The International Energy Agency (IEA) and its member nations have agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves in an attempt to stabilize global energy markets as the war involving Iran continues to disrupt crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz. The coordinated action, announced Wednesday by the IEA, represents the largest emergency oil release ever organized by the group and only the sixth such intervention since the IEA was created following the 1970s oil shocks. The move comes as tanker traffic through the…

Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 3.8 million barrels during the week ending March 6, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 443.1 million barrels according to government data, which is still 2% below the five-year average for this time of year. The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels in the period. Crude…

Driving past the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown Tel Aviv, a huge video billboard catches the eye as the advertisement switches from groceries to a giant portrait of the US president with the caption: "Thank you, God and Donald Trump!" The tribute bears witness to Israeli gratitude for America's role in the military strikes on Iran. Israeli officials have repeatedly stressed that the two countries are in lockstep. "The cooperation is historic between the US military and the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and between the Israeli Air Force and the…

The European Union is considering emergency relief measures in the wake of the energy price spike amid the Middle East war, including capping the price of natural gas, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. The price spike in oil and gas prices during the ten days of war have already cost the European taxpayer an additional 3 billion euros, or $3.5 billion, in fossil fuel imports, von der Leyen told the European Parliament today. “Households and companies face pressure now. So we must deliver relief now,”…

One high-powered, precise weapon has quickly and permanently transformed modern warfare. It can weigh less than a suitcase…and cost a few hundred dollars to build…but take out a multimillion-dollar tank from miles away. The drone has changed the face of war. Nothing has disrupted the battlefield so drastically since the introduction of the machine gun in World War I. Military experts describe the shift as transformative…a fundamental rewiring of how conflicts are fought, won, and lost. Ukraine produced 1.2 million drones in…

QatarEnergy’s shutdown of its LNG production complex has resulted in a streak of five days with zero shipments of the superchilled fuel, according to Kpler data cited by Bloomberg. This is the longest period with no Qatari LNG leaving the country since 2008, the publication noted, adding no LNG carrier has passed the Strait of Hormuz since February 28. That includes vessels normally exporting liquefied gas from the UAE, meaning 20% of the world’s LNG exports are gone. QatarEnergy — the state-owned energy giant responsible for…

Oil prices pulled back sharply for the second day running on Tuesday after U.S. President Trump signaled that the Middle East war is nearing a conclusion, easing fears of prolonged supply disruption, especially at the Strait of Hormuz–even if Iran doesn’t seem to agree and statements coming out of the White House are infused with contradictions. The potential de-escalation effectively reduces the "geopolitical risk premium" that had previously driven prices towards $120 a barrel. Brent crude for April delivery dropped over 10% on Tuesday…

Earlier this year, U.S. forces snatched Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro from Caracas, and the Trump administration stepped in to take over the country’s oil industry. Many appear to have expected the same with Iran, sooner or later, but for now, it seems President Trump is in no hurry to plan an oil seizure—likely because Iran is a very different story from Venezuela. “You look at Venezuela,” the U.S. president told NBC News. “People have thought about it, but it’s too soon to talk about that.” The rather…

Saudi Arabia was regarded for decades as the ‘global swing oil producer’, able to quickly decrease or increase its oil flows to respectively raise or lower world oil prices. Riyadh has long perpetuated this idea, with grandiose claims about the Kingdom’s crude oil reserves and resultant spare capacity. After two of its key oil installations were hit by rockets from the Iran-backed Houthis back in 2019, it also highlighted that its capacity to recover from such shocks was also extremely quick. So, with the world facing continued…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 1.7 million barrels in the week ending March 6, after adding 5.6 million barrels in the week prior. Analysts had expected a build of 1.4 million barrels. Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have stayed at 415.4 million barrels for multiple weeks in a row as of the week ending March 6. This is 310.1 million barrels shy of maximum capacity. US production fell again, by 6,000 bpd, sinking to an average of 13.696 million bpd…

