We are entering the final innings of the 2025 financial year, and the U.S. stock market continues to defy bearish expectations. Nearly all 11 major sectors remain in positive territory; gold is surging, the dollar is sliding, and Bitcoin has roared back, even as job losses mount and the government remains partially shut down. Much of this resilience has been fueled by the ongoing AI-driven investment boom, which continues to reshape capital flows across industries from semiconductors to energy infrastructure. Yet the Energy sector has lagged. With…

Serbia’s oil system came under immediate strain Thursday after Washington let a sanctions waiver for Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) lapse, exposing the Gazprom Neft-linked refiner to U.S. measures and putting crude flows via Croatia’s JANAF pipeline on a short OFAC license that runs to October 15. Reuters reported that the move followed weeks of extensions, confirming the waiver’s expiry and its immediate operational impact. NIS operates the Pan?evo refinery and supplies about 80% of Serbia’s gasoline and diesel and over…

Serbia’s oil system came under immediate strain Thursday after Washington let a sanctions waiver for Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) lapse, exposing the Gazprom Neft-linked refiner to U.S. measures and putting crude flows via Croatia’s JANAF pipeline on a short OFAC license that runs to October 15. Reuters reported that the move followed weeks of extensions, confirming the waiver’s expiry and its immediate operational impact. NIS operates the Pan?evo refinery and supplies about 80% of Serbia’s gasoline and diesel and over…

Serbia’s oil system came under immediate strain Thursday after Washington let a sanctions waiver for Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) lapse, exposing the Gazprom Neft-linked refiner to U.S. measures and putting crude flows via Croatia’s JANAF pipeline on a short OFAC license that runs to October 15. Reuters reported that the move followed weeks of extensions, confirming the waiver’s expiry and its immediate operational impact. NIS operates the Pan?evo refinery and supplies about 80% of Serbia’s gasoline and diesel and over…

A new report produced by the watchdog group Greenpeace documents how Russia’s environmental policies and practices are causing global harm.  The report, titled Fossil Fuel Empire: The Environment of Post-2022 Russia and the Kremlin’s Threat to Domestic and Global Stability and Sustainability, shows how Russia, in confronting environmental challenges over the past few decades, has gone from “active engagement in the 1990s to deliberate detachment and obstructionism in recent years.”  Negative trends in a variety…

China is expanding the list of rare earth elements under export control and is adding curbs on manufactured products that have used Chinese refining and magnet-making technology, in a move that further tightens China’s dominant control of critical materials. Holmium, erbium, thulium, europium, and ytterbium are now also part of the export control list, for which foreign entities must seek licenses from the Chinese authorities to import. China’s Commerce Ministry said on Thursday that companies connected to foreign militaries or placed…

Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian refineries have resulted in a fuel crunch in Russia, where the shortage is estimated at up to 20% of demand, Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday.   “According to our data, the enemy’s gasoline shortage is up to around 20% of needs. Estimates vary from 13 to 20%, but it is confirmed that the shortage is already significant. In our view, it is about 20% today,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.  “Our weapons are delivering tangible results,” the Ukrainian president…

Faced with numerous headwinds, Ørsted will slash its workforce numbers by 2,000 by 2027, eliminating a quarter of its current roles, the world’s largest offshore wind developer said on Thursday.   Fresh off its $9.35 billion rights issue to raise funds from existing shareholders, Ørsted announced today it is taking another step in the execution of its strategic priorities by reducing its organization by about 2,000 positions by the end of 2027.??  The company will slash jobs as it will focus more on Europe and…

Faced with numerous headwinds, Ørsted will slash its workforce numbers by 2,000 by 2027, eliminating a quarter of its current roles, the world’s largest offshore wind developer said on Thursday.   Fresh off its $9.35 billion rights issue to raise funds from existing shareholders, Ørsted announced today it is taking another step in the execution of its strategic priorities by reducing its organization by about 2,000 positions by the end of 2027.??  The company will slash jobs as it will focus more on Europe and…

Energy prices for consumers across the UK rose again this month.   Ofgem, the energy regulator, set the maximum annual rate for an average household for gas and electricity at £1,755 until the end of the year.  The cap is now over £600 higher than when it was first introduced in 2019.  Under the cap, the average price of gas is significantly cheaper than electricity at 6.3p per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) compared to 25.7p/kWh. New data on Tuesday also showed that the industrial electricity price paid for UK industry was…

