Kazakhstan has alleged in a confidential arbitration case that some of the biggest international oil firms that have developed the giant Kashagan oilfield awarded $10.7 billion worth of contracts with unjustified cost increases or through bribes, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) team reported on Friday, citing multiple sources. The Kashagan oilfield was developed by the North Caspian Project consortium of international majors and Kazakhstan's state oil firm KazMunayGas. The shareholders in the consortium include…

Every week, the shopping lists of Iranians become shorter as inflation soars and purchasing power plunges. “As things disappear from the dining table, fruit goes first, then dairy products, then anything considered non-essential,” a woman in the Iranian capital, Tehran, said in an audio message sent to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda. “Ultimately, everything we buy is only essentials, but even then, nothing is affordable,” added the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. She is among the millions of…

India’s coal demand is set to jump to 1.6 billion tons in 2030, from about 1.2 billion tons now, due to higher electricity generation and industrial activity, Indian Coal Secretary Vikram Dev Dutt said on Friday. India, which is the world’s second-biggest coal consumer behind China, plans to create a coal trade exchange and raise in its domestic coal supply to boost market transparency and energy security, respectively. A local coal exchange will create a transparent marketplace for buyers and sellers and could later lead to the establishment…

North Asian refiners have increased buying activity to secure U.S. crude oil supply as an alternative to the Middle Eastern crude that may not make it outbound from the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iran stalemate continues and the chokepoint remains effectively closed. At least four Asia-based refiners have bought U.S. crude volumes this week alone, traders told Reuters on Friday. This week, tanker traffic – and shipping traffic as a whole – at the Strait of Hormuz has slumped further, according to observable transits with AIS positioning…

North Asian refiners have increased buying activity to secure U.S. crude oil supply as an alternative to the Middle Eastern crude that may not make it outbound from the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iran stalemate continues and the chokepoint remains effectively closed. At least four Asia-based refiners have bought U.S. crude volumes this week alone, traders told Reuters on Friday. This week, tanker traffic – and shipping traffic as a whole – at the Strait of Hormuz has slumped further, according to observable transits with AIS positioning…

September WTI crude oil futures are trading at $81.19 late Thursday, up $4.11, or 5.33%, for the week. With Friday’s session still to come, the final weekly result remains unsettled. The message is clear. Traders spent the week rebuilding the Hormuz premium after last week’s deal optimism fell apart, then had to deal with an inventory report and demand forecasts that argued crude had moved too far, too fast. The contract did not rally because of a new supply loss. The supply problem was already there. What changed was the market’s…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Yemen’s Houthis said they targeted Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery with two drones on Thursday, the second claimed attack on the Red Sea facility in less than a week and the third since July 25. Neither Saudi Arabia nor Aramco has confirmed the attack as of the time of writing. Bloomberg cited a person familiar with the incident as saying a storage tank sustained negligible damage. Last month, the Houthis threatened to blockade Saudi oil flows and have also attacked Saudi targets and shipping in the…

Syrian oil is clawing its way back, methodically. Onshore, the immediate issue is returning Syria’s existing oil production to Damascus. Most producing fields are concentrated in Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah in the northeast, territory Damascus lost during the civil war, eventually to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Courtesy of a January military offensive against the SDF, Damascus has recovered the most important Deir ez-Zor assets, including the largest (Omar), the Tanak oil field, and the Conoco gas field. The Syrian Petroleum…

Ust-Luga, the top Russian port for exports of oil and other commodities from the Baltic Sea, caught fire early on Friday following an overnight drone attack from Ukraine. A fire was detected at the port of Ust-Luga as a result of damage from drones, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of Russia’s Leningrad region, said in a post on Telegram on Friday. Firefighters are working to extinguish the fire, with operations ongoing, the official said. In a separate statement later, Drozdenko posted that “All consequences of the attack in the port…

For years, U.S. President Donald Trump has openly displayed his disdain for the clean energy and electric vehicle sectors. In the early days of his second term, Trump stalled funding for EV charging infrastructure while pushing fossil fuels. In July 2025, the GOP-sponsored One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) rolled back EV incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, terminating the $7,500 new and $4,000 used EV tax credits in September 2025, and cutting back infrastructure and manufacturing subsidies. Yet, this giant push to secure the domestic…

