U.S. electricity consumption set a new record high last year and is on track for new all-time highs this year and next, as the AI boom has ended America’s decade of stagnant power use. Rising electrification rates are partly responsible for the higher power demand, but the AI boom and the data centers that support it are the key drivers of growing electricity demand and will remain so over the next few years. As power demand grows, generation is also increasing to record highs, with natural gas remaining the mainstay of the U.S. power mix.…

Two shocks are hitting energy investors at once, and they point in opposite directions.  The first is obvious. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard declared the Strait of Hormuz closed again on July 11, the U.S. answered with three straight nights of strikes, and roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil trade is once more moving in a trickle or not at all.  Brent punched back above $86 this week, a one-month high, and crude is up around 40 percent since January.  Repeated U.S. bombing has not broken Tehran’s grip on the…

The oil market is treating another US-Iran escalation as background noise. The U.S. launched another wave of strikes against Iran on Wednesday, expanding attacks on military targets along the country's southern coast. Brent crude barely flinched. The global benchmark traded around $84.65 per barrel Wednesday afternoon, down slightly on the day despite another escalation in the fight over the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command said Wednesday's operation targeted Iranian coastal defense systems, cruise missile storage sites, launch positions,…

The oil market is treating another US-Iran escalation as background noise. The U.S. launched another wave of strikes against Iran on Wednesday, expanding attacks on military targets along the country's southern coast. Brent crude barely flinched. The global benchmark traded around $84.65 per barrel Wednesday afternoon, down slightly on the day despite another escalation in the fight over the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command said Wednesday's operation targeted Iranian coastal defense systems, cruise missile storage sites, launch positions,…

The face of energy security is changing. Historically, fossil fuels have represented security thanks to their established supply chains and round-the-clock production potential, while renewable energies represented risk and variability. But that equation is reversing as consecutive global oil shocks throw the fossil fuels industry into turmoil and energy storage systems make wind and solar more dependable options at any time of day. The offensive in Iran, led by the United States and Israel, has led to a near-total blockage of the oil industry’s…

It’s not often that wind power and oil and gas are mentioned in the same breath. The rare occasion concerns a new type of offshore wind turbine launched in China that will power the extraction of fossil fuels by offshore oil platforms. Developed by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the world’s first 16-megawatt tension-leg platform (TLP) floating offshore wind turbine set sail at the end of June from Zhuhai in Guangdong Province, southern China. It will be used at the Lufeng oil fields in the South China Sea. The…

The chairman of Kazakhstan’s Atomic Energy Agency, Almassadam Satkaliyev, is on an extended tour of nuclear-power facilities in China, gaining insight into PRC management techniques covering the entire development cycle, from designing to construction to operation of such entities. Satkaliyev visited a wide range of sites, from the Tianwan nuclear plant, which is fully operational, and the Xuwei nuclear facility, currently under construction, to uranium mining and fuel production sites and research and training entities. He also met with…

A massive data breach has exposed approximately 19,000 highly sensitive files related to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) on the dark web. The documents mainly involve Units 3 and 4 of the 2,400 MW plant, both still under construction and slated to become operational by 2027. The data breach occurred on a server managed by third-party data center provider Yotta, which detected suspicious activity on a server belonging to Reliance Infrastructure, a subsidiary of India’s Reliance Group. World Leaks (formerly Hunters International),…

A massive data breach has exposed approximately 19,000 highly sensitive files related to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) on the dark web. The documents mainly involve Units 3 and 4 of the 2,400 MW plant, both still under construction and slated to become operational by 2027. The data breach occurred on a server managed by third-party data center provider Yotta, which detected suspicious activity on a server belonging to Reliance Infrastructure, a subsidiary of India’s Reliance Group. World Leaks (formerly Hunters International),…

A massive data breach has exposed approximately 19,000 highly sensitive files related to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) on the dark web. The documents mainly involve Units 3 and 4 of the 2,400 MW plant, both still under construction and slated to become operational by 2027. The data breach occurred on a server managed by third-party data center provider Yotta, which detected suspicious activity on a server belonging to Reliance Infrastructure, a subsidiary of India’s Reliance Group. World Leaks (formerly Hunters International),…

