Oil prices opened trade this week with a decline on reports that a deal between the U.S. and Iran was imminent. Brent crude slipped below $100 for the first time in days. But then President Trump said there was no rush on a deal and the U.S blockade in Hormuz would remain. While traders scratch their heads, analysts are warning that crude could remain well above $100 per barrel for years. This is literally uncharted territory for oil. Negotiations with Iran were “proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner,” the U.S. president…

India’s refined petroleum demand growth forecast has received a major downgrade, with rising crude oil import costs, a weaker rupee and government-led austerity and conservation measures expected to dramatically cut oil demand. According to Kpler, India’s refined products demand growth will now come in at just 77,000 barrels per day (kbd) in the current year, down nearly 40% from its previous forecast of 128 kbd. The data and analytics firm has revealed that India's state-run retailers are passing rising import and crude costs to consumers…

Mexican state oil giant Pemex was spared a rating downgrade at Moody’s despite the agency slashing Mexico’s sovereign rating to just one notch above junk status. Yet, the affirmation of Pemex’s ratings masks the struggles of the heavily indebted Mexican oil firm, which has failed to deliver profits even as oil prices surged to above $100 in recent months. Moody’s Ratings on Friday affirmed the ‘ca’ standalone credit strength of Petroleos Mexicanos, as Pemex is officially known, as well as the B1 Corporate Family…

Next year, the United Nations will assess whether Singapore is ready to produce nuclear energy. The International Atomic Energy Agency will begin its review in 2027 in order to determine whether Singapore can make an “informed decision” on potentially deploying next-gen nuclear power as a part of its energy portfolio in coming years. The move comes at a time of enhanced international interest in nuclear power as a baseload clean energy alternative, as well as extreme turmoil in Asian energy markets as a result of the war in Iran and…

Policymakers, politicians, and the media have been talking about the need for better water policy in the desert southwest of the United States for decades. As the Colorado River, a major source of water for much of that area, continues to shrink, policymakers are having a hard time keeping up with nature. A new 10-year plan contemplates cutting water supplies for Arizona, Nevada, and California by up to 40 percent, depending on availability. Not surprisingly, these states don't like the plan that the Trump Administration said it will impose on…

Motorway services will be central to the EV transition, but urgent action is needed to unlock grid capacity, writes Tim Gittins The UK has now passed a significant milestone with more than 2m electric vehicles on the road. It is a powerful signal of the pace at which transport is changing, and of the scale of the challenge now facing policymakers and industry alike in ensuring the infrastructure exists to support that transition at pace in practice, not just in principle. Since the opening of Watford Gap in 1959, the UK's first motorway service…

European natural gas prices fell more than 5% to around €46.3 per megawatt hour, their lowest level in two weeks, amid optimism that the United States and Iran could soon reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz following U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement that a deal was nearing finalization after extensive calls with Middle Eastern leaders and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hours later, Trump shifted his tone on the social media site, revealing that he had instructed U.S. representatives not to rush into a deal…

European natural gas prices fell more than 5% to around €46.3 per megawatt hour, their lowest level in two weeks, amid optimism that the United States and Iran could soon reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz following U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement that a deal was nearing finalization after extensive calls with Middle Eastern leaders and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hours later, Trump shifted his tone on the social media site, revealing that he had instructed U.S. representatives not to rush into a deal…

European data center power purchase agreement (PPA) volumes fell from 4.2 gigawatts (GW) in 2024 to 2.6 GW in 2025, even as capacity buildout accelerated sharply. The drop reflects offshore wind delays and increased challenges in agreeing on PPA price points due to falling capture rates and rising frequency of negative wholesale power price hours, particularly for solar PV. In addition, the race to secure power has led some major hyperscalers to reassess their clean energy ambitions, moderating one of the key demand signals that had supported European…

Kazakhstan will not enforce a special court's decision allowing Ukraine's Naftogaz to collect a $1.4 billion international arbitration award from Russia's Gazprom, Justice Minister Erlan Sarsembayev has declared just days after Kazakhstan’s AIFC court upheld the award. The legal battle stemmed from a 2019 contract for Russian natural gas transit through Ukraine.  Following Russia's 2022 invasion, Naftogaz declared force majeure at a major distribution station, prompting Gazprom to stop fully paying for transit services. In September…

