The timeline of the US–Venezuela conflict highlights a long-term strategy centered on securing heavy crude supplies for US Gulf Coast refineries, which are configured to process heavy sour barrels and benefit from Venezuela’s ability to deliver crude over short lead times. This will reduce reliance on Middle Eastern high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) for the US. Exports of Venezuela crude are expected to recover slowly toward the US, Europe and India, leaving China disadvantaged, while OPEC+ remains defensive. US Gulf Coast refineries process…

U.S. supermajor Chevron expects to finalize this quarter a planned sale of its stake in a Singaporean refinery and distribution assets in wider Asia, Reuters reported on Wednesday, quoting multiple sources familiar with the development. Last year, Chevron was said to have invited non-binding bids from potential buyers of its 50% stake in a refinery in Singapore as part of a push to streamline global assets and reduce costs.   Chevron has hired Morgan Stanley to explore the sale of its 50% stake in Singapore Refining Company (SRC), as…

Halliburton reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations, as international activity continued to offset weak conditions in North America, according to results published by Reuters on Tuesday. The oilfield services provider posted adjusted profit of 69 cents per share for the quarter ended December 31, above the 55-cent consensus compiled by LSEG, even as profit slipped year on year due to charges tied to asset impairments and restructuring. Revenue rose to about $5.66 billion, helped by international sales, while North America remained…

U.S. natural gas futures jumped by more than 45% in just two days as Arctic cold is descending on the eastern United States with freezing temperatures and warnings of dangerous life-threatening wind chills.  On Tuesday, the benchmark U.S. natural gas futures at Henry Hub soared by 23% amid the cold snap and short covering. Natural gas futures jumped by another 22% early on Wednesday, and were headed for their biggest weekly gain in 35 years.  The benchmark gas prices surged from $3.40 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on Monday…

The European Union is slowly preparing a new round of sanctions on Russia, its 20th since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with the goal of having the measures approved by all EU member states at the end of February to coincide with the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s attack on its neighbor. The idea is that the European Commission, which proposes new packages, will have its round of “confessionals” in which proposed new measures and potential “red lines” are discussed with member states as early as the upcoming…

The coal-fired power plants in Germany are profitable to run again amid surging electricity demand in a cold snap and a plunge in European carbon prices this week.  Coal plants running on lignite, the dirtiest coal, returned to profit after carbon prices slumped by about 8% so far this week, following a jump in the previous week, analysts at Energy Aspects Ltd and LSEG told Bloomberg. The plunge in carbon permit prices made coal-fired power plants in Germany more profitable to run than gas-fired capacity, according to the analysts.  Coal…

Oil prices fell in early Asian trading on Wednesday, with traders shifting focus away from what will likely be a short-lived supply disruption in Kazakhstan and back toward the prospect of rising U.S. inventories and renewed macro uncertainty tied to trade threats. At the time of writing, Brent was down $0.79 or 1.22% at $64.13 per barrel, while WTI had fallen $0.64 or -1.06% to $59.72. The decline comes a day after crude posted strong gains, buoyed by news that OPEC+ producer Kazakhstan halted output at the Tengiz and Korolev oilfields…

India’s energy strategy is increasingly defined by balance rather than allegiance. As demand surges and geopolitical pressure mounts, New Delhi is locking in long term supply wherever it can, from gas in the Gulf to discounted crude from Russia, alongside nuclear partnerships that promise reliable baseload power. The approach reflects a broader effort to insulate economic growth from volatility, even as global energy markets fracture along political lines. UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan concluded his visit to India’s…

The renewed U.S. interest in taking control over Greenland – one way or another – has placed the Arctic island back in the spotlight a year after U.S. President Donald Trump first suggested the United States should buy Denmark’s autonomous territory.   The Trump Administration’s reasons and intensified pressure on NATO allies aside, is Greenland really worth it? The island, which is the size of about a fourth of the continental U.S., is estimated to hold oil and gas resources, as well as critical minerals and rare…

The European Union has been looking for rare-earth suppliers outside China for a while now. Last year, Commission president Ursula von der Leyen declared, “The aim is to secure access to alternative sources of critical raw materials in the short, medium and long term for our European industries.” It seems one of these alternative sources will be Brazil. “We will speed up work on critical raw materials partnerships with countries like Ukraine and Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Chile and Greenland,” von der Leyen…

