India’s Finance Ministry has unveiled a budget proposal for the current financial year that will boost domestic rare earths mining and the clean energy sector as part of a broader effort to break global supply chain monopolies--particularly China’s dominance--and achieve strategic self-reliance in critical minerals. In the Union Budget 2026-27 presented over the weekend, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a strategic initiative to establish dedicated rare earth corridors across four mineral-rich coastal states of Odisha, Kerala,…

The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, centred in Erbil, has a significance way beyond its size, oil and gas output, and military capabilities. It is at the heart of the superpower battle for Iraq, which itself is seen by Washington, London, Beijing and Moscow, as the key to the broader Middle East. As underscored exclusively to OilPrice.com some time ago by a senior energy source who works closely with Iran’s Petroleum Ministry, China, Russia and Iran’s view is that: “By keeping the West out of energy deals in Iraq, the…

Central Asia is emerging from the shadow of Russia and Moscow’s grip on its economy and energy supply. In recent years, several regional and European projects, as well as China’s inroads into the Central Asian economies, have the potential to make Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan less dependent on Russia in their energy systems. Power connections and transmission projects, a program to establish Central Asia’s first-ever regional electricity market, and hydropower projects in these countries are…

Western countries have led the push for net-zero economies for over a decade. Even though it’s China that is the biggest builder of wind and solar, and EVs, and the biggest investor in transition technology, it is Europe, the UK, and Australia that are pushing for more emission cuts and more commitments for low-carbon energy. There is just one problem with that: they have outsourced all the high-emission activities, and these activities are now powering whole economies. Take cement, for instance. The biggest producer of the essential raw…

As stated earlier last month, Europe’s reliance on China for the minerals and materials underpinning the clean energy transition is no accident; it was a policy choice. And just as it chose dependency, Europe can choose resilience. The contours of that choice are now sharp and urgent: this is not about isolationism, but about strategic autonomy, industrial renaissance, and practical competitiveness. Europe’s vulnerability lies not in geology but in policy and capacity. Europe is not barren of lithium, nickel, graphite, rare earths,…

“Wow, we really dodged the bullet. Maybe a million customers lost service, but none of the grids went down. Anyway, you can’t really prepare for freak events. Congrats on a job well done!” You can just imagine the imaginary manager of the imaginary US electric grid control center telling that to the frazzled staff after that fierce winter storm dubbed Fern. Of course, a number of power plants (largely gas-fired) stopped operating, power lines went down, and in some parts, even a week later, there was still no power, and water…

President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States and India have reached an agreement on a trade framework that cuts U.S. tariffs on Indian goods and commits New Delhi to expand purchases of U.S. oil and gas, pushing energy supply to the center of talks that have unfolded largely in public. Trump’s comments outlined a deal that lowers U.S. tariffs on Indian imports to 18% and removes an additional duty tied to India’s Russian oil buying. In return, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to sharply reduce purchases of…

President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States and India have reached an agreement on a trade framework that cuts U.S. tariffs on Indian goods and commits New Delhi to expand purchases of U.S. oil and gas, pushing energy supply to the center of talks that have unfolded largely in public. Trump’s comments outlined a deal that lowers U.S. tariffs on Indian imports to 18% and removes an additional duty tied to India’s Russian oil buying. In return, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to sharply reduce purchases of…

Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi on Monday warned that rising power demand from artificial intelligence could wipe out the global LNG surplus and push markets into deficit by around 2030, despite more than 100 million tonnes per year of new LNG capacity scheduled to come online this decade, Reuters reported. Al-Kaabi said AI-driven data centers are emerging as a material source of gas demand as governments and technology companies accelerate investment in large-scale computing infrastructure. Unlike traditional industrial loads, data centers…

Geopolitics are clearly again at play in the ongoing story surrounding Russia’s Lukoil international asset sale. The return of geopolitics, as clearly evident in energy markets, is putting investors on the spot; they must relearn an old lesson: oil and gas are never merely commodities, and capital is never neutral. This longstanding dynamic is clearly being played out in the quiet but strategically meaningful triangle among The Carlyle Group, Lukoil, and the United Arab Emirates, with risks stemming from sanctions, regional conflicts, and…

