Qatar is set to supply Syria with natural gas via Jordan with Washington's approval, Reuters has reported. Qatar was one of the fiercest opponents of the deposed Bashar al-Assad and one of the strongest supporters of the rebels-turned rulers currently in charge. The gas would be transferred from Jordan via a pipeline to the Deir Ali power plant in southern Syria, where it could boost power supply by up to 400 megawatts. According to the Qatari Charge d'affaires in Syria Khalifa Abdullah Al Sharif, the plan aims to increase power production by an…

  The Democratic Republic of Congo's four-month suspension of cobalt exports has driven up prices of the critical metal, which is heavily used in lithium-ion batteries—the backbone of the renewable energy industry.  New Fastmarkets data shows that a pound of cobalt hydroxide—the main product exported from the DRC, the world's top producer—has surged 84% since the DRC suspended exports last month to counter a market glut that had pressured prices to multi-year lows. Prices reached $10.50 per pound on Tuesday, the highest…

Qatar is set to supply Syria with natural gas via Jordan with Washington's approval, Reuters has reported. Qatar was one of the fiercest opponents of the deposed Bashar al-Assad and one of the strongest supporters of the rebels-turned rulers currently in charge. The gas would be transferred from Jordan via a pipeline to the Deir Ali power plant in southern Syria, where it could boost power supply by up to 400 megawatts. According to the Qatari Charge d'affaires in Syria Khalifa Abdullah Al Sharif, the plan aims to increase power production by an…

China just achieved another milestone breakthrough for nuclear fusion technology, bringing the country closer to achieving its goal of commercial nuclear fusion by 2050. This week scientists announced that the nation’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), achieved a sustained temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, shattering previous records and bringing nuclear fusion closer to reality. This breakthrough is just the latest in a long line of milestones for China, where the government has been investing heavily in nuclear…

The Trump administration just turned up the heat on Iran’s oil operations, slapping fresh sanctions on Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad and a handful of shadowy tankers sneaking crude to China. Treasury’s reasoning? Paknejad is allegedly funneling billions in oil revenue directly to Iran’s armed forces, and the ships—some flagged in Hong Kong, Liberia, and Seychelles—are playing an elaborate game of maritime hide-and-seek to keep the crude flowing. Washington has been running this playbook for years. Sanctions…

The Trump administration just turned up the heat on Iran’s oil operations, slapping fresh sanctions on Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad and a handful of shadowy tankers sneaking crude to China. Treasury’s reasoning? Paknejad is allegedly funneling billions in oil revenue directly to Iran’s armed forces, and the ships—some flagged in Hong Kong, Liberia, and Seychelles—are playing an elaborate game of maritime hide-and-seek to keep the crude flowing. Washington has been running this playbook for years. Sanctions…

Via Metal Miner The Construction MMI (Monthly Metals Index) held its five-month-long sideways trend, only moving up by .59%. Meanwhile, the latest tariffs on construction materials from China have not taken a massive toll on metals prices. However, another 10% increase in Chinese tariffs by the Trump administration this past month (raising the total percentage to 20%) may have a short-term impact on the index in the near future. Metals Prices & Tariffs: Impact on the Construction Industry? In 2025, the U.S. construction sector faces some challenges…

Guyana’s government has officially yanked the plug on the Frontera-CGX joint venture, canceling its oil prospecting license for the Corentyne block. The writing had been on the wall since February, when officials gave the JV a 30-day warning. Now, it’s official. The Corentyne block was supposed to be a much-needed diversification play in Guyana’s oil scene, which is basically ExxonMobil’s playground. With the U.S. supermajor running the show in the Stabroek Block—home to over 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent—the…

Guyana’s government has officially yanked the plug on the Frontera-CGX joint venture, canceling its oil prospecting license for the Corentyne block. The writing had been on the wall since February, when officials gave the JV a 30-day warning. Now, it’s official. The Corentyne block was supposed to be a much-needed diversification play in Guyana’s oil scene, which is basically ExxonMobil’s playground. With the U.S. supermajor running the show in the Stabroek Block—home to over 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent—the…

The warm temperatures in Europe from earlier this week will abruptly shift to freezing conditions in the weekend and next week, testing Europe’s renewable power generation and low natural gas stocks. While this week most of Europe has seen so far temperatures as high as 20 C (68F), an Arctic blast will send temperatures and wind speeds plummeting, in a late-winter test for Europe’s energy systems. The UK, Germany, France, and even Spain are expected to experience freezing temperatures as early as this Friday. “Through the rest…

