The Permian Basin is the largest contributor to U.S. oil production, accounting for nearly half of total production in both 2024 and 2025. But success comes at a price, and in the Permian’s case, the price is huge amounts of wastewater—and the industry is running out of places to store it. Hydraulic fracturing, which is the dominant way of extracting oil in the Permian, is a water-intensive process. Fracking involves injecting chemicals and sand into the horizontal well to open up the oil-bearing rock and keep it open. The longer the…

The U.S. blockade of Venezuela to prevent sanctioned tankers from shipping oil to and from the South American country is not the only geopolitical game involving the United States in its backyard in the Western Hemisphere.  U.S. lawmakers are not happy with Mexico sending fuel shipments to Cuba. Power outages and massive blackouts have become more frequent on the Communist-run island since shipments from sanctioned Venezuela dwindled and left Cuba’s petroleum-dependent power system at the mercy of alternative supplies.   Some…

Saudi Arabia’s recent agreements with the Syrian Petroleum Company to help revive and develop Syria’s long-neglected oil and gas fields are not a benevolent Gulf gesture but the latest step in a carefully sequenced post-Assad strategy shaped in Washington and London. The removal of Bashar al-Assad last December -- driven as much by Syria’s pivotal geography and Mediterranean frontage as by the desire of the new U.S. administration to demonstrate its willingness to unseat entrenched autocrats -- created a vacuum that Western planners…

Türkiye’s state-run energy champion Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) is on track to dramatically scale up production, with daily oil and gas output expected to reach around 500,000 barrels by 2028, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said this week. Speaking to local media, Bayraktar said the projection is based on current reserves and ongoing developments, but stressed that Ankara’s longer-term ambition is even larger. The government ultimately wants TPAO to become a one-million-barrel-per-day producer,…

Rare earth elements (REEs) are the backbone of modern technology, from EV motors and wind turbines to smartphones and precision-guided systems. This map, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, breaks down where the world’s known rare earth reserves are located in 2025, highlighting how concentrated they are across a handful of countries. The data for this visualization comes from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The distribution is highly uneven. China alone holds nearly half of the global total, followed by Brazil’s…

Chevron has unloaded Venezuelan crude oil at U.S. ports under its existing Treasury licence, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday, even as U.S. enforcement actions disrupt other Venezuelan export routes and tighten pressure on unauthorised shipments. Bloomberg did not disclose the number of cargoes involved or the timing of the deliveries. The arrivals come as Washington steps up interdictions targeting Venezuelan oil flows outside approved channels, drawing a clear distinction between Chevron’s licensed operations and exports handled…

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices were up 2.5% in Monday trading at 2:42 p.m. ET, reaching $58.17, as tensions flared in Yemen and hopes for a peace deal on the Russia-Ukraine front dissipated following unsuccessful talks between Kyiv and Washington.  In Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition has vowed to retaliate against any military ‌moves by the main southern separatist group backed by the UAE, the Saudi state news agency reported on Saturday. Last week, an escalation of fighting killed two people from the separatist group. Meanwhile,…

2025 was the year artificial intelligence (AI) took the driver’s seat, literally. Not just in boardrooms or on trading floors, but increasingly on the tarmac, in showrooms, and behind the wheel itself. From record-breaking EV sales in the UK and Europe to autonomous taxis navigating San Francisco streets and preparing to arrive in London next year, the automotive world shifted into a new era. The technology set the pace, but human decisions in policy, investment, and adoption alike determined whether the ride would be smooth or bumpy. Britain…

Iran’s Central Bank governor Mohammad Reza Farzin stepped down on Monday after protests erupted in Tehran and other cities following a sharp collapse in the rial. The currency plunged on Sunday to around 1.42 million rials per dollar on the free market before stabilizing slightly at about 1.38 million on Monday. For perspective, Iran’s currency traded at roughly 32,000 rials per dollar when Tehran signed the JCPOA nuclear accord in 2015 under then-U.S. President Barack Obama. Iran's economy has been grappling with major challenges,…

2025 has proven to be an annus horribilis for clean energy after Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) rolled back major tax credits and imposed new restrictions, pressuring early-stage solar and wind energy pipelines. Indeed, a Cleanview analysis of U.S. power projects has revealed that developers have cancelled 1,891 power projects with a combined 266 GW of generation capacity in the current year, including 86,466 MW of solar power, 79,045 MW of storage and 54,328 MW of wind power projects. Meanwhile, Europe has witnessed disappointing…