Beset with financing difficulties, Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear energy entity, is begging for more time to start building Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant on the shores of Lake Balkhash. The site was selected after extensive study by Kazakh authorities. But at a recent meeting in Moscow, Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev told the head of Kazakhstan’s Atomic Energy Agency, Almassadam Satkaliyev, that the Russian entity will need “at least a year of observation of the site in order to form all the necessary reports ……

April was indeed the cruellest month for decades for Iraq’s crude oil production, with an average of 1.389 million barrels per day (bpd) over the period. This compares to a monthly average of 3.47 million bpd from January 2002 to the end of March this year, and an average of over 4.1 million bpd in the three months leading up to the onset of the U.S./Israel-Iran War on 28 February. The last time oil production fell to the current level in the country was in the early 2000s, during and immediately following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Even…

The closed Strait of Hormuz has created a major fertilizer shock and threatens food security in developing nations as sulfur and phosphate exporters from the Middle East struggle to ship supply to the global markets. Since the Iran war began, supply from the Middle East has crashed, forcing fertilizer producers to reduce output and leading to major price spikes in these markets. SABIC and Ma'aden, two Saudi chemicals giants, have tried to re-route part of their shipments from the ports on the Red Sea that do not need the Strait of Hormuz to ship…

The closed Strait of Hormuz has created a major fertilizer shock and threatens food security in developing nations as sulfur and phosphate exporters from the Middle East struggle to ship supply to the global markets. Since the Iran war began, supply from the Middle East has crashed, forcing fertilizer producers to reduce output and leading to major price spikes in these markets. SABIC and Ma'aden, two Saudi chemicals giants, have tried to re-route part of their shipments from the ports on the Red Sea that do not need the Strait of Hormuz to ship…

Iraq’s Deputy Minister of Oil, Ali Maarij Al-Bahadly, along with many other individuals and businesses, was last week included by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in sanctions targeting the exploitation of Iraq’s oil sector to benefit Iran and Iran-aligned militias. These moves by OFAC are part of a ramping up of pressure on Iraqi entities that continue to deal with Iran, effectively bankrolling its current regime and the activities of its military, political, religious, and terrorist…

China installed much less solar power capacity in April from a year earlier as the domestic solar market continues to adjust to a change in policy following record-high installations and a major glut in recent years. Chinese developers added just 9.52 gigawatts (GW) of new solar power capacity last month, per official data from China's National Energy Administration cited by Bloomberg. The new capacity compares to the massive 45 GW solar expansion in April 2025, when companies rushed to install gigawatts ahead of a major policy change in the pricing…

China installed much less solar power capacity in April from a year earlier as the domestic solar market continues to adjust to a change in policy following record-high installations and a major glut in recent years. Chinese developers added just 9.52 gigawatts (GW) of new solar power capacity last month, per official data from China's National Energy Administration cited by Bloomberg. The new capacity compares to the massive 45 GW solar expansion in April 2025, when companies rushed to install gigawatts ahead of a major policy change in the pricing…

I think most energy analysts would have been shocked to learn that roughly three months into a total closure of the Strait of Hormuz, oil would be trading at just over $100 a barrel. I certainly expected prices to be significantly higher by now. The physical math seems indisputable: take that much supply off the market, and prices should respond quickly and decisively. Oil prices have risen sharply, to be clear. But we are still short of the levels seen following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, or of the all-time highs set just before…

Malaysia has secured its fuel supply until the end of July, state energy firm Petronas has assured the economy ministry, as Southeast Asia is reeling from the worst supply disruption in the history of oil markets. Malaysia's Economy Minister Akmal Nasir told a regular briefing on Monday that one of Southeast Asia's biggest economies has secured energy supplies through the end of July and power reserves are enough to meet the current surge in electricity demand. "Petronas has given its assurance that the country's oil supply stock is sufficient…

Malaysia has secured its fuel supply until the end of July, state energy firm Petronas has assured the economy ministry, as Southeast Asia is reeling from the worst supply disruption in the history of oil markets. Malaysia's Economy Minister Akmal Nasir told a regular briefing on Monday that one of Southeast Asia's biggest economies has secured energy supplies through the end of July and power reserves are enough to meet the current surge in electricity demand. "Petronas has given its assurance that the country's oil supply stock is sufficient…