s administration sanctioned the top exporters. Now, Washington is doubling down on cutting India’s oil link with Russia, but it may prove tricky for the world’s second-largest importer of oil. “Even though India has reduced its purchase of crude oil from Russia in recent months, it is unlikely to cease all purchases immediately, which could be disruptive to India’s…

Several automakers are investing heavily in robots in a bid to further automate operations in the future. It does not seem to matter that the current generation of humanoid robots works at a slower pace than humans, as automakers still view these machines as more cost-efficient for their factories. While Elon Musk invests heavily in Tesla’s Optimus Robots, Hyundai has big plans for incorporating robots in its United States operations in the coming years. A recent estimate by Barclays suggests that the current humanoid robot market has a value…

On January 20, the United States Department of Energy released a report on the first year of Donald Trump's second term called “PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT” which touted a return to global energy dominance and a reversal of the “Biden energy subtraction agenda.” But on the ground in energy-industry states, the story is a lot more complicated.  A groundswell of anti-renewable sentiment has cropped up in rural and red areas of the United States in recent years, echoed and crystallized by the Trump campaign but certainly…

United States President Donald Trump pursued an electoral campaign that focused on fossil fuel expansion and the reining in of renewable energy projects. Trump has regularly dismissed climate science as fearmongering, suggesting that the U.S. does not need to expand its green energy and cleantech sectors; rather, the country should focus on pumping more oil and gas to boost energy security. However, a recent assessment suggests that Trump may have been misinformed when setting the U.S. energy agenda. On 30th January, a federal judge ruled that…

Russia’s oil exports came under renewed scrutiny in early February after U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington had agreed a trade deal with India that would cut tariffs on Indian goods from 50% to 18% in exchange, besides other concessions, to an end to Russian crude imports. The prospect of losing one of Moscow’s largest post-2022 buyers triggered Russian concerns over export revenues and budget stability. Yet available trade data points in the opposite direction. The numbers are clear: for Russia, hope now speaks Chinese. January…

The European Union is preparing to take a much bigger swing at Russia’s oil trade, and this time Brussels is aiming less at optics and more at the plumbing that actually keeps barrels moving. The European Commission has proposed what would be its broadest sanctions package yet against Russian crude exports, targeting not just ships or buyers but the services that make seaborne oil trade possible in the first place. The plan would ban European firms from providing shipping, insurance, financing, and other maritime services for Russian crude…

China’s solar generating capacity is poised to exceed coal for the time this year, the China Electricity Council said in a report this week. The country, long dependent on coal, should get about half of its installed generating capacity from solar and wind by the end of 2026, whereas coal’s use is expected to fall to about one-third of the total. More specifically, the electricity council puts total coal capacity at about 1,333 gigawatts by Dec. 31. Solar ended 2025 at 1,200 GW and has averaged 270 GW of growth each year for the past…

Washington moved to tighten the screws on Iran’s oil trade again on Friday, rolling out a fresh batch of sanctions aimed squarely at the shadow fleet that keeps Tehran’s barrels moving when they’re not supposed to be. The State Department announced sanctions on 15 entities, two individuals, and 14 vessels tied to the illicit trade in Iranian crude, petroleum products, and petrochemicals. The targets were designated under Executive Order 13846, part of the Trump administration’s revived maximum pressure framework, and are…