Oil prices haven’t had a breather since the year started as one geopolitical crisis has moved to another. Just a week after the U.S. intervention in Venezuela captured Nicolas Maduro, U.S. President Donald Trump has turned his sights to Iran, threatening a U.S. response to the deadly suppression of mass protests against the Islamic Republic’s regime. Oil settled on Monday at a one-month high amid concerns about a potential supply disruption in the Middle East if Iranian protests further escalate and a U.S. intervention of some kind…

Oil prices pushed higher on Tuesday afternoon, with traders weighing a familiar but combustible mix of Middle East risk and Washington-driven policy uncertainty. As of 2:34 p.m. ET, U.S. benchmark WTI crude was trading around $61.10 per barrel, up roughly 2.7% on the day, while Brent crude climbed to about $65.41, gaining just over 2.4%. The gains capped a steady intraday grind higher rather than a knee-jerk spike, suggesting the market is responding to a cluster of risks rather than one clear catalyst. On one side of the oil price ledger is geopolitics.…

China and the EU took a significant step Monday toward easing their long-running electric vehicle trade dispute after Brussels released rules that could allow Chinese exporters to replace punitive tariffs with negotiated pricing commitments, according to the South China Morning Post. The European Commission said companies may submit price undertakings that must be “adequate to eliminate the injurious effects of the subsidies and provide equivalent effect to duties”. Exporters are encouraged to include shipment limits and future EU investments,…

Last week US President Donald Trump announced that Venezuela’s interim authorities will turn over up to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States, before later declaring his administration will control Venezuela's oil sales “indefinitely”. Decrying the state of Venezuela’s oil sector, including that the South American country now pumps a fraction of what it used to, Trump said, “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies — the biggest anywhere in the world — go in,…

Norway on Tuesday offered 57 new production licenses to 19 companies in the annual licensing round for acreage in the best-explored areas on the Norwegian continental shelf, as Western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer looks to maintain the current high level of output for years to come. Norway holds an annual license round for exploration acreage in the best-known and mature areas on the Norwegian Continental Shelf—the so-called awards in predefined areas (APA) round. After more than 50 years of exploration activity, the APA rounds…

China’s National Petroleum Co. (CNPC) is set to begin work on a sector, dubbed Phase Four, of Turkmenistan’s massive Galkynysh gas field, according to a Turkmen government report. The sector, once pumping at full capacity, is expected to yield about 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year. Turkmenistan is providing all the financing for the development of Phase Four. Ashgabat is giving no indication of where it intends to send Phase-Four gas. The government report notes that China is currently the “largest…

Iran appears to have secretly released a Greece-owned oil tanker that it had seized two years ago, data from TankerTrackers.com, Inc showed as tensions between the Islamic Republic and the United States flare up again amidst deadly suppression of mass protests in Iran.  Iran captured the tanker St Nikolas in January 2024 in the Gulf of Oman, in retribution for the U.S. seizure of 1 million barrels of Iranian oil the previous year. At the time of the seizure, the vessel was traveling to the Turkish port of Aliaga after loading crude from the…

Iran appears to have secretly released a Greece-owned oil tanker that it had seized two years ago, data from TankerTrackers.com, Inc showed as tensions between the Islamic Republic and the United States flare up again amidst deadly suppression of mass protests in Iran.  Iran captured the tanker St Nikolas in January 2024 in the Gulf of Oman, in retribution for the U.S. seizure of 1 million barrels of Iranian oil the previous year. At the time of the seizure, the vessel was traveling to the Turkish port of Aliaga after loading crude from the…

Oil prices have rebounded sharply on geopolitical risk despite no meaningful supply losses. Call Options Go Wild as Brent Traders Bet Big on Chaos- Iran protests and the increasing probability that US President Trump would exploit that unrest for another series of strikes on Tehran have been dragging oil prices higher, boosting oil options trading in recent days. - This Monday witnessed the busiest-ever single day of Brent crude call option trading (556,000 contracts) as market participants rushed to the market to protect themselves against…

Russia on Tuesday asserted ownership of all oil assets a state Russian company is developing in Venezuela, following the claims of U.S. President Donald Trump that major American and Western oil firms would help revive Venezuela’s oil industry.  Russia’s Roszarubezhneft, a state-owned firm that took over Rosneft assets in 2020 following U.S. sanctions on Rosneft’s Venezuelan oil trade, said on Tuesday that “all assets of Roszarubezhneft in Venezuela are owned by the Russian state,” as they have been bought at…

