Meeting the runaway energy demand of the artificial intelligence boom will require energy buildout and innovation at an unprecedented scale. After decades of plateaued energy growth in the United States, the breakneck expansion of energy-hungry data centers across the nation is pushing the public and private sectors to invest in new energy production and extending the life of existing power plants – and it still won’t be enough.  "There's no way to get there without a breakthrough," Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of ChatGPT firm…

As multiple large-scale data centres are developed around the globe, Big Tech is investing heavily in a range of energy projects to power its new facilities, from renewable energy to nuclear power. In addition, several tech companies have announced major investments in climate credits, in a bid to offset their carbon emissions. However, many existing carbon credit schemes have been widely criticised for being ineffective, leading many to question whether this is just another case of greenwashing. Both the electricity use and carbon emissions associated…

The dominant narrative over the last two years in global gas markets has been one of impending abundance; everyone was warning of an upcoming LNG tsunami. Market analysts kept pointing to a wave of new LNG supply, mainly driven by expansions in Qatar, the United States, Canada, and parts of Africa. The world was clearly in their mind heading toward a glut by the late 2020s. Commodity markets and analysts, backed up by algorithms and Excel sheets, all predicted that prices would fall, flexibility would increase, and energy security concerns would…

Last year, President Trump killed a major assessment on nature, but now, the scientists involved with the research have published a draft of the report independently. In January 2025, just weeks before a first-of-its-kind nature assessment – the National Nature Assessment – was due to be published, President Trump put the final nail in the coffin by ordering those involved with the report to stop all research and cancel its publication. Over 150 scientists and experts in various fields had already spent thousands of hours conducting…

The stock market spent the first week of the Iran war doing something strange: mostly shrugging. Oil spiked. Insurance markets effectively collapsed. Amazon had two data centers blown up. And the Nasdaq dipped, steadied, and the conversation shifted within days to whether the Fed might still cut in June.  The prevailing read was: disruption, yes. Catastrophe, no. This thing will be over soon. I think that read is wrong.  And wrong in a specific, structural way, not because the war will necessarily escalate further, but because the damage…

Thermal batteries are the hottest new thing in energy storage tech. As energy storage heats up to be “clean energy’s next trillion-dollar business,” the private sector is throwing its full weight behind developing the technology that will unlock scalable long-term energy storage. As of 2022, the energy storage market was valued at nearly $198.8 billion, on track to reach $329.1 billion by 2032, and showing no sign of slowing from there. The race to corner that market is a contentious one, and thermal batteries are rapidly emerging…

Arend Kapteyn, the global head of economics and strategy research and chief economist at UBS, told clients that one key reason the current Middle East conflict-driven energy shock "is not like 2011-2014" will be the absence of a comparable response from the shale patch, suggesting consumers are more likely to bear the brunt of the pain.  Kapteyn noted that, on an inflation-adjusted basis, oil prices in 2011-2014 were actually higher than they are today, yet the U.S. economy absorbed that shock because the shale boom provided a lift to the…

Norwegian oil production slipped 0.2 % in February as output fell slightly by 3,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared to January, averaging 1.97 million bpd, according to preliminary figures from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate. Production came in 262 kbpd higher than a year earlier, when oil output totaled 1.708 million bpd. Total liquids production on the Norwegian continental shelf averaged 2.176 million bpd last month, including 1.97 million bpd of oil, 188,000 barrels of natural gas liquids (NGL), and 18,000 barrels of condensate. Oil output…

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, bringing the total rig count in the US to 552 this week, down 41 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 2 to 414 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 72 below this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2, sinking to 131, which is 29 more than this time last year. The miscellaneous rig count fell to 7. The latest EIA data…

Oil prices pulled back Friday, but not because the market suddenly feels safe. This is more of a tactical breather than a trend change. Brent slipped back toward the $109 level, while WTI hovered in the high-$90s, easing from the week’s Thursday spike that briefly pushed Brent near $120. The trigger wasn’t a shift in fundamentals—it was policy. Washington is scrambling to throw barrels at the problem, and allies are lining up behind a coordinated effort to stabilize flows through the Strait of Hormuz, including by sending additional…

