U.S. supermajor ExxonMobil plans to invest as much as $1.5 billion in deepwater oil and gas exploration and development offshore Nigeria, the local regulator, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), has said. Exxon sold last year its onshore assets to local firm Seplat Energy, but is committed to offshore exploration and development in the country. At the end of 2024, Nigeria’s regulators finally approved – after two years – Seplat Energy’s proposed acquisition of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited…

Russia saw its budget revenues from oil and gas drop by 12% in April from a year earlier, due to the oil price rout last month, the Russian finance ministry said on Wednesday. Oil and gas revenues for the Kremlin dipped to $13.45 billion (1.09 trillion Russian rubles) in April, from $15.2 billion (1.23 trillion rubles) in the same month of last year. For the first four months of the year, oil and gas revenues fell by 10.3% to $46 billion (3.73 trillion rubles), according to the ministry’s data. The decline in revenues so far this year was…

India’s federal government eased on Wednesday coal supply restrictions, allowing independent power producers to bid and procure coal supply at auctions for periods of between 1 and 25 years.                    Under the new measure passed by the cabinet, producers can bid for coal for periods of up to 25 years at a premium above the notified price at auctions. The power plants will also have the flexibility to sell the electricity as per their choice. The new provision is expected to incentivize…

OPEC+ served two surprises to the oil trading world in a matter of weeks. First, it said it would bring back three times the amount of oil supply it planned to originally in May. Then, it said it would repeat the exercise in June. And then it emerged that Saudi Arabia is raising selling prices for Asia when it would have made more sense to cut them, on the face of it. OPEC+ is in the spotlight and it’s probably enjoying it as prices slide further down and U.S. shale drillers curb activity. OPEC+ said in April it would add 411,000 bpd to its…

Massive advances in Li-ion battery technology have been at the center of the global electrification drive, including the EV revolution. To wit, over the past decade, lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery cell costs have declined ~28% for every cumulative doubling of units produced, allowing rapid mainstream adoption.  However, like any other technology out there, Li-ion batteries come with a suite of drawbacks, including the ability to deliver peak charge deteriorating over time; they generate a lot of heat, necessitating weighty cooling systems and…

Wall Street banks are racing this week to slash their oil price forecasts for 2025 and 2026 after OPEC+ threw another curveball at the market this weekend by vowing to continue raising production by more than initially planned. Commodity strategists and analysts from major U.S. and European investment banks have issued notes with downgraded oil price forecasts for 2025 and 2026 since OPEC+ producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed on Saturday to raise collective output by 411,000 barrels per day (bpd), nearly triple the volume originally…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell 4.49 million barrels in the week ending May 2, after analysts had estimated a 2.5-million-barrel draw. The API reported a 3.76 million barrel inventory hike in the prior week. So far this year, crude oil inventories are up more than 18 million barrels, 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) climbed 600,000 barrels…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) holds much greater geopolitical significance to both China and the U.S. than might be inferred from either its size or its current crude oil production of just under 3 million barrels per day (bpd). This is why any major new deals signed with it by either side are so thoroughly scrutinised by the other, and why both continue to leverage whatever economic means they can to attempt to increase their influence across the collection of emirates. The very recent five-year sales and purchase agreement signed between China’s…

Kazakhstan’s national oil company KazMunayGas (KMG) says it is fully prepared to navigate recent oil price volatility, even as global benchmarks hit new lows and concerns mount over falling state revenues. Despite the slump, driven largely by OPEC+ plans to increase output, KMG Deputy Chairman Aset Magauov stated that the company remains confident in its resilience. “We don’t see any risks for KazMunayGas,” Magauov told reporters at a recent briefing. “We’ve prepared for various scenarios and identified cost-optimization…

The government is under increasing pressure from its backbenchers to reverse winter fuel cuts amid warnings that even a U-turn would not go far enough to restore trust with voters. There is talk that senior government officials are reconsidering government’s earlier decision to restrict winter fuel payments to pensioners who qualify for income-related benefits, which would block 9 million from claiming the allowance. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson denied that there will be “a change to the government’s…

