The Middle East war and the mother of all oil shocks—the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz—have exposed the global dependence on oil and gas as buyers scramble for cargoes and consumers once again bear the brunt of spiking energy prices. Before the war, the world had just overcome the energy system disruption from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the embargoes on Russian energy in most of the developed economies. Some thought this was the biggest energy shock this decade, and most governments placed energy security ahead of…

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Thursday that it could ignite a wider energy crisis across the Middle East if Iran’s own oil and gas infrastructure comes under attack. In a statement carried by state broadcaster IRIB, the IRGC said any strike on Iran’s energy facilities or ports would trigger a “crushing and devastating response.” The force warned that, in such a scenario, oil and gas infrastructure across the region linked to the United States and its Western allies would be “set on fire…

The U.S. Department of Energy is launching a $1.9 billion funding effort aimed at rapidly expanding the capacity of the nation’s power grid by upgrading existing transmission lines. This is instead of building entirely new ones. The initiative, called Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades—mercifully shortened to SPARK—will fund projects that replace existing transmission wires with higher-capacity conductors and deploy advanced grid technologies designed to squeeze…

Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo, South America’s largest and oldest waterbody, is at risk. The lake is situated in the heart of the Maracaibo Basin, one of the continent’s richest oil-producing regions. After the Zumaque 1 wildcat well found black gold on Lake Maracaibo’s eastern shore, Venezuela’s oil industry rapidly expanded, covering the ancient waterbody with persistently leaking pipelines, storage tanks, and derricks. This triggered a devastating environmental disaster, which could worsen after the United States intervened…

The Trump administration is weighing a rare suspension of the century-old Jones Act, an extraordinary step that Washington has historically taken only during major national emergencies such as hurricanes or severe supply disruptions. Officials are considering a roughly 30-day waiver of the maritime law as the war in the Middle East sends oil and fuel prices sharply higher and disrupts global shipping routes. If enacted, it would allow foreign tankers to move oil, gasoline, diesel, liquefied natural gas, and fertilizer between U.S. ports, which…

Energy markets have entered an unprecedented crisis, pushing the world to look instinctively toward the largest producers: Saudi Arabia, the United States, or Russia. However, in the background, but sometimes hitting already the headlines, of today’s geopolitical turbulence, especially due to the ongoing, escalating confrontation around Iran, showing the fragility of maritime chokepoints (Hormuz), another actor has already, for years, quietly become indispensable to the current and future stability of global energy. The United Arab Emirates,…

Tesla has been granted approval to supply electricity to homes and businesses across the UK, opening the door for the electric vehicle giant to enter the country’s retail energy market. Energy regulator Ofgem confirmed on Thursday that Tesla Energy Ventures Limited, a subsidiary of Musk’s company, has been granted an electricity supply licence by the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority under the Electricity Act 1989. The licence allows the company to supply electricity to both domestic and non-domestic customers in England, Scotland…

Operations at the United Arab Emirates’ key oil storage and bunkering hub in Fujairah are gradually returning to normal after attacks earlier this week disrupted loading activities at several terminals. Most storage terminals and berths at the Fujairah Oil Tanker Terminal (FOTT) are now operating again, according to trade and shipping sources. Shipping agent reports show that all berths at Oil Terminal 1 and a very large crude carrier (VLCC) jetty are functioning, while several berths at Oil Terminal 2 have also resumed accepting vessels.…

The semiconducting industry is in trouble, which means the global economy is in trouble. The sector that creates the computer chips that increasingly power our world requires a huge amount of resources to operate efficiently, including a number of different critical minerals and a whole lot of energy. And those supply chains are now facing major disruptions thanks to the war that the United States and Israel are waging in Iran.  Though Donald Trump stated on Monday that the war will end “very soon”, there is cause for concern that…

Ukraine on Thursday hit in a drone attack a key pipeline hub of Russia’s crude oil exports in the southern region of Krasnodar as Kyiv intensifies strikes on Russian energy and military infrastructure. The pipeline terminal at Tikhoretsk, which hosts a major oil depot and a pumping station, was hit and a large fire broke out as a result, a source with knowledge of the situation told Bloomberg. Tikhoretsk is a major oil transshipment and pumping station for Russian oil supply in it southern regions and for exports from its Black Sea ports…

