A deal announced at the White House last year for an American company to mine tungsten in Kazakhstan is moving forward after the company closed the deal with the country’s state-owned mining company. At almost the same time, Cove Kaz Capital, the American mining entity, and a shell company in which US President Donald Trump’s sons reportedly have a significant stake, announced an intention to merge, according to a report published by the Financial Times. The merged entity would seek to become a publicly traded company. Cove Kaz Capital,…

The United States has sanctioned Iraq’s deputy oil minister and several Iran-aligned militia leaders, stepping directly into a part of the oil trade that has been operating in the gray since the war began. The Treasury Department accused Deputy Oil Minister Ali Maarij Al-Bahadly of facilitating the diversion of Iraqi crude to benefit Iran and affiliated militias. The move also targets senior figures tied to Kata’ib Sayyid Al-Shuhada and Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq. Any U.S. assets are frozen, and Americans are barred from doing business…

While conventional wisdom, especially after Trump’s counter-blockade of Iran’s blockade, holds that the Strait of Hormuz is completely blocked, the reality is that the UAE is now running loaded crude tankers through the Iranian-controlled Strait of Hormuz with transponders switched off — just like sanctioned Iranian ghost fleets in the pre-war period — just to pry loose a fraction of the oil bottled up in the Gulf. According to shipping data reported by Reuters, industry sources, and satellite tracking, Emirati state-owned…

Global crude oil and fuel inventories are crashing at a record speed as the supply shock from the Middle East is too big to absorb without stock depletion. While the futures markets trade on sentiment and hopes that a U.S.-Iran deal could soon lead to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the actual physical disruption is enormous. It has already erased the oversupply that the market faced at the start of the Iran war. The initial buffers are gone, and now commercial inventories are depleting so fast that even an imminent reopening of the Strait…

The United States and Israel’s bombing campaign has left much of Iran’s infrastructure and industries in tatters, disrupting domestic production and hiking prices for basic food items.A US sea blockade has intensified the economic pressure on Iran, hampering its trade through the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime chokepoint that has been effectively closed since the war began on February 28.In response, Tehran has turned to alternative routes, trucking goods from neighboring Pakistan and Turkey as well as shipping cargo from Russia,…

Airlines will have to continue reimbursing travelers if they cancel flights due to high jet fuel prices, EU Sustainable Transport and Tourism Commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, told the Financial Times in an interview published on Thursday. European airlines are struggling with a spike in jet fuel prices, while officials and analysts warn that Europe has just weeks before it feels kerosene shortages. Tzitzikostas played down estimates that jet fuel shortages could hit Europe in June if the situation at the Strait of Hormuz does not improve,…

Airlines will have to continue reimbursing travelers if they cancel flights due to high jet fuel prices, EU Sustainable Transport and Tourism Commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, told the Financial Times in an interview published on Thursday. European airlines are struggling with a spike in jet fuel prices, while officials and analysts warn that Europe has just weeks before it feels kerosene shortages. Tzitzikostas played down estimates that jet fuel shortages could hit Europe in June if the situation at the Strait of Hormuz does not improve,…

An Iranian energy official just conceded something in a surprise admission that the US naval blockade has begun to bite the Islamic Republic's oil industry. According to new reporting in the NY Times: The blockade has halted Iran’s oil exports, choking off crucial revenues, and the country risks running out of places to store its oil. It is also affecting the import of other goods, forcing Iran to seek alternative routes through neighboring countries and its smaller ports on the Caspian Sea. And the economic pain inside Iran, already dire…

The Cabinda oil refinery in Angola, the first that was built in the country since it gained independence from Portugal 50 years ago, has started shipping fuels to the domestic and international markets, in a relief to the fuel supply stress due to the Iran war. Prior to Cabina, Angola had only one other refinery, which is located in the capital city of Luanda and is operated by state-owned oil firm Sonangol. The Cabinda refinery has the capacity to process 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and already ships diesel to the domestic market in…

The EU boosted its imports of Russian LNG from the Yamal LNG project to a record high in the first four months of 2026, just before the bloc started implementing a phased-out ban on imports of Russia’s LNG, bne IntelliNews reported on Thursday, citing a report by environmental campaign group Urgewald. Year to date, nearly every cargo exported out of the Russian Yamal project has reached a European port, according to the report, which has used Kpler shipping data to track EU imports of Russian LNG. The EU welcomed as many as 91 cargoes from…