US military action against Iran appears to be back on the policy agenda in Washington amid the increasingly deadly crackdown on protesters in cities and towns across the country. Unconfirmed reports say that more than 500 people have been killed -- some rights groups say the death toll may be several times higher -- in suppressing the uprising, one of the biggest challenges to clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The demonstrations were sparked by spiraling inflation and a freefall of the currency, but have since turned into a broader…

Global oil prices surged on Tuesday as markets reacted to the escalating drone strikes at the Novorossiysk terminal, which handles roughly 2% of the world's daily supply. The disruption to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) infrastructure, a vital artery for Kazakh exports managed by Western majors like Chevron and Shell, raised immediate fears of a prolonged supply squeeze.  WTI was at $60.75, up 2.1%... While Brent was trading at $65.13, up 1.9%. Two oil tankers waiting to load crude from some of Kazakhstan’s biggest oilfields were…

The U.S. stood the energy world on its ear with the “wee-hours” takedown of the Maduro regime just as the New Year began. One of the principal aims of the administration was made abundantly clear in the press conference that detailed the stunning shift in energy geopolitics that had been effected just a few hours before. In addition to bringing Nicolas Maduro to justice, the U.S. was taking over the administration of the country’s oil sector with the express ambition of revitalizing it and increasing production. Estimates were…

Previously, we reported that global upstream operators will cut investment for a second consecutive year in 2026, with capital expenditure expected to fall by at least 2-3% year-on-year, and more than 5% compared to 2024 levels, as the industry navigates sub-$60/bbl oil prices while maintaining focus on long-term resilience. Still, Wood Mackenzie has predicted that operators will continue to add strategic, new growth opportunities in several regions across the globe. To wit, the Middle East and North Africa are slated to add at least 20 billion…

One of the campaign promises of President Donald Trump was to secure affordable energy for Americans. Even at the time, this promise put him at odds with the oil industry, already suffering from low oil prices. Now, the rift has deepened as the prospect of cheap Venezuelan crude pressures everyone but Big Oil. Thankfully for the industry, geopolitics still plays a role in price-setting. It’s good news for oil producers and bad news for consumers. Almost every oil market forecaster predicted prices would go even lower this year than they were…

For the past year, surging oil production from the Americas – led by the United States, Guyana, and Brazil – has been a headache for OPEC in its efforts to rebalance the market and seek higher oil prices. OPEC’s efforts to continue influencing global oil supply and prices could be further undermined by the U.S. intervention in Venezuela and President Donald Trump’s idea to control the oil industry of the world’s biggest crude resource holder.   OPEC member Venezuela is estimated to hold 303 billion barrels of…

Few debates in Brussels carry as much emotional charge as critical raw materials. Mention lithium, rare earths, graphite, or nickel and the discussion almost immediately turns alarmist. China dominates the supply chain. Europe is dangerously dependent. The energy transition is at risk. The tone often suggests inevitability, as if this imbalance were a law of physics rather than the result of political and industrial choices. Step back from the panic and a different picture emerges. Europe’s vulnerability in critical materials is not geological.…

Australia's mining giant, BHP Group ( NYSE:BHP), will wait out talks over the proposed merger by the United Kingdom’s Rio Tinto Group (NYSE:RIO) and Switzerland-based commodity trading and mining company Glencore Plc. (OTCPK:GLCNF), people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. With a market cap of $162 billion, BHP was viewed as the most likely spoiler of Rio's bid for Glencore that would create the world's largest mining company. However, the Australian miner says it will not pursue a counterbid because Glencore is not complementary…

Australia's mining giant, BHP Group ( NYSE:BHP), will wait out talks over the proposed merger by the United Kingdom’s Rio Tinto Group (NYSE:RIO) and Switzerland-based commodity trading and mining company Glencore Plc. (OTCPK:GLCNF), people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. With a market cap of $162 billion, BHP was viewed as the most likely spoiler of Rio's bid for Glencore that would create the world's largest mining company. However, the Australian miner says it will not pursue a counterbid because Glencore is not complementary…

The Chinese are nothing if not persistent. In December 2025, Wu Xinbo, Dean, Institute of International Studies, Fudan University and advisor to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, used the pages of Foreign Affairs, to propose a “grand bargain” between China and America. Wu argues that U.S.–China relations have reached a pivotal moment that requires a comprehensive reset to prevent long?term confrontation. He proposes starting with economic cooperation—easing U.S. technology restrictions and increasing Chinese market…