Light Crude Oil Futures (WTI) ended Thursday at $59.67, up $1.12 on the week, a 1.91% advance that unfolded within a range of $58.28 to $60.02. The narrow climb masked a week defined by sharp swings as traders weighed expanding geopolitical risk against persistently weak fundamentals. With supply threats intensifying and demand signals softening, positioning skewed defensive and liquidity thinned on approaches toward the $60 handle. Geopolitical Risk Premium Drives Oil Prices Escalating strikes on Russian infrastructure remained the central catalyst…

Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict The Houthis’ decision to release the Tutor crew after months of holding them was not a goodwill gesture. Oman facilitated the handover, but the move reflects outside pressure rather than any internal shift in Houthi policy. Washington, meanwhile, is preparing a firmer response of its own. U.S. officials have started talking publicly about Houthi operational planning on encrypted apps, which is less about disclosure and more about setting the stage for expanded authorities if needed. Iraq’s sudden…

Russia’s warnings to Europe this week line up with the way it is conducting this war. Moscow is trying to raise the background risk level for EU states as they debate deeper support for Ukraine’s long-range and industrial needs. The objective is not a direct clash with NATO but to push some buttons for leverage with three tactics: cyber activity against energy systems, probing around offshore assets, and irregular pressure in the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean. European capitals are already adjusting. They are treating this as…

Equinor announced on Friday two gas and condensate discoveries in the Norwegian part of the North Sea in its largest discoveries so far this year that can be developed through existing infrastructure.  Equinor made the discoveries in the Lofn and Langemann wells in the Sleipner area of the North Sea, in a license located between the operating Gudrun and Eirin fields. Preliminary estimates indicate the reservoirs may contain between 30 and 110 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalents.  “The Sleipner area is an important hub…

Germany moved to reduce the capacity it will auction in its offshore wind tender in 2026, following the flop in the latest auction without a single bid made.   The German Parliament approved legislation narrowing the capacity in the 2026 tender to just 2.5 gigawatts (GW) to 5 GW, compared with an earlier plan of auctioning off 6 GW of offshore wind capacity and with as much as 10 GW offered in the auction in August.  The August offshore wind auction without government subsidies failed to attract a single bid, alarming the local offshore…

India’s authorities are considering a significant boost to coal-fired power plant capacity beyond the current 2035 peak coal expansion date and could continue building coal plants until at least 2047, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing sources with knowledge of the plans.   India’s Power Ministry and the policy making agency NITI Aayog are currently debating ditching the current 2035 deadline for continued coal power capacity expansion and extend it by at least 12 years, as India seeks to boost energy security.   …

California’s experiment in climate governance has turned the state’s oil and refining sector into one of the most politically charged energy battlegrounds in the world. A long-standing commitment to environmental targets – culminating in a planned end to oil extraction by 2045 – has collided with the realities of high demand, aging infrastructure, and a shrinking refining base. Oil output has already plunged from 760,000 b/d in 2000 to roughly 250,000 b/d in 2025, while the number of operational refineries has fallen from…

The OPEC+ producers kept their targeted production unchanged for early next year when they met this weekend for their final gathering for the year. While reaffirming the decision was no news for anyone, the 22 OPEC+ group members made a more important decision that will likely influence production levels, upstream investments, and oil prices for years to come. The alliance approved a new mechanism to reassess the maximum sustainable production capacities of all its producers, which will be used as a baseline for the 2027 production quotas. OPEC+…

Earlier in the year, President Trump signed legislation that effectively ended fuel economy penalties for automakers. The penalties applied to automakers for failing to meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards dating back to the 2022 model year. The measure was part of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," signed into law in July 2025. And now the president has pushed the envelope further by rolling back Biden-era fuel economy standards, terming them ‘‘ridiculous.’’ Trump has officially ended CAFE rules, with automakers…

Earlier this year, the Mexican government announced a special new financial instrument to help state-owned energy major Pemex with its debt repayment. The most indebted oil company in the world was in need of a unique solution to its problem—but this problem may be bigger than unpaid bills to suppliers. In July this year, the Mexican government issued $12 billion worth of something called P-Caps. Normally used in corporate circles, P-Caps, or pre-capitalized securities, allow a borrower access to debt funding in case of need but without being…