The U.S.-Iran cease-fire that was supposed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for good is falling apart.  American forces reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports this week and hit dozens of targets along Iran's coast, and Tehran answered by striking tankers moving through the strait without its permission.  Brent crude, which had drifted down into the mid-$70s while the June peace deal held, jumped back above $85 a barrel on the news, its highest level since the truce was signed.  It's the second time this year the market has had…

Brazil’s largest private electricity producer, Engie Brasil, has successfully raised 8.4 billion reais ($1.66 billion) at a price of 30.50 reais per share in a follow-on share offering, in one of the largest follow-on offerings in the country’s capital market this year, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The power company intends to use ~$1.13 billion of the capital increase to fund the acquisition of a 40% stake in the Jirau hydroelectric plant from its controlling French shareholder. The deal effectively brings the 3,750-megawatt Jirau…

The largest US power grid failed for a third straight year to secure enough future supply commitments to ensure reliability for the future amid a historic boom in data center demand. PJM Interconnection, the largest US power grid (Regional Transmission Organization), which serves 67 million customers in 13 states and Washington, DC, said its auction to procure power for the year starting June 2028 fell 6.8 gigawatts short of what it will need to guarantee system reliability during demand spikes, in a statement released Tuesday. The shortfall is…

Crude oil inventories in the United States saw a decrease of 1.7 million barrels during the week ending July 10, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 409.7 million barrels, according to government data, which are now 6% 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 saw a small draw of 564,000 barrels in the period.…

Nearly 135 million barrels of Russian crude oil are currently stranded at sea as a result of Ukraine’s airstrike campaign targeting refineries with the intent to cripple crude processing. The offshore backlog is forcing Moscow to significantly ramp up export volumes. Intensive Ukrainian drone strikes, including recent hits on the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat and Afipsky processing facilities, have knocked out roughly one-third of Russian domestic refining capacity bringing it to ~3.91 million barrels per day, the lowest level seen since 2005.…

A bipartisan group of US senators on July 14 introduced the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026, unveiling a revised package of sanctions and tariffs aimed at squeezing Moscow's war finances while seeking to overcome concerns that had stalled earlier versions of the legislation. The bill, which has gathered more than 26 bipartisan co-sponsors, with supporters expecting that number to quickly grow, has taken on added political significance following the sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of its chief architects, over the weekend.…

Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is once again off-limits in the near term as the renewed hostilities and threats to vessels led to another spike in risks of transiting the key tanker and container shipping lane, according to Masahiro Okafuji, chair of the Japan Foreign Trade Council. “No one would go there, because it’s dangerous,” Okafuji told a media conference on Wednesday, as carried by Bloomberg. Renewed re-routing of the shipping lanes around the Cape of Good Hope on Africa’s southern tip would hike…

Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is once again off-limits in the near term as the renewed hostilities and threats to vessels led to another spike in risks of transiting the key tanker and container shipping lane, according to Masahiro Okafuji, chair of the Japan Foreign Trade Council. “No one would go there, because it’s dangerous,” Okafuji told a media conference on Wednesday, as carried by Bloomberg. Renewed re-routing of the shipping lanes around the Cape of Good Hope on Africa’s southern tip would hike…

Navigation through the Strait of Hormuz remains too dangerous for ship owners and operators to brave the chokepoint, the head of the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) said on Wednesday. “I will maintain the message of upholding international law, for countries to do the same thing, and for companies — at this stage, particularly with the volatility — not to take risk to transit through the Strait of Hormuz,” IMO Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez told Bloomberg Radio. The IMO and other maritime…

After striking 116 vessels linked to Russia’s shadow fleet in the Sea of Azov in recent weeks, Ukraine’s military is turning its sights on ships in the Black Sea, hitting in drone attacks as many as 20 vessels overnight on Wednesday. Ukrainian forces struck 17 Russia-linked oil tankers, 2 gas carriers, and one tugboat early on July 15, drone unit commander Robert Brovdi said on Telegram today, adding that an official report with video evidence would follow later in the day. “The first round of the naval battle is over,”…