The major oil producers in the Middle East are exporting record volumes of refined petroleum products, reducing the overall impact of their crude production cuts on the market, Reuters reports, citing flow-tracking data and analysts. OPEC+ producers have been curtailing crude oil production and supply for years, aiming to balance and “stabilize the market,” as it repeatedly says. But the key OPEC+ producers in the Gulf saw their combined fuel exports jump to a record high last year. This has likely negated part of the potential bullish…

The major oil producers in the Middle East are exporting record volumes of refined petroleum products, reducing the overall impact of their crude production cuts on the market, Reuters reports, citing flow-tracking data and analysts. OPEC+ producers have been curtailing crude oil production and supply for years, aiming to balance and “stabilize the market,” as it repeatedly says. But the key OPEC+ producers in the Gulf saw their combined fuel exports jump to a record high last year. This has likely negated part of the potential bullish…

A senior aide to President Vladimir Putin has rejected any temporary cease-fire with Ukraine just hours before a US delegation arrived in Russia for talks with Moscow where they will urge the Kremlin to agree to a 30-day cease-fire proposal or face sanctions. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said in an interview broadcast on state television on March 13 that U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed cease-fire, which Kyiv has agreed to, would only give Ukraine time to recover from pressure Russia has been exerting on its troops. "I have stated our position…

Despite the expected rise in OPEC+ production in April, Saudi Arabia is set to ship significantly lower crude oil volumes to China next month to levels not seen in over a year, Reuters reported on Thursday, quoting trade and industry sources. Spring maintenance at some large state-controlled refineries in the world’s top crude oil importer is the key reason for the low volumes that Saudi Arabia has allocated for April. These amount to about 34 million barrels, down from 41 million barrels allocated for March, according to Reuters data. State…

The mass layoffs of federal employees is leaving the process of critical energy projects permitting understaffed and slowed in various oil-producing U.S. areas, Reuters reports, quoting agency representatives and state officials. The newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is axing the federal workforce on a mass scale. Among the agencies hit by the layoffs are the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. All these are critical to the permitting of energy…

This week’s call from the International Energy Agency (IEA) for continued investment in existing oil and gas fields is another moment of truth for the Paris-based agency, highlighting its inconsistent messages about upstream investment, OPEC says. OPEC reviewed the messages the IEA has issued since 2017 in an article published on its website. The agency shifted its position that investments are needed at some point between 2018 and 2021. By May 2021, the IEA was already advocating for no investments in new oil and gas fields for a chance…

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to double his planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%. Trump said his latest move comes in response to a threat by the province of Ontario to put a 25-percent surcharge on electricity exports to some U.S. states. Whereas Trump delayed most of the tariffs he had imposed on Canada and Mexico, Canada has responded forcefully, with the Canadian government announcing on Monday it would match American tariffs on roughly $30 billion worth of U.S. goods initially, and another $125…

Traders haven’t been this bearish on oil in months or so bullish on U.S. natural gas in years.  The latest data on money managers’ positioning in the WTI and Brent crude and U.S. natural gas futures showed two contrasting trends—speculators are betting that oil prices would remain low or go even lower while increasing the bets that natural gas prices would continue marching higher. So far this year, geopolitical and supply and demand factors have been increasingly bearish for the oil price outlook and increasingly bullish…

Crude oil imports in Asia have been nothing to write about so far this year. But the tide is turning, and volumes are beginning to climb. The top contenders for the Asian supplier crown: Russia and Saudi Arabia. China, the world’s biggest importer of crude, saw a 5% decline in its foreign oil shipments over the first two months of the year. The average daily stood at 10.38 million barrels, down from 10.74 a year earlier. The chief reason for the decline, however, was not organic demand death. It was the last round of sanctions that the Biden…

Argentina’s controversial president Javier Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist, on taking office enacted strict austerity measures to rein in rampant triple-digit inflation, kick-start the economy and slash a massive fiscal deficit. While it is too early to tell if Milei has reversed decades of economic mismanagement there are promising signs of a miracle emerging. Inflation has plummeted while Argentina’s strife-torn economy is returning to growth boosting the country’s appeal to foreign investors. This, in turn,…