Congress just overturned a Biden-era rule that had restricted how much of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain could be leased for oil and gas. The Senate passed the resolution 49-45, using the Congressional Review Act to wipe out a 2024 Interior Department plan that kept large sections of the 1.56-million-acre area off-limits. Federal leasing will now revert to the broader 2020 Trump-era framework that opened essentially the entire Coastal Plain to development. For Alaska’s delegation and regional Native corporations,…

Congress just overturned a Biden-era rule that had restricted how much of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain could be leased for oil and gas. The Senate passed the resolution 49-45, using the Congressional Review Act to wipe out a 2024 Interior Department plan that kept large sections of the 1.56-million-acre area off-limits. Federal leasing will now revert to the broader 2020 Trump-era framework that opened essentially the entire Coastal Plain to development. For Alaska’s delegation and regional Native corporations,…

The global mining industry is undergoing a rapid digital transformation, driven by the dual pressures of the energy transition and increasingly complex extraction environments. A new market report projects the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) in mining market will nearly quadruple in value over the next seven years, reaching $9.93 billion by 2032. This surge in adoption comes as miners face a "perfect storm" of challenges: declining ore grades, labor shortages, and an insatiable global appetite for the critical minerals required to power electric…

Congress just overturned a Biden-era rule that had restricted how much of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain could be leased for oil and gas. The Senate passed the resolution 49-45, using the Congressional Review Act to wipe out a 2024 Interior Department plan that kept large sections of the 1.56-million-acre area off-limits. Federal leasing will now revert to the broader 2020 Trump-era framework that opened essentially the entire Coastal Plain to development. For Alaska’s delegation and regional Native corporations,…

Kazakhstan’s oil output has fallen sharply after damage at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) export terminal disrupted flows, tightening supplies from one of OPEC+’s largest non-core contributors and forcing operators to curtail production, Reuters reported on Thursday.  Output dropped in the first two days of December after storms and structural damage limited loading capacity at the Black Sea terminal, prompting producers to scale back throughput as storage filled.  Kazakhstan’s oil and condensate output fell by…

European automaker shares rose sharply on Thursday after President Donald Trump moved to roll back U.S. fuel economy limits established under Joe Biden, according to Reuters. The administration framed the proposal as a way to lower consumer costs by making it easier for companies to sell gasoline-powered vehicles. By mid-morning, Porsche shares were up more than 5%, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo Car gained nearly 4%, Renault rose 3.3%, and Stellantis climbed around 2.7% after an 8% rally the previous day. Speaking from the Oval Office alongside…

The Treasury Department has quietly issued an exception to its own Russian sanctions list, allowing transactions with Lukoil-branded gas stations that are outside Russia through April 29, 2026. On paper, it’s a small and specific waiver. In practice, it’s Washington acknowledging a problem that it can’t actually solve without creating another. Lukoil’s retail footprint stretches far beyond Russia’s borders. It has around 200 stations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York—all of which would have been stymied…

As the global energy transition accelerates, the race to secure critical minerals is shifting from remote mines to battery recycling facilities.  A new report projects the global circular battery economy will surge from $23.29 billion in 2024 to nearly $78 billion by 2032. However, this aggressive growth forecast comes amid a turbulent period for the industry, characterized by volatile commodity prices and a race to build infrastructure before a tidal wave of spent electric vehicle (EV) batteries hits the market. From Environmental Niche to…

U.S. data center power demand could reach 106 GW in 2035, BloombergNEF said Monday in one of the more aggressive load growth estimates to date. The report comes as some energy industry analysts and executives warn that an artificial intelligence bubble or speculative data center proposals could be fueling excessive load growth projections.  A report from Grid Strategies released last month said utility forecasts of 90 GW additional data center load by 2030 were likely overstated; market analysis indicates load growth in that time frame is…

The daily rates for chartering a vessel to transport commodities have surged this year, with oil tanker rates skyrocketing by 467%, as shippers of a growing commodity supply are grappling with a series of route disruptions and sanctions.   Despite the typically weaker commodity demand period toward the end of each year, the last weeks of 2025 don’t show any weakness in the vessel rates for transporting crude oil, LNG, iron ore, or wheat.   The unusual strength at the end of the year has seen oil tanker rates on the key…