As AI integration soars on a global level, the amount of energy consumed by large language models is also exploding. Everyone wants to be at the forefront of the AI revolution, but there are far fewer volunteers for figuring out how to source all that energy and source it sustainably – and even fewer volunteers to foot the bill for its skyrocketing resource needs. In fact, powering data centers has become such a tricky business that some AI moguls have been turning to illegal channels to keep the electricity flowing. Last week, the Environmental…

  The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) is once again edging toward a fiscal breaking point. Officials in its Erbil-based semi-autonomous regional government (KRG) say they are receiving only a fraction of the budget transfers they are owed under the current oil-for-budget payments arrangement with the Federal Government of Iraq (FGI) in Baghdad. This revives the same dispute that triggered the collapse of the deal in March 2023 and shut down the crucial Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP) for more than two years. Erbil argues that Baghdad’s shortfalls…

China has filed requests to reserve orbital slots for almost 200,000 satellites, prompting concerns it may be positioning itself to control large swathes of near-Earth space, according to the Daily Mail. The applications, submitted on December 29 by the newly formed Institute of Radio Spectrum Utilisation and Technological Innovation, outline two constellations—CTC-1 and CTC-2—each with 96,714 satellites spread across thousands of orbits. If built, the system would dwarf SpaceX’s Starlink plans and could restrict access for rival…

Octopus chief Greg Jackson has said choosing London as the destination for the blockbuster IPO of tech spin-off Kraken would be a “no brainer” if the exchange maintains its world-leading performance in 2025 and demonstrates it can lure fresh capital into the UK. In the biggest signal yet that the firm may select London over New York for its eagerly anticipated £7bn IPO of Kraken, Jackson told City AM he would prefer to make his stock market debut in the Square Mile, and keep his “cutting-edge tech company” on British…

A new discovery in the Permian Basin is challenging the narrative that shale oil and gas in the United States is declining. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has released its assessment of undiscovered gas and oil in the Woodford and Barnett shales in the Permian Basin, assessing that there are technically recoverable resources of 28.3 trillion cubic feet of gas — enough to supply the United States for 10 months at the current rate of consumption — and 1.6 billion barrels of oil, or 10 weeks’ supply.If that doesn’t…

Equatorial Guinea is looking to strike prepaid oil and LNG delivery deals with commodity traders as OPEC’s smallest oil producer needs money to maintain operating fields and revive its upstream sector, anonymous sources with knowledge of the plans told Bloomberg on Tuesday.   The central African country has been struggling to attract upstream investments in recent years and has seen its oil production drop. The country has also been an LNG exporter for two decades.  But Equatorial Guinea needs capital to cover expenses and…

Equatorial Guinea is looking to strike prepaid oil and LNG delivery deals with commodity traders as OPEC’s smallest oil producer needs money to maintain operating fields and revive its upstream sector, anonymous sources with knowledge of the plans told Bloomberg on Tuesday.   The central African country has been struggling to attract upstream investments in recent years and has seen its oil production drop. The country has also been an LNG exporter for two decades.  But Equatorial Guinea needs capital to cover expenses and…

Nationwide protests in Iran are threatening to disrupt the country’s upstream sector and underscoring a deeper economic crisis that has fueled domestic turmoil. Iran has restored output and exports despite sanctions, but at a rising cost: deeper discounts to China, expensive ‘shadow’ logistics and shrinking fiscal buffers, including the near depletion of its National Development Fund (NDF). Rystad Energy’s analysis shows Iranian crude production is expected to remain stable at around 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) this…

U.S. natural gas prices surged sharply on Tuesday, posting one of the largest single-day gains seen this winter as the market quickly repriced near-term supply risk. Front-month Henry Hub futures spiked more than 25 percent and briefly traded near $3.90 per million British thermal units. It is a level not seen in weeks. The immediate driver is the weather. Forecast models over the past 48 hours flipped decisively colder, showing a sustained Arctic outbreak in the Midwest and Northeast into late January. That matters because heating demand had already…

U.S. natural gas prices surged sharply on Tuesday, posting one of the largest single-day gains seen this winter as the market quickly repriced near-term supply risk. Front-month Henry Hub futures spiked more than 25 percent and briefly traded near $3.90 per million British thermal units. It is a level not seen in weeks. The immediate driver is the weather. Forecast models over the past 48 hours flipped decisively colder, showing a sustained Arctic outbreak in the Midwest and Northeast into late January. That matters because heating demand had already…