Abu Dhabi’s state oil giant ADNOC is reportedly on track to secure unconditional EU antitrust approval for its €14.7 billion ($16.6 billion) acquisition of Germany’s Covestro, sources told Reuters on Tuesday. The European Commission, expected to decide by May 12, sees no competition issues with the deal due to the lack of overlap between ADNOC and Covestro’s operations. That paves the way for ADNOC’s largest-ever acquisition—and a major milestone in its strategy to pivot beyond crude and into downstream and advanced…

The OPEC price war has made landfall in the US. Following our report earlier that Saudi Arabia has declared a new price war on OPEC+ quota-busters such as Kazakhstan, and non OPEC+ members such as US shale producers, today after the close Diamondback Energy, the largest independent oil producer in the Permian Basin, made a historic pronouncement today when it said that production has likely peaked in America’s prolific shale fields (something we also mentioned earlier in the day) and will decline in the…

Ford Motor's first-quarter net income plunged to $471 million from $1.3 billion a year earlier, as EV losses and production halts took a toll, the company said Monday. Revenue dropped to $40.7 billion from $42.8 billion, and wholesale deliveries fell 7% to 971,000 due to slower output of some models, according to the Wall Street Journal. The electric-vehicle division lost $800 million, down from $1.3 billion, helped by lower material costs and stronger pricing. Adjusted pretax income fell to $1 billion from $2.8 billion, still beating Ford’s…

1m ago 12:19pm CST China Halted All U.S. Crude Oil Imports China halted all US crude oil purchases in March as trade tensions with Washington escalated, raising concerns over demand for American shale. This marked the first month without Chinese imports since August 2023 and only the second time since March 2020. In February, China had bought 149,000 barrels per day, according to US Census data. 1m ago - 12:19pm CST 8m ago 12:10pm CST Why Oil Prices May Be Near a Bottom In a comment to Gulf Intelligence, Ilia Bouchouev, Managing Partner at Penthathlon…

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE: MPC), the biggest U.S. refiner by volumes, on Tuesday reported a loss for the first quarter as weak refining margins continued to depress profits and high turnaround activity limited the upside from margins and sales revenues. Marathon Petroleum booked a net loss of $74 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2025, compared with net income of $937 million, or $2.58 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2024. Marathon Petroleum attributed the loss “mainly due to the execution of the second…

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE: MPC), the biggest U.S. refiner by volumes, on Tuesday reported a loss for the first quarter as weak refining margins continued to depress profits and high turnaround activity limited the upside from margins and sales revenues. Marathon Petroleum booked a net loss of $74 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2025, compared with net income of $937 million, or $2.58 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2024. Marathon Petroleum attributed the loss “mainly due to the execution of the second…

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE: MPC), the biggest U.S. refiner by volumes, on Tuesday reported a loss for the first quarter as weak refining margins continued to depress profits and high turnaround activity limited the upside from margins and sales revenues. Marathon Petroleum booked a net loss of $74 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2025, compared with net income of $937 million, or $2.58 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2024. Marathon Petroleum attributed the loss “mainly due to the execution of the second…

Iran’s continued struggle with electricity shortages has led to the implementation of rolling blackouts in the capital, Tehran. Power cuts have become a fixture of both summer and winter months, but rolling blackouts this year have started earlier than usual despite the temperatures being relatively low. Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said during her weekly press conference on May 6 that the country was facing “multiple imbalances,” referring to rising demand for electricity, water, and gas. She said the government…

Oil prices rallied aggressively on Tuesday morning, recovering from the OPEC+-induced drop that was sparked by the cartel's decision to unwind production cuts at a faster rate than previously planned. Despite the recovery, uncertainty remains in markets and more volatility is likely.- Oil majors have been surprisingly inert in reacting to oil prices declining by more than $10 per barrel since early April, preferring to wait out the resolution of the U.S.-China trade war before cutting expenditures.- Posting a net profit of $7.7 billion, down 7%…

Oil prices staged a robust comeback on Tuesday, clawing back ground lost after OPEC’s surprise weekend announcement to boost production quotas by more than expected. WTI surged more than 4% on the day, trading above $59, while Brent gained 3.7%, reaching well above $62. The bounce comes after a bruising April that saw prices crater under the weight of U.S. tariffs and OPEC+ confusion. OPEC’s weekend move to raise quotas—reportedly by triple what most expected—initially sent prices tumbling. But the fine print matters. Chronic…