Oil prices pulled back Friday, but not because the market suddenly feels safe. This is more of a tactical breather than a trend change. Brent slipped back toward the $109 level, while WTI hovered in the high-$90s, easing from the week’s Thursday spike that briefly pushed Brent near $120. The trigger wasn’t a shift in fundamentals—it was policy. Washington is scrambling to throw barrels at the problem, and allies are lining up behind a coordinated effort to stabilize flows through the Strait of Hormuz, including by sending additional…

Amid the Iranian war and oil price crisis, the Department of Energy, alongside the Department of Commerce, has unveiled a public-private partnership with SoftBank and AEP Ohio that centers on one thing the AI boom desperately needs but rarely talks about plainly—power. Not theoretical power. Not intermittent power. Real, dispatchable, grid-ready megawatts, mostly from natural gas. At the core of the plan, revealed in a Friday press release, is a 10-gigawatt data center campus at the Portsmouth Site in southern Ohio, backed by an equally massive…

Amid the Iranian war and oil price crisis, the Department of Energy, alongside the Department of Commerce, has unveiled a public-private partnership with SoftBank and AEP Ohio that centers on one thing the AI boom desperately needs but rarely talks about plainly—power. Not theoretical power. Not intermittent power. Real, dispatchable, grid-ready megawatts, mostly from natural gas. At the core of the plan, revealed in a Friday press release, is a 10-gigawatt data center campus at the Portsmouth Site in southern Ohio, backed by an equally massive…

As the world braces for a potential “Battle of Hormuz” to reopen the world’s most important energy chokepoint, governments and energy markets are scrambling to answer a daunting question: What happens if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed for weeks or even months? The narrow waterway between Iran and Oman is the most critical chokepoint in the global energy system. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply moves through it every day, along with enormous volumes of natural gas and petrochemical feedstocks. In practical terms,…

Refiners in Asia are paying huge premiums for crude that could replace some of the supply stuck in the Middle East, with the most suitable grades from Norway and the U.S. being bid at record-high double-digit premiums over Dated Brent.  Many refineries in Asia, which is the most dependent region on Middle East supply, are designed to optimally run on the sour and heavier grades that the Gulf producers export. Now that most Gulf supply is either curtailed at the upstream level or stuck on tankers unable to pass the Strait of Hormuz, refiners…

Refiners in Asia are paying huge premiums for crude that could replace some of the supply stuck in the Middle East, with the most suitable grades from Norway and the U.S. being bid at record-high double-digit premiums over Dated Brent.  Many refineries in Asia, which is the most dependent region on Middle East supply, are designed to optimally run on the sour and heavier grades that the Gulf producers export. Now that most Gulf supply is either curtailed at the upstream level or stuck on tankers unable to pass the Strait of Hormuz, refiners…

Oil is heading for a fifth straight weekly gain, with Brent near $109, as the Strait of Hormuz remains shut for a third week, keeping supply tight despite policy efforts to ease the market. Friday, March 20, 2026 Oil markets are set to post their fifth consecutive weekly gain (excepting WTI which will see a minor week-over-week decline), with ICE Brent trading around $109 per barrel. Whilst the Trump administration has sought to defuse market concerns using any means available – waiving the Jones Act, easing Russian sanctions further or de-sanctioning…

Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices soared this week after Qatar’s key LNG hub sustained extensive damage in Iranian missile attacks, with European gas prices on track for a 20% weekly jump early on Friday as the market braces itself for years of disrupted supply out of the world’s second-largest LNG exporter.    The April 2026 contract of the Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures slightly eased early on Friday from the surge on Thursday and was trading flat at about $72 (62 euros) per megawatt-hour (MWh) as…

Europe’s benchmark natural gas prices soared this week after Qatar’s key LNG hub sustained extensive damage in Iranian missile attacks, with European gas prices on track for a 20% weekly jump early on Friday as the market braces itself for years of disrupted supply out of the world’s second-largest LNG exporter.    The April 2026 contract of the Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures slightly eased early on Friday from the surge on Thursday and was trading flat at about $72 (62 euros) per megawatt-hour (MWh) as…

When Israeli jets struck the South Pars gas complex near Asaluyeh, they hit more than pipes and compressors. They struck the single piece of infrastructure most essential to Iran's ability to function -- a field that provides 75 percent of Iran's domestic gas supply and powers roughly 80 percent of the country's electricity generation. The strike halted output at two refineries with a combined daily capacity of around 100 million cubic meters, sending prices soaring and triggering Iranian retaliatory strikes on energy infrastructure in Gulf Arab…