Russia's Black Sea port of Tuapse was targeted and hit by a new Ukrainian drone strike early on Friday, in the fourth attack on the port in just one week as Ukraine looks to limit Russia's oil exports and revenues amid soaring crude prices. Since international crude oil prices surged following the war in the Middle East, Russia has boosted its oil revenues as not only prices have jumped, but Russian oil was made desirable in India again, thanks to a U.S. waiver for sales on Russia's crude already loaded on tankers. Over the past week, Ukrainian…

When a major oil shock hits, most Americans notice it first at the pump. That’s exactly what’s happening now. Since the February 28 attack on Iran and the subsequent disruption of tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. gasoline and diesel prices have moved sharply higher. Grocery prices are beginning to follow, as transportation costs ripple through the system. The March inflation report came in much hotter than expected.  For many Americans, that’s where the story seems to end. We are experiencing higher prices,…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict The legal floor under the Iran war is starting to give way. Today marks 60 days since the White House notified Congress that U.S. forces were engaged in hostilities against Iran. Under the War Powers Resolution, that is the point at which the president either gets congressional authorization or it’s over. The administration is now arguing that the ceasefire with Iran effectively paused the clock. Trump is now being pressured to either seek authorization or file the required 30-day withdrawal notice. By…

June WTI crude oil futures surged this week, with the contract trading at $105.88 Thursday night, up $11.48 or 12.16%. The weekly high is $110.93, while the low is $94.59. With Friday still ahead, the market has not closed the week yet, but the move has already been one of the strongest rallies in months. The buying was not random. Traders reacted to a series of major events between April 26 and April 30 that all pointed toward tighter supply. The biggest drivers were the U.S.-Iran standoff, stalled peace talks, the Strait of Hormuz disruption,…

Oil prices could spike to $140 per barrel as the U.S. is keeping its blockade outside the Strait of Hormuz, Iran says and signals it won’t open the chokepoint to free traffic and won’t return to negotiations unless the American blockade is lifted. The U.S. Administration is getting “junk advice” from people like [Treasury Secretary] Bessent “who also push the blockade theory and cranked oil up to $120+. Next stop:140,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Speaker of Iran’s Parliament, says. He also teased U.S.…

Venezuela has signed agreements with two U.S. energy firms to operate in the country as a growing number of international oil and gas companies are vying to return to the world's biggest crude resource holder. The Venezuelan government of interim President Delcy Rodríguez has just signed agreements with U.S. firms Hunt Overseas Oil Company and Crossover Energy, which plan to operate in the Orinoco Belt, the South American country's prime oil province of heavy and extra heavy crude. The deals were signed in the presence of Jarrod Agen, President…

Indian Oil Co. has hiked the price of liquefied petroleum gas for local industrial users and the price of jet fuel, but only for foreign airlines, Reuters has reported, citing a company statement. LPG prices for household consumers were kept unchanged. For industrial consumers, however, LPG will be 47.8% more expensive, reflecting the squeeze in supply resulting from the war in the Middle East. Meanwhile, foreign airlines buying Indian jet fuel will need to pay $76.55 more per kilolitre, for a total price of $1,511.86 per kilolitre. Some 60% of…

A couple of days ago, the United Arab Emirates announced that it will formally leave OPEC on May 1, with the Middle East oil giant becoming the latest country to cut ties with the organization in recent years. The UAE is among the world’s leading oil producers and OPEC’s third-largest, trailing only Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The UAE is ostensibly leaving the cartel, driven by a desire to capitalize on oil assets before the peak transition to renewable energy, with the country looking to bypass OPEC production constraints and boost oil…

With oil and gas supply in a crunch, demand for alternatives has surged over the past two months. Analysts expect wind and solar to explode as countries seek to reduce their dependence on hydrocarbons that are now in short supply. For that to stand a chance of working, however, it needs one more thing: batteries. Cheap batteries. A team of Chinese scientists just announced a breakthrough in that area. The news broke earlier this week, with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences saying they had developed what they called an “all-iron”…

Asia’s first knee-jerk reaction to the shock loss of crude supply from the Middle East was to fire up coal power plants, save fuel, and scour the global markets for alternative oil deliveries. While the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz crisis prompted immediate measures to reduce oil and gas consumption, the quiet electrification revolution across South and Southeast Asia – outside of the headline-grabbing Chinese renewables and EV boom – is now gaining momentum. Asia felt the current crisis first, and it hit hard. Iran Crisis…