In China’s new five-year plan, released Thursday, the world’s second-largest economy declared its aim to “lead global climate governance.” However, the targets laid out in the nation’s 15th five-year plan mark a cautious turn in China’s approach to energy strategy, reflecting the global cool-off on climate-related policy and a general sense of unease in energy markets. China is set to continue full-speed ahead in its renewable energy additions, but is fundamentally changing the way that it tracks progress on…

Oil prices are notoriously difficult to forecast. The market has a long history of humbling anyone who speaks with too much certainty. There are just too many complex variables involved. At the end of 2025, the prevailing narrative was that a surplus of oil was in store for 2026. Several major banks and forecasting agencies expected global supply to exceed demand by multiple millions of barrels per day. Some projections—including those from JPMorgan Chase—anticipated Brent crude drifting into the $60 range by mid-2026. How quickly things…

Iran has begun laying naval mines in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, according to two people familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting, in what analysts warn could extend the effective blockade of the world’s most critical energy chokepoint and deepen disruption to global oil flows. The mining activity — currently limited to a few dozen mines laid in recent days — represents an escalation in Iran’s campaign to assert control over the narrow waterway, sources said. Tehran still possesses roughly 80%–90% of…

Iran has begun laying naval mines in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, according to two people familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting, in what analysts warn could extend the effective blockade of the world’s most critical energy chokepoint and deepen disruption to global oil flows. The mining activity — currently limited to a few dozen mines laid in recent days — represents an escalation in Iran’s campaign to assert control over the narrow waterway, sources said. Tehran still possesses roughly 80%–90% of…

Renewable sources of power generation, such as solar, wind, and batteries, are displacing fossil fired power generation. The reason? Price. They produce power more cheaply. This is also a little more complicated because this is also a technology transition away from fossil fuels, and its assimilation rate throughout the economy is accelerating. But when competing businesses, which produce the identical commodity,  such as electricity, begin to diverge radically in terms of their underlying cost structures, winners and losers emerge. One of…

Global energy leaders are gathering to decide whether to release emergency oil reserves as production and export disruptions tied to the Middle East conflict continue to strain global markets. The International Energy Agency hosted G7 energy ministers at its Paris headquarters on Tuesday, where Executive Director Fatih Birol warned that conditions in oil markets have deteriorated in recent days. Shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have been disrupted, forcing some producers in the region to curtail output, creating what the agency described…

Global energy leaders are gathering to decide whether to release emergency oil reserves as production and export disruptions tied to the Middle East conflict continue to strain global markets. The International Energy Agency hosted G7 energy ministers at its Paris headquarters on Tuesday, where Executive Director Fatih Birol warned that conditions in oil markets have deteriorated in recent days. Shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have been disrupted, forcing some producers in the region to curtail output, creating what the agency described…

The escalation of conflict in the Middle East is a stress test for the region’s carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) projects and how bankable they remain when hydrocarbon operations are disrupted. Because most CCUS projects are linked to oil and gas value chains, the regional pipeline is being repriced as higher risk. Our base case of 20 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of capture capacity by 2030 now looks unlikely; we expect delays as priorities shift and capital is reallocated, leaving the region tracking closer to our low case…

The U.S. Energy Information Administration sharply revised its oil price outlook in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) based on the growing impact of the Middle East conflict and the near standstill in tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude settled at $94 per barrel on March 9, according to the EIA— a roughly 50% surge since the start of the year and the highest level since September 2023. Prices have climbed rapidly as shipments through the Strait of Hormuz slowed dramatically and some Middle East producers began…

Marine fuel supply at the major Middle East bunkering hub of Fujairah has been disrupted after debris from an intercepted drone sparked a fire at an oil storage facility, forcing terminals to halt bunker barge loadings and tightening fuel availability in regional shipping markets. The incident occurred on March 9 when debris from a drone intercepted by UAE air defence systems fell inside the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, triggering a fire that damaged storage infrastructure. Authorities later said the blaze had been contained, but bunker terminals…