Iraq will maintain crude oil production at roughly 1.4 million barrels per day as the war disrupting the Persian Gulf continues to cripple the country’s export routes, Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said Thursday, according to the state news agency. The figure represents a dramatic collapse from Iraq’s normal production levels. Before the conflict effectively froze tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Iraq had been pumping a little over 4 million barrels per day, according to recent OPEC data and secondary-source estimates cited…

Exploiting Afghan territory for training, recruitment, and cross-border operations, these groups have claimed hundreds of Pakistani lives in recent years. The relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan has long been shaped by mutual grievances. Pakistan supported the Taliban during the 1990s and throughout the post-2001 insurgency in Afghanistan. However, relations have deteriorated in recent years as the Taliban-led government in Kabul has refused Pakistan’s repeated demands to crack down on the TTP despite sustained diplomatic pressure.…

TotalEnergies is capping the price of gasoline and diesel at its stations in France to protect consumers from the “exceptional market volatility” since the beginning of the war in the Middle East, the French supermajor said on Thursday.  From March 13 until March 31, 2026, the price of gasoline and diesel at TotalEnergies will be capped at 1.99 euros and 2.09 euros per liter, respectively.  TotalEnergies will reassess the measure and the state of the global fuel markets in early April, it said today.    Oil…

While Europe and Asia are reeling from the highest natural gas prices in three years following the closure of 20% of global LNG flows amid the Middle East war, the United States remains relatively insulated from the biggest price shock since the 2022-2023 energy crisis. U.S. natural gas futures have remained in the $3.10-$3.40 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) range since the war began and forced Qatar, the world’s second-largest LNG exporter, to shut in production at Ras Laffan, the world’s biggest liquefaction complex.…

Germany-based utility giant RWE is expanding its U.S. portfolio beyond renewables, focusing a large part of planned $19 billion investments in the United States by 2031 on gas-fired power generation.  RWE – which ditched U.S. offshore wind last year after the Trump Administration signaled renewables would not be a priority and wouldn’t be supported going forward – is now betting big on flexible gas peaking capacity in the United States, where electricity demand is soaring and gas is cheap and abundant.   “In…

US President Donald ‌Trump claimed the United States has "won" the war against Iran ‌but says its forces will continue to attack until the job is finished, while Tehran has hit at least six vessels in the region and vowed further strikes. "You never like ‌to say too early you won. We won," Trump said during a campaign-style rally in Kentucky on March 11. "In the first hour it ‌was over," he said. Comments from Trump and the White House over recent days have varied, from speculating that the war could last four to six weeks or…

The missile strikes on Feb. 28 changed the math for every commodity desk in the world…. Operation Epic Fury resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and perhaps the near-total collapse of the Iranian command structure. But President Donald Trump signaled this is just the beginning. In a video released from Mar-a-Lago, Trump warned of a "big wave" of attacks yet to come and suggested a four-week window to finalize regime change. That four-week window is already closing. Twelve days into Operation Epic Fury, the conflict is costing…

Two oil tankers carrying Iraqi oil products caught fire Wednesday after being struck in Iraqi territorial waters near the country’s southern export terminals, according to Iraqi port officials and multiple media reports. The vessels, Vishnu, a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker chartered to an Iraqi company, and Zefyros, a Malta-flagged tanker transporting condensate from the Basra Gas Company, were operating near Iraq’s Al-Faw port area close to Basra when the incident occurred. Iraq’s director general of the General Company for…

Oil markets continue to experience heightened volatility as the Middle East conflict escalates, with oil prices trending north on Wednesday, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled that the war in the Middle East is nearly complete. In remarks made a couple of days ago, Trump described the conflict as a "short-term excursion" that is ahead of schedule and is nearing its final phase. At 3.55 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Brent crude for April delivery was up over 5% to trade at $92.21 per barrel, while the corresponding WTI crude contract was…

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz since March 1 has triggered an unprecedented distortion in global jet fuel markets, pushing European aviation fuel prices to historic extremes and exposing the continent’s structural dependence on Middle Eastern supply. In a market where diesel has traditionally commanded a premium over jet fuel, the sudden disruption of Gulf exports has inverted long-standing price relationships, leaving Europe desperately searching for alternatives that are either geographically distant, commercially unattractive, or…