Following the Ukrainian drone attack that damaged a key export terminal on Russia’s Black Sea at end-November, Kazakhstan’s crude and condensate production has fallen by 6% so far in December compared to the average output in November, an anonymous industry source told Reuters on Monday.  A Ukrainian attack damaged infrastructure through which the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) exports most of Kazakhstan’s oil near the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea.  Oil has continued to flow, but at lower rates, while…

With a two-month "quarantine" placed on Venezuelan oil by the Trump administration in a foreign policy move called "gunboat diplomacy," new data estimate that roughly $900 million worth of crude is currently loaded on tankers, unable to depart Venezuela due to the U.S. blockade. "Based on our visual analysis from both shore and space, we estimate that there are around 17.5 million barrels of crude oil floating onboard tankers in Venezuela which are unable to depart due to the ongoing US blockade," independent research Tanker Trackers wrote on X.…

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which has been under Russian control since early 2022, could resume operations within a year and a half after a potential end to the war, the head of the plant’s Russian operating company said on Monday.  “If this (the end of the conflict) happens tomorrow, we will be ready to start up in mid-2027,” Ramil Galiyev, CEO of the Zaporizhzhya NPP Operating Organization, said, as carried by Russia’s state news agency RIA.  The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is not operational…

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which has been under Russian control since early 2022, could resume operations within a year and a half after a potential end to the war, the head of the plant’s Russian operating company said on Monday.  “If this (the end of the conflict) happens tomorrow, we will be ready to start up in mid-2027,” Ramil Galiyev, CEO of the Zaporizhzhya NPP Operating Organization, said, as carried by Russia’s state news agency RIA.  The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is not operational…

CNOOC Ltd, China’s top offshore crude oil and natural gas producer, has announced the discovery of a major new oilfield in the Bohai Sea.  The Qinhuangdao 29-6 discovery in the shallow Neogene formations of the Bohai Sea is yet another oilfield estimated to hold more than 100 million tons of crude, or about 730 million barrels, and discovered by CNOOC recently, the company said.   Through continued exploration, the proved in-place volume of Qinhuangdao 29-6 Oilfield has exceeded 100 million tons of oil equivalent.  The…

CNOOC Ltd, China’s top offshore crude oil and natural gas producer, has announced the discovery of a major new oilfield in the Bohai Sea.  The Qinhuangdao 29-6 discovery in the shallow Neogene formations of the Bohai Sea is yet another oilfield estimated to hold more than 100 million tons of crude, or about 730 million barrels, and discovered by CNOOC recently, the company said.   Through continued exploration, the proved in-place volume of Qinhuangdao 29-6 Oilfield has exceeded 100 million tons of oil equivalent.  The…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy concluded his talks with US President Donald Trump without a peace deal, but he said US and Ukrainian teams will meet again soon and that a gathering of leaders -- including those from Europe -- will be held in Washington next month. Zelenskyy, on December 28, posted on social media that "we had a substantive discussion on all issues," including matters concerning all-important security guarantees, at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. "We discussed all the aspects of the peace framework and…

Saudi Arabia is expected to further lower the price of its crude oil bound for Asia in February, as global supply remains plentiful and spot benchmarks in the Middle East have dropped, a Reuters survey of six Asian refining sources showed on Monday.   Saudi Arabia, the biggest crude exporter in the world, is poised to reduce the price of its flagship Arab Light crude by $0.10 to $0.30 per barrel for February loadings to Asia, the participants in the survey said.  The expected drop would bring the price of Arab Light to a premium…

Oil prices rose by 2% early on Monday in thinner-than-usual trading after the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents said progress had been made on a peace agreement, but issues still remain to be discussed.   As of 7:43 a.m. ET on Monday, the U.S. benchmark crude price, WTI Crude, was up by 2.43% on the day and traded at $58.12.  The international benchmark, Brent Crude, moved to $62 per barrel, up by 2.24% from Friday’s close.  U.S. President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy met on Sunday at Mar-a-Lago…

China’s exports of electric vehicles surged by 87% in November from a year earlier, with Asia and Europe taking the highest number of Chinese EVs, per data from China’s customs office cited by Bloomberg. Asia remained the top export market for China-made EVs, with a 71% jump in sales, to 110,061 units in November compared to the same month of 2024. Sales in Europe surged by 63% to nearly 43,000 vehicles last month, according to the official Chinese export data. The region of Latin America and the Caribbean saw sales of China-made EVs…