Major innovation is needed to diversify the global battery sector. Lithium-ion batteries are taking over the world – you probably have a few within reach at this very moment in your rechargeable devices. And since China controls the world's lithium supply chains and dominates global lithium-ion battery manufacturing, the global tech sector has become dangerously consolidated. Breaking this dependency on China will require breaking our dependency on lithium, creating a dire need for the development of viable alternative battery technologies.…

Repsol is holding off on its plans to list its upstream business in the United States, even as the unit is structurally ready to go public. Chief Executive Josu Jon Imaz said the company sees no urgency to move forward with an IPO or reverse merger in the near term, despite earlier indications that a liquidity event could take place in 2026. “We are comfortable in the current situation and we are not going to jump into a liquidity event in the short term,” Imaz said. Imaz said upstream fundamentals are expected to improve further in…

Repsol is holding off on its plans to list its upstream business in the United States, even as the unit is structurally ready to go public. Chief Executive Josu Jon Imaz said the company sees no urgency to move forward with an IPO or reverse merger in the near term, despite earlier indications that a liquidity event could take place in 2026. “We are comfortable in the current situation and we are not going to jump into a liquidity event in the short term,” Imaz said. Imaz said upstream fundamentals are expected to improve further in…

The statewide average for 87-octane gasoline in California has topped $6 a gallon as the Iran-war-driven global energy crunch ripples across the West Coast, the hardest-hit U.S. region. Meanwhile, the national average remains above the politically sensitive $4-a-gallon threshold, hovering around $4.30, according to AAA data as of Thursday morning. It’s clear that bad ‘green’ energy policies by unhinged, left-wing politicians in the Golden State have left the state’s energy complex in a total mess, with no buffers. "That’s…

Turkey has lost its imports of Iranian natural gas and is again looking to Turkmenistan to cover the gap. But Ashgabat appears to be prioritizing exports to China. The ongoing turmoil in the Persian Gulf has sent global gas prices soaring, a development that has inevitably led to a sudden resurgence of interest in Turkmenistan’s large natural gas reserves. Speaking at an energy conference on April 24, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar repeated his recent call for urgent international discussions on reviving a long-debated, never-built…

The Strait of Hormuz blockade has removed roughly 9 million barrels per day of crude supply from the global market, and replacement barrels are not keeping pace, according to a new report by Vortexa. U.S. Gulf Coast crude oil exports have reached record highs, although this has been in large part supported by releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Additional volumes are moving through alternative routes, including pipelines via Yanbu, Fujairah, and Ceyhan, which add about 3.6 million bpd back into the system. But it isn’t enough.…

The Strait of Hormuz blockade has removed roughly 9 million barrels per day of crude supply from the global market, and replacement barrels are not keeping pace, according to a new report by Vortexa. U.S. Gulf Coast crude oil exports have reached record highs, although this has been in large part supported by releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Additional volumes are moving through alternative routes, including pipelines via Yanbu, Fujairah, and Ceyhan, which add about 3.6 million bpd back into the system. But it isn’t enough.…

Imports of liquefied natural gas into Asia last month slumped to the lowest in seven years. The reason, of course, was the war in the Middle East that has choked off about a quarter of global LNG supply, pushing prices higher and spurring a race for limited volumes. Most of those volumes are coming from the United States. Yet a future LNG boom is far from certain. Earlier this week, Emirati ADNOC said it would invest billions in the U.S. natural gas industry, including production, midstream, and liquefaction, as well as regasification in receiving…

The White House is weighing measures to increase U.S. oil output as supply disruptions tied to the Iran war continue to tighten the market. “We’ve been in constant communication with the oil companies, and have been considering measures that we could take here in the U.S. to increase U.S. production really soon,” White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Thursday. “There are things, regulations that are holding up, like how quickly stuff could come through … and we’re studying those, how we can change…

The White House is weighing measures to increase U.S. oil output as supply disruptions tied to the Iran war continue to tighten the market. “We’ve been in constant communication with the oil companies, and have been considering measures that we could take here in the U.S. to increase U.S. production really soon,” White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Thursday. “There are things, regulations that are holding up, like how quickly stuff could come through … and we’re studying those, how we can change…