The United States has extended a Treasury license that shields Venezuela-owned refiner CITGO Petroleum Corp from creditor actions through March 20, a move that preserves the company’s legal status while debt disputes continue, Reuters reported on Monday.  The license prevents creditors from seizing Citgo’s U.S. assets as part of ongoing litigation tied to defaults by its ultimate owner, Venezuela’s state energy company. The protection has been repeatedly renewed over successive months and years as courts and claimants press…

The United States has extended a Treasury license that shields Venezuela-owned refiner CITGO Petroleum Corp from creditor actions through March 20, a move that preserves the company’s legal status while debt disputes continue, Reuters reported on Monday.  The license prevents creditors from seizing Citgo’s U.S. assets as part of ongoing litigation tied to defaults by its ultimate owner, Venezuela’s state energy company. The protection has been repeatedly renewed over successive months and years as courts and claimants press…

Talk about awkward timing. Just as Bishkek is set to host a major US-Central Asian trade forum, reports are circulating that the EU may impose sanctions on Kyrgyzstan. First reported by Bloomberg, Brussels appears ready to slap bans on Kyrgyz trade in machine tools and radio equipment as punishment for helping the Kremlin evade sanctions imposed following Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine. If the reports prove accurate, Kyrgyzstan will become the first Central Asian nation to face EU sanctions for helping Russia. To date, only individuals…

Equinor will sell all its assets in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta basin to Vista Energy in a cash and stock deal worth $1.1 billion, the Norwegian energy major said on Monday as it continues to high-grade its international portfolio. The deal includes Equinor’s 30% non-operated interest in the Bandurria Sur asset and its 50% non-operated interest in the Bajo del Toro asset in the premier Argentinian shale basin that has seen oil and gas production surge over the past year. Equinor retains its acreage offshore Argentina as these assets are…

The Trump administration has moved to lock down supply by launching a $12-billion strategic stockpile of critical minerals, a direct bid to cut U.S. reliance on China for materials that sit at the heart of defense systems, power grids, and advanced manufacturing, Bloomberg reported on Monday.  Rather than leaning on tariffs, permitting tweaks, or future supply promises, Washington is choosing to buy and hold the minerals outright. The stockpile will focus on rare earth elements alongside lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite. These materials…

The global LNG market is expanding by 3% every year, growing at a faster pace than the overall natural gas market, Wael Sawan, chief executive officer of the world’s top LNG trader, Shell, said at an LNG conference in Doha, Qatar. Both supply and demand of LNG have surged in recent years, and a new supply wave is coming by the end of this decade. The supply surge is set to begin as soon as this year, analysts and forecasters say. New LNG export projects coming online and ramp-ups of recently commissioned facilities are expected to drive a…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a new round of trilateral talks with Moscow and Washington is set for February 4-5 in the United Arab Emirates, with the expected gathering coming after another round of deadly Russian air strikes on civilian sites. In his nightly video address on February 1, Zelenskyy said there is "an arrangement to hold a trilateral meeting at an appropriate level...on Wednesday and Thursday [February 4-5] in the United Arab Emirates, as last time." There had been uncertainty about the talks, which originally were…

Equinor will sell all its assets in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta basin to Vista Energy in a cash and stock deal worth $1.1 billion, the Norwegian energy major said on Monday as it continues to high-grade its international portfolio. The deal includes Equinor’s 30% non-operated interest in the Bandurria Sur asset and its 50% non-operated interest in the Bajo del Toro asset in the premier Argentinian shale basin that has seen oil and gas production surge over the past year.   Equinor retains its acreage offshore Argentina as these assets…

Four OPEC+ producers that have been pumping crude above their respective quotas have filed with the OPEC Secretariat updated compensation plans through June 2026, OPEC said on Monday. OPEC members Iraq and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as the non-OPEC producers of the OPEC+ pact, Kazakhstan and Oman, have submitted their updated plans to cut more output between January and June as compensation for previously exceeding their quotas. The UAE will be compensating small volumes of between 10,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 53,000 bpd each month…

Devon Energy and Coterra Energy announced on Monday a definitive agreement to merge and create a premier shale operator in an all-stock transaction, implying a combined enterprise value of about $58 billion.   The deal, announced today after weeks of speculation, would create a company with a significantly increased position in the premier part of the Permian Basin and operations in the Marcellus Shale and Anadarko Basin. The deal will create one of the top shale producers with pro-forma third quarter 2025 production exceeding 1.6 million…