Mexico’s push for fuel self-sufficiency has run into a stubborn problem: Pemex has built and upgraded refining capacity faster than it has learned to operate it reliably. The state oil company is being asked to send more crude into domestic refineries and less onto the export market, a strategy that looks increasingly sensible when refined products’ cracks are strong. But the second quarter of 2026 showed the weakness of that model. Mexican refineries processed only around 1 million b/d (58% of installed capacity), while fuel imports…

U.S. demand for electricity is expected to hit an all-time high both this year and next, driven by the data center buildout of Big Tech. This is the latest in a series of record-demand projections by the Energy Information Administration. There is one problem, though. That problem is the grid. Electricity consumption in the United States has already had two record-breaking years: 2024 and 2025. The trend is seen extending and possibly accelerating because of the IT industry and its artificial intelligence race, hitting 4,268 billion kWh this year…

China has driven the world’s solar energy deployment, adding capacity at such a blistering rate that the nation’s existing and planned wind and solar generation nearly doubles the rest of the world put together. However, China’s deployment of supportive infrastructure for all that new solar has not kept pace, leading to curtailment during peak hours and increased quantities of wasted clean energy. But Beijing is working hard to fix that problem, and a brand new, state-of-the-art thermal solar farm may provide a critical solution.…

In 2007, nearly two decades ago, I wrote an article called “The Future Is Solar.” At the time, my argument was largely based on efficiency. I had been comparing biofuels with direct solar energy and noted how much more effectively solar panels could capture the sun’s energy than crops could convert it into liquid fuel. Solar was still expensive, storage was a major challenge, and the world’s energy infrastructure was built around fossil fuels. But the direction seemed clear. It has been a long time coming, but the numbers…

Washington is putting real money behind advanced nuclear. The US Department of Energy is gearing up to hand X-energy another $1 billion for its planned nuclear project with Dow in Texas, bringing total federal funding available for the project since 2021 to as much as $2.15 billion. That is no longer demonstration-project pocket change. CEO Clay Sell said Thursday that DOE had informed X-energy of the additional funding through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which is intended to move next-generation reactors toward commercial deployment.…

Washington is putting real money behind advanced nuclear. The US Department of Energy is gearing up to hand X-energy another $1 billion for its planned nuclear project with Dow in Texas, bringing total federal funding available for the project since 2021 to as much as $2.15 billion. That is no longer demonstration-project pocket change. CEO Clay Sell said Thursday that DOE had informed X-energy of the additional funding through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which is intended to move next-generation reactors toward commercial deployment.…

Washington is putting real money behind advanced nuclear. The US Department of Energy is gearing up to hand X-energy another $1 billion for its planned nuclear project with Dow in Texas, bringing total federal funding available for the project since 2021 to as much as $2.15 billion. That is no longer demonstration-project pocket change. CEO Clay Sell said Thursday that DOE had informed X-energy of the additional funding through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which is intended to move next-generation reactors toward commercial deployment.…

Russia’s diesel and gasoil exports crashed in the first seven days of August to just 80,000 barrels per day (bpd), the lowest in many years, as Moscow extended restrictions on diesel exports amid a fuel crisis triggered by incessant Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries. The multi-year low diesel exports between August 1 and 7, as estimated by data compiled by Bloomberg, are further squeezing the global market of middle distillates, which is much tighter than crude supply. To compare, Russia last year shipped as many as 1 million bpd of…

Oil supply disruptions, high fuel prices and faster battery innovation could give electric vehicle adoption a fresh push, with consequences for oil demand, power grids and metals markets, Wood Mackenzie said Thursday. Wars affecting oil-producing Russia and Iran have exposed governments and consumers to higher fuel prices and supply risks, creating another incentive to invest in EV manufacturing and supply chains, WoodMac said in a new report. Technology is moving quickly, too. China is making progress on five-minute charging as well as sodium-ion…

Oil supply disruptions, high fuel prices and faster battery innovation could give electric vehicle adoption a fresh push, with consequences for oil demand, power grids and metals markets, Wood Mackenzie said Thursday. Wars affecting oil-producing Russia and Iran have exposed governments and consumers to higher fuel prices and supply risks, creating another incentive to invest in EV manufacturing and supply chains, WoodMac said in a new report. Technology is moving quickly, too. China is making progress on five-minute charging as well as sodium-ion…