Oil prices eased in early Asian trading on Wednesday as traders reacted to another rise in U.S. oil inventories and signals continue to mount that global supply is running ahead of demand. At the time of writing, WTI was trading at $60.59 per barrel, down 0.25% on the session, while Brent slipped to $64.71, down by roughly 0.3%. The drop came after prices had climbed in the previous session on the back of Trump announcing interviews for a new Fed chair, a statement that briefly lifted risk sentiment by reviving expectations of a more growth-friendly…

The US and Great Britain are ramping up their efforts to secure the strategic advantage they created for the West in the Middle East by removing Russia’s key man in Syria, Bashar al-Assad, in December. A critical part of the political, economic, religious, and security fabric of the Middle East, it is also a crucial link from there to Africa in the south and to Europe in the West, by dint of its long Mediterranean coastline, as analysed in full in my latest book on the new global oil market order. The key to keeping Syria aligned with…

Bitcoin dropped below $90,000 on Monday for the first time since April, touching an intraday low of $89,426 before closing near $91,200. The decline marked a more-than 20% retreat from the cryptocurrency’s October peak above $126,000 and has erased all of its gains for 2025. While broader market factors — including $2.3 billion of outflows from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in the first half of November and rising Treasury yields — have contributed to the sell-off, an important supply-side pressure has come from Bitcoin miners themselves.…

Artificial Intelligence, electrification, and the exponential growth of renewable energies are transforming electric grids around the world. In order to keep up with these massive changes, electric grids and the supply chains that support them are due for some critical updates and adaptations. Utility-scale grid storage is becoming increasingly critical, as are long-duration storage solutions that won’t fall pretty to geopolitical disruptions.  AI is driving an energy-production frenzy as experts try to predict how much electricity the…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States saw a large build of 4.4 million barrels in the week ending November 14. Crude oil inventories gained 1.3 million barrels in the week prior. Crude oil inventories in the United States are so far showing a net gain of 9.3 million barrels for the year, according to Oilprice calculations of API data. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have risen by 500,000 barrels…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States saw a large build of 4.4 million barrels in the week ending November 14. Crude oil inventories gained 1.3 million barrels in the week prior. Crude oil inventories in the United States are so far showing a net gain of 9.3 million barrels for the year, according to Oilprice calculations of API data. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have risen by 500,000 barrels…

Chinese scientists have built and tested a floating droplet electricity generator (DEG) to turn the kinetic energy of raindrops into renewable power. Unlike conventional DEGs, which are used on land and are heavier and costlier, the floating device developed by researchers at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA), with the support of Chinese state and provincial funding and programs, uses water for both structural and electric-generation components. In the research, published in the November issue of National Science Review,…

Technology improvements are driving a renaissance in offshore drilling in the United States. And it’s not a moment too soon, as many analysts believe shale is nearing its peak. Also, with the energy transition not going as fast as hoped, some new oil and gas supply would come in quite handy. Earlier this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that it expected crude oil output from Gulf of Mexico fields to rise from the current 1.8 million barrels daily to 2.4 million barrels daily as early as 2027. “We believe that offshore…

Exxon is now circling the same distressed prize Chevron has been eyeing: chunks of Lukoil’s global portfolio, suddenly up for grabs after Washington loosened the legal chokehold on the sanctioned Russian major. Multiple sources say Exxon is actively weighing options to acquire Lukoil assets in Kazakhstan, where both companies already sit alongside the Russian firm in the Karachaganak and Tengiz projects. Chevron, a partner in both fields, has been running its own valuation process since last week’s Treasury move cracked the door open.…

Exxon is now circling the same distressed prize Chevron has been eyeing: chunks of Lukoil’s global portfolio, suddenly up for grabs after Washington loosened the legal chokehold on the sanctioned Russian major. Multiple sources say Exxon is actively weighing options to acquire Lukoil assets in Kazakhstan, where both companies already sit alongside the Russian firm in the Karachaganak and Tengiz projects. Chevron, a partner in both fields, has been running its own valuation process since last week’s Treasury move cracked the door open.…