BP has started up the Murlach oil and gas field in the UK North Sea, the sixth major project the supermajor has launched so far this year, as part of its goal to have ten new oil and gas fields operational by 2027.  Murlach adds a peak net production of around 15,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) to the BP-operated Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) in the central North Sea, a hub that has been operating for 27 years, the supermajor said on Thursday.  The Murlach project received government and regulatory approvals in 2023…

The amount of oil on tankers in transit has jumped to the highest since 2016, and this is cause for concern because it means there is too much oil around and it is not being consumed. That’s the message that Bloomberg had this week, citing Votexa data. Yet China had a different message: it is building more oil tanks to boost its inventories, a lot more. And that tells a different message. The Vortexa data that Bloomberg cited said that there were 1.2 billion barrels of crude oil currently at sea, being moved from one place to another. Bloomberg’s…

In the Permian Basin, oilfield theft has evolved from stolen wrenches to stolen tankers. What was once a nuisance crime is now a multimillion-dollar operation, prompting Texas to step in with a dedicated task force to combat organized petroleum theft. Texas producer associations and law enforcement have noticed in recent months a surge in organized crime at the numerous oilfield sites in the most prolific oil-producing basin in America. The state legislature earlier this year passed a bill to crack down on Permian Basin oil theft, mandating the…

Back in May, we reported that China is on the way to becoming the world’s first ‘‘electrostate’’ thanks to the ongoing EV boom coupled with rapid industrial electrification. According to a study by the International Energy Agency (IEA), China’s electrification rate has hit 30%, significantly ahead of the U.S. and the EU, where the electrification rate has plateaued at ~22% in recent years. Last year, electric vehicles (EVs) made up approximately 47.9% of the total passenger car sales in China, a huge increase…

Ecuador’s oil industry is caught in a death spiral. Decades of corruption, dwindling private investment, corroded infrastructure and environmental disasters are all weighing on production and reserves growth. Environmentally damaging oil spills are a common occurrence, with evidence suggesting that the national government in Quito is failing to prevent these harmful events. President Daniel Noboa’s commitment to reviving the economically crucial oil industry risks serious pollution, especially with cocaine related violence distracting…

This week, the Nobel Prize in Physics, the most prestigious award of its kind, was given for breakthrough work on quantum mechanics, emphasizing just how critical the field has become in building our understanding of the world around us, and how we can harness that understanding to design a smarter and more sustainable future. Quantum mechanics have already fundamentally changed the way we live, enabling the advent of cellphones, cameras, and fiber optic cables. And they will continue to change the world in ways that we haven’t even dreamed…

Guyana has strengthened military cooperation with France to safeguard the oil-rich Essequibo region, escalating tensions with Venezuela just as the United States expands maritime strikes on vessels linked to Caracas. The defense announcement follows new reports of French assistance in surveillance and air patrols over Guyana’s western frontier, where ExxonMobil-led production continues to rise above 640,000 barrels per day, UPI reported.  Venezuela maintains its long-standing claim over Essequibo, an area that encompasses most of Guyana’s…

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week signed a decree that appears to target the assets of foreign companies that continue to operate in Russia and that have not yet been seized by the government. The decree calls for the accelerated privatization of state property to ensure defense capability, but it refers directly to "unfriendly actions" of the United States and other countries and organizations aligned with them that aim to impose "restrictive measures against citizens of the Russian Federation and Russian legal entities.” The decree…

French state utility EDF is in talks with banks about a potential initial public offering of its Italian subsidiary Edison, according to sources cited by Reuters, in a move that could unlock billions in capital as EDF ramps up financing for its nuclear revival at home. EDF has begun sounding out major European lenders including BNP Paribas and Société Générale to assess investor appetite for a Milan listing that would value Edison between €7 billion and €10 billion ($8-11 billion). The group would likely retain…

A new survey published by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development offers a strong near-term economic outlook for Central Asian states. But the bank adds that the region is prone to fluctuations in commodity prices, reliance on remittances, and dependence on Russian and Chinese markets. The EBRD’s Regional Economic Prospects 2025 edition projects regional growth this year to reach 6.1 percent, and slow to 5.2 percent in 2026. “Central Asia Central Asian economies continued to post solid growth in the…