Money managers have increased bullish wagers on crude oil to the highest levels in months, with renewed geopolitical risk tied to Iran pushing energy markets back toward supply-focused trading, according to Bloomberg. Hedge funds increased net-long Brent crude positions by more than 31,000 contracts in the week ending February 3, lifting total long positions to nearly 278,000 lots, the highest level in roughly ten months. Data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission shows that money managers also raised net-long positions in WTI crude to…

Affordability has become a big issue. Drivers see oil affordability increasing to the dismay of the drillers and electricity consumers see the opposite picture as prices rise. Politicians tell us not to worry because stock portfolios have risen in value and, therefore, people are richer and can afford more, but there is a good chance that the people with the affordability problem do not have a rising portfolio of stocks or gold to buffer the higher household bills. The following chart shows the percentage change in value of various measures of…

Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries cost Russia’s oil and gas sector as much as $12.9 billion (1 trillion Russian rubles) last year, according to a local insurance broker.    Direct losses for the sector topped $1.3 billion (100 billion rubles) in 2025. If these are added to the indirect losses and missed sales and profits, the total losses for Russia’s oil and gas industry amounted to $13 billion, Yevgeny Borovikov, deputy CEO at insurance broker Mains, told Russian daily Kommersant.  Last year, Russian insurers…

A US-Central Asia business forum that concluded February 5 in Kyrgyzstan highlighted the significant inroads Washington has made into the region’s mining sector. But it also has shown that much remains to be done if the United States is to gain a larger share of the region’s abundance of critical minerals and rare earths.  A central focus of the second B5+1 forum -- which promotes public-private collaborations by bringing together policymakers and business leaders from across Central Asia and the US -- was on critical minerals.…

Abu Dhabi’s main gas company, ADNOC Gas, has presented its financials. Again, the gas giant is being sold to investors as the perfect Gulf utility, based on its scale, stability, and domestic demand, and especially on its dividend stream, engineered to feel more like a sovereign coupon than an equity risk. The numbers definitely support the story, as the company’s record full-year net income in 2025 is $5.2bn, which is an increase of 3% in comparison to FY2024. These impressive figures are even more positive when you consider that its…

Vitol expects global oil demand to peak around the middle of the 2030s, due to forecasts of slower uptake of electric vehicles, the world’s biggest independent oil trader said in an updated oil outlook on Monday.   Peak oil demand is pushed back to the mid-2030s, mostly due to demand from the road transport sector, other sectors remain broadly unchanged, Vitol said, noting a marked contrast with its report from a year ago, in which the trading giant had expected demand to peak in the early 2030s and then decline.  Significant…

Vitol expects global oil demand to peak around the middle of the 2030s, due to forecasts of slower uptake of electric vehicles, the world’s biggest independent oil trader said in an updated oil outlook on Monday.   Peak oil demand is pushed back to the mid-2030s, mostly due to demand from the road transport sector, other sectors remain broadly unchanged, Vitol said, noting a marked contrast with its report from a year ago, in which the trading giant had expected demand to peak in the early 2030s and then decline.  Significant…

India’s decision to halt Russian oil purchases as part of a wider trade deal with the U.S. announced last week would mark the most dramatic rupture in Moscow–New Delhi energy ties in half a century if the commitment holds. And it comes at the precise moment Washington has been trying to force this break since the first weeks of the Ukraine war. For years, India has been one of the single biggest financial pressure?valves keeping Russia’s wartime economy alive — buying millions of barrels a day at steep discounts, refining…

Germany is proposing that renewable energy developers pay for connecting to the grid in new regulations that would replace the current system of first-come, first-served, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a new draft law it has seen.   The current congestion in the queue for grid connections and the regulations allowing the first applications to be connected is slowing renewables expansion.   “Connecting generation, storage, and consumption facilities to the electricity grid is facing ever greater challenges,” says…

Iran's foreign minister insisted on his country's right to enrich uranium, striking a defiant note as a US naval strike force sailed in regional waters amid weeks of unprecedented domestic turmoil inside Iran. Abbas Araqchi's comments followed talks between US and Iranian officials in Oman over the fate of Iran's nuclear programs. Tehran says its programs are peaceful in nature, aimed at generating electricity; Washington and other countries suspect Tehran is striving to build an atomic weapon. "Zero enrichment can never be accepted by us," Araqchi…