The global solar energy market, driven by a push for carbon reduction and sustainable power generation, is projected to quadruple its valuation over the next decade, despite persistent challenges related to power generation variability, according to a new report from Allied Market Research. The report estimates the market was valued at $0.4 trillion in 2024 and is forecast to reach $1.6 trillion by 2034. This growth trajectory reflects a compound annual growth rate of 15.2% from 2025 to 2034, fueled by technological advancements in photovoltaic…

Syria has just put a big Western flag in its gas patch. The state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company has signed a memorandum of understanding with ConocoPhillips and U.S.-based Novaterra to develop existing gas fields and hunt for new ones, in a bid to drag the country’s power sector out of wartime ruin. Damascus says the deal could lift gas output by 4–5 million cubic meters per day within a year from today’s battered base. That target is not trivial. Syria’s domestic gas production has collapsed from 8.7 bcm in 2011 to about…

One year ago, Goldman's precious metal analyst Lina Thomas made the case that gold would rise to $3000 by the end of 2025 (it ended up rising more than $1000 higher) as a result of relentless central bank purchases in general, and thanks to China's ravenous appetite for gold in particular. The bank promptly got pushback on this thesis, with skeptics countering that it is unlikely that gold will manage to keep its ascent at the same time as the dollar rises to new record highs, one of the largest consensus Trump trades. In response, Thomas also…

Rosneft’s oil refinery at Ryazan, Russia’s fourth-largest, has suspended crude processing after a Ukrainian drone attack this weekend, industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday.   The Ryazan refinery, which has been targeted – and hit – by drone strikes all year, has now halted its main crude distillation unit.   “The plant is ‌expected to remain idle until the end of the month. No (oil product) loadings are planned ‌before December 1,” according to one of Reuters’ sources. …

Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said on Tuesday it imported the first U.S. LNG cargo via the northern route from Lithuania as Ukraine looks to diversify its gas import routes.  DTEK, through its trading arm D.TRADING, has delivered its first cargo of U.S.-sourced liquefied natural gas via Lithuania—as the Gaslog Houston vessel delivered 160,000 cubic meters of LNG – equivalent to roughly 100 million cubic meters of natural gas or 1 TWh of energy – late on Monday.  Once re-gasified, the gas…

Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said on Tuesday it imported the first U.S. LNG cargo via the northern route from Lithuania as Ukraine looks to diversify its gas import routes.  DTEK, through its trading arm D.TRADING, has delivered its first cargo of U.S.-sourced liquefied natural gas via Lithuania—as the Gaslog Houston vessel delivered 160,000 cubic meters of LNG – equivalent to roughly 100 million cubic meters of natural gas or 1 TWh of energy – late on Monday.  Once re-gasified, the gas…

The oil market’s main bullish driver is the Rosneft/Lukoil sanctions, but so far they’ve only led to a buildup of Russian crude at sea. Total’s Power Move Questions Oil Majors’s Renewable Pull-Out - France’s national oil champion TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) has agreed to purchase a 50% stake in Western European power generation assets held by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. - TotalEnergies committed to European power assets just as it was reported to be considering selling some of its renewable energy assets…

Oil prices are set to further drop into next year from current levels amid a large surplus on the market, with the U.S. benchmark WTI Crude expected to average $53 per barrel in 2026, according to Goldman Sachs.  Early on Tuesday, WTI Crude was trading just above $60 per barrel, at $60.09, up by 0.22% on the day.  The investment bank’s call for next year is that oil prices are on track for further declines and investors should short oil right now, Daan Struyven, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told CNBC…

Ukraine has reached a 10-year deal with France for the supply of 100 Rafale fighter jets to bolster its defenses as the Kremlin said it hopes for a new summit with the United States to discuss a possible resolution to end the war in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on November 17 where they agreed to the deal as Russian forces intensify air strikes around the country and make advances in the east. "It will be the greatest air defense, one of the greatest in the world," Zelenskyy said…

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) said on Tuesday it had filed a criminal complaint in France against TotalEnergies for complicity in war crimes, torture, and enforced disappearance at the Mozambique LNG site in 2021.    According to the NGO’s complaint, the French supermajor “is accused of having directly financed and materially supported the Joint Task Force, composed of Mozambican armed forces, which between July and September 2021, allegedly detained, tortured and killed dozens of civilians…