Oil prices edged higher in early Asian trade on Thursday, rebounding from the previous session’s steep selloff, as investors reassessed the chances of a near-term U.S.-Iran peace agreement and weighed continuing disruptions to Middle East energy flows. Brent crude futures rose 0.66%, to $101.94 a barrel in early trade, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.74% to trade at $95.78 a barrel. Both benchmarks tumbled more than 7% on Wednesday after reports suggested Washington and Tehran were moving closer to a framework agreement…

The United States has been playing a vital role as the world’s “swing supplier” of key energy commodities amid the global shortage triggered by the war in Iran, with surging exports helping to cut the energy deficit. According to data from commodities intelligence firm Kpler via Reuters, shipments of crude oil, gasoline, LNG, diesel, jet fuel, and ethane surged to 153 million tons from January to April, good for a 20% Y/Y increase compared to last year’s corresponding period. Combined exports of oil and refined products…

Asian economies are starting to feel the first serious effects of the oil and gas export paralysis in the Persian Gulf, with economic growth stuttering and likely to deteriorate over the coming months. Some are already in stagflation, and the outlook is dire. Asia buys 85% of its total oil imports from Persian Gulf countries, which made it especially vulnerable to the kind of supply shock that almost nobody believed would ever materialize. Now that it has, Asia is suffering the consequences of its heavy dependence. Asia imported 30% less oil last…

The world's biggest nuclear fusion experiment just got one huge step closer to completion. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache, France just received the final shipment of necessary components to assemble the giant magnet at the heart of the reactor. The central solenoid magnet, developed in the United States at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is a critical component of the massive experimental site, which is cooperatively funded and operated by a coalition of seven major world economies: China, the European…

As the Strait of Hormuz has now been closed for nearly nine weeks, the oil hub at Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become an even more prominent oil export and bunkering hub than it has ever been. Thanks to its strategic position on the east coast of the UAE and outside the Strait of Hormuz, Fujairah is now the key export port for crude and fuels from the UAE and an even more important bunkering port for ship refueling. The strategic position of Fujairah outside the blocked Strait of Hormuz made it a target of Iranian attacks as early…

Europe's offshore wind expansion is running into a structural supply constraint where the turbine market is becoming increasingly concentrated. GE Vernova, Siemens Gamesa and Vestas have historically anchored Western offshore turbine supply, but with GE Vernova having paused new offshore wind orders following a series of technical and operational setbacks, Siemens Gamesa and Vestas now account for virtually all turbines available to European developers. Rystad Energy’s analysis of the offshore wind market outlines a sharp increase in per-megawatt…

Most energy market shifts announce themselves loudly. New subsidies. New targets. New technologies. The latest turning point in Europe’s biomethane market did none of that. It arrived quietly, just before Christmas, in the form of a few additional pages in a certification guidance document. Yet the implications are anything but minor. With a subtle update to its Mass Balance Guidance, ISCC has fundamentally raised the bar for how biomethane is expected to be traded, evidenced and claimed across Europe. Not in theory. In practice. In audits.…

Central Asian states are a key conduit for Russia’s sanctions-busting trade, enabling “logistical and financial support for diversion networks” dedicated to procuring goods for the Russian war machine, a watchdog group has documented.  A report, titled Russia’s Sanction Evasion Research 2025-2026, published by the Washington, DC-based Center for Global Civic and Political Strategies (CGCPS), notes that “Russia has demonstrated significant adaptive capacity in mitigating the operational impact of Western sanctions,”…

US oil product exports surged to a record 8.2 million barrels per day last week as countries scrambled to replace fuel supplies disrupted by the Hormuz crisis, according to Bloomberg reporting, which noted that diesel exports led the increase and reached an all-time high.Countries are now competing for refined products, including diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline as shipping disruptions around Hormuz destabilize downstream fuel systems tied to transportation, aviation, and industrial activity.  Europe’s growing jet fuel shortages and rising…

US oil product exports surged to a record 8.2 million barrels per day last week as countries scrambled to replace fuel supplies disrupted by the Hormuz crisis, according to Bloomberg reporting, which noted that diesel exports led the increase and reached an all-time high.Countries are now competing for refined products, including diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline as shipping disruptions around Hormuz destabilize downstream fuel systems tied to transportation, aviation, and industrial activity.  Europe’s growing jet fuel shortages and rising…