U.S. natural gas prices started the week with a further slide, after ending last week lower, as meteorologists predict warmer-than-usual weather ahead. In early morning Asian trade today, the U.S. benchmark traded at $3.20 per million British thermal units, down by 6.5% from Friday, when prices shed 2.5%, after a three-day climb earlier in the week, Bloomberg reported. Official weather forecasts say the cold spell is over and warmer weather will spread across much of the United States towards the end of this week. Earlier in the year, natural gas…

Indian refiners are still avoiding Russian oil as deals for delivery in April begin to be made, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed sources from the refining industry as well as traders. According to the report, the avoidance comes in anticipation of the trade deal between New Delhi and Washington, scheduled to be finalized in March. The deal would see the United States reduce import tariffs on Indian products, including a 25% special tariff that President Trump imposed on India in punishment for its buying of Russian crude oil. If the Reuters…

The United States has cemented its position as the world's leading exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) over the past couple of years, thanks to surging natural gas demand in Europe and Asia. U.S. LNG exports hit a record 111 million tons in 2025, surpassing 100 million metric tons for the first time, driven by high utilization and new capacity additions from projects like Plaquemines LNG. But this could be just the beginning of the U.S. LNG boom: the EIA has predicted that U.S. LNG export capacity will more than double by 2029, with an estimated…

The tax on carbon Europe introduced at the beginning of the year may have some surprising knock-on effects. The higher cost to producers for exporting goods that were produced using carbon-intensive methods to Europe may drive some to clean up operations. In India, some producers are exploring the potential for transitioning to green steel to reduce emissions and cut export costs to one of its biggest markets. India is one of the world’s main steel producers, and it has become a major supplier of the metal to the European market. India achieved…

Decarbonizing the world’s energy systems is necessary to prevent the world from warming more than 2º celsius over pre-Industrial averages – the cap that scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change – but achieving this kind of sweeping change introduces a litany of other economic and environmental drawbacks.  Utility-scale renewable energy projects are integral to any viable pathways toward decarbonization of the global economy, but the massive size of these developments presents a number…

The United Kingdom has big ambitions for its wind energy, already ranking at around sixth globally for its wind energy capacity. Having developed significant onshore and offshore wind capacity, the government aims to work more closely with the rest of Europe to establish the world’s largest ‘clean energy reservoir’. There is roughly 15.7 GW of operational onshore wind power in the U.K., with capacity increasing by around 739 MW in 2024 thanks to the development of projects such as the Viking (443MW), Kype Muir Extension (67.2MW),…

India imports 85% of the oil it consumes. A third of that comes from Russia—or used to come from Russia, until last November, when President Trump’s administration sanctioned the top exporters. Now, Washington is doubling down on cutting India’s oil link with Russia, but it may prove tricky for the world’s second-largest importer of oil. “Even though India has reduced its purchase of crude oil from Russia in recent months, it is unlikely to cease all purchases immediately, which could be disruptive to India’s…

Several automakers are investing heavily in robots in a bid to further automate operations in the future. It does not seem to matter that the current generation of humanoid robots works at a slower pace than humans, as automakers still view these machines as more cost-efficient for their factories. While Elon Musk invests heavily in Tesla’s Optimus Robots, Hyundai has big plans for incorporating robots in its United States operations in the coming years. A recent estimate by Barclays suggests that the current humanoid robot market has a value…

On January 20, the United States Department of Energy released a report on the first year of Donald Trump's second term called “PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT” which touted a return to global energy dominance and a reversal of the “Biden energy subtraction agenda.” But on the ground in energy-industry states, the story is a lot more complicated.  A groundswell of anti-renewable sentiment has cropped up in rural and red areas of the United States in recent years, echoed and crystallized by the Trump campaign but certainly…

United States President Donald Trump pursued an electoral campaign that focused on fossil fuel expansion and the reining in of renewable energy projects. Trump has regularly dismissed climate science as fearmongering, suggesting that the U.S. does not need to expand its green energy and cleantech sectors; rather, the country should focus on pumping more oil and gas to boost energy security. However, a recent assessment suggests that Trump may have been misinformed when setting the U.S. energy agenda. On 30th January, a federal judge ruled that…