Phillips 66 will begin shutting down its 139,000 bpd Los Angeles-area refinery as soon as next week, sources told Reuters, moving forward on a closure plan announced last year. Units at the plant will idle in phases through Q4 2025, with the facility permanently offline by year-end. The decision isn’t a surprise—Phillips 66 said in October it would exit the site, citing “market dynamics.” But it comes with fallout: about 600 employees and 300 contractors will lose their jobs by December, with only a handful reassigned to…

Phillips 66 will begin shutting down its 139,000 bpd Los Angeles-area refinery as soon as next week, sources told Reuters, moving forward on a closure plan announced last year. Units at the plant will idle in phases through Q4 2025, with the facility permanently offline by year-end. The decision isn’t a surprise—Phillips 66 said in October it would exit the site, citing “market dynamics.” But it comes with fallout: about 600 employees and 300 contractors will lose their jobs by December, with only a handful reassigned to…

The West has moved fast on Syria in the wake of Assad's ouster - first lifting most sanctions and now ensuring oil and gas are tapped and get flowing again. The brutal sanctions served to punish the broader Syrian population for many years. It underscores once again that the disastrous war was really about externally-driven regime change and installing a more malleable puppet government - which turned out to be essentially Al Qaeda in suits.  Bloomberg is reporting that the Switzerland-based Vitol Group, which is the largest independent oil…

Exxon projects global natural gas demand will rise more than 20% by 2050 from 2024 levels, driven by coal displacement in industry and growing electricity use in emerging markets, according to a Reuters report. The outlook underpins Exxon’s long-term strategy, including an 18% production increase over five years. Oil demand is expected to plateau after 2030 but remain above 100 million barrels per day through 2050, while oil and gas together hold around 55% of the global energy mix, the report said. The company frames gas as a key transition…

Exxon projects global natural gas demand will rise more than 20% by 2050 from 2024 levels, driven by coal displacement in industry and growing electricity use in emerging markets, according to a Reuters report. The outlook underpins Exxon’s long-term strategy, including an 18% production increase over five years. Oil demand is expected to plateau after 2030 but remain above 100 million barrels per day through 2050, while oil and gas together hold around 55% of the global energy mix, the report said. The company frames gas as a key transition…

Exxon projects global natural gas demand will rise more than 20% by 2050 from 2024 levels, driven by coal displacement in industry and growing electricity use in emerging markets, according to a Reuters report. The outlook underpins Exxon’s long-term strategy, including an 18% production increase over five years. Oil demand is expected to plateau after 2030 but remain above 100 million barrels per day through 2050, while oil and gas together hold around 55% of the global energy mix, the report said. The company frames gas as a key transition…

Nuclear batteries are not a new invention, but they’ve fallen out of commercial favor since the 70s, when they were used in pacemakers. Nuclear batteries were an ideal solution for these medical devices due to their longevity, but were ultimately eliminated due to governmental unease about radioactive isotopes walking out into the world untracked and unreturned. Now, a new generation of scientists is working on the return of the nuclear battery, but this time with a much broader variety of applications. The science behind nuclear batteries…

Back in 2019, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines famously banned DreamWorks’ and Pearl Studio’s joint film Abominable from cinemas for featuring a scene with a map of China's controversial U-shaped nine-dash line, China’s symbolic claim to sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea. China’s territorial claims to roughly 90% of the South China Sea, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands, encompasses both naturally formed and artificial islands, as well as areas China deems "historic waters". However, a 2016…

ExxonMobil has decided it’s time to play teacher. In its freshly minted Global Outlook, the U.S. supermajor offered a chapter called “Lessons from Europe”—and the grading isn’t pretty. The EU’s climate policies, Exxon argues, are a cautionary tale of what happens when governments push through decarbonization with heavy regulation and magical thinking. The report claims that Europe’s “high-regulation, high-cost” climate crusade has hobbled industry, pushed up energy prices, and weakened public…

ExxonMobil has decided it’s time to play teacher. In its freshly minted Global Outlook, the U.S. supermajor offered a chapter called “Lessons from Europe”—and the grading isn’t pretty. The EU’s climate policies, Exxon argues, are a cautionary tale of what happens when governments push through decarbonization with heavy regulation and magical thinking. The report claims that Europe’s “high-regulation, high-cost” climate crusade has hobbled industry, pushed up energy prices, and weakened public…

ExxonMobil has decided it’s time to play teacher. In its freshly minted Global Outlook, the U.S. supermajor offered a chapter called “Lessons from Europe”—and the grading isn’t pretty. The EU’s climate policies, Exxon argues, are a cautionary tale of what happens when governments push through decarbonization with heavy regulation and magical thinking. The report claims that Europe’s “high-regulation, high-cost” climate crusade has hobbled industry, pushed up energy prices, and weakened public…

The fuel loading and gas processing complex at the Ust-Luga port on the Russian Baltic Sea that was damaged in a massive Ukrainian drone attack could take several months to repair, market sources told Reuters on Thursday. The complex, operated by Russian energy firm Novatek, was hit by a Ukrainian drone strike this weekend. That’s the second time Ukraine has attacked – and damaged – the Ust-Luga port. Alexander Drozdenko, the Governor of the Leningrad Region in Russia, said on Sunday that at least 10 drones had attacked the port…

One of OPEC’s major oil producers, Iraq, has been tackling an ongoing energy crisis, which plunged the country into darkness in August. Despite being one of the world’s biggest oil powers, years of political turmoil, the mismanagement of public funds, and the neglect of the country’s energy infrastructure have resulted in a nationwide energy crisis, with almost daily blackouts. Meanwhile, stricter sanctions on Iranian electricity are hitting Iraq’s power sector hard, showing the need for investment in greater long-term energy…

The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was hit by a "massive" Russian air strike early on August 28, causing multiple deaths, while senior Ukrainian leaders were making a diplomatic dash to drum up support ahead of talks with US officials in New York later this week. Authorities in Kyiv reported that the drone and missile strike killed at least eight people and injured dozens at several sites in the capital, as air-raid sirens blared across Ukraine early on August 28, including in the west, far from the front lines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy…

Energy trading activity remains seasonally thin in the ongoing summer season, with traders turning their focus towards broader macroeconomic news and away from fundamentals. Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivered his August speech at Jackson Hole, which reinforced expectations of a 25-basis point cut in interest rates in September. The latest government data revealed that the U.S. labor market has lost momentum while inflation remains elevated. However, commodity experts at Standard Chartered have predicted that downside economic…

Today, an additional 25% tariff on all Indian exports to the United States should come into effect, making the total tariff owed by importers of Indian goods around 50%. The additional tariff aims to discourage Indian energy importers from buying Russian oil. And it could hurt the U.S. economy—although U.S. oil producers would welcome the price change. Russia has emerged as the largest single supplier of crude oil to India, which imports some 85% of the oil it consumes. Because of that, it is quite partial to a good bargain. Russian crude…

Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project lifted production to record levels in late August as summer ice conditions opened the Northern Sea Route, allowing additional cargoes to reach Asia, according to Bloomberg data reported by LiveMint. Output topped 25 million cubic meters on August 25-26, averaging nearly 15 million cubic meters for much of the month. The figures mark the strongest operational run since the facility began trial shipments earlier this year. The Novatek-led facility, located on the Gydan Peninsula, has faced U.S. and EU sanctions…

U.S. oil and gas supermajor Chevron signed an agreement in principle last week with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for the development of the huge Nasiriyah oil field, plus other oil producing fields and exploration sites. This is the latest in a recent line of top-tier Western firms that have announced a return to Iraq following a collective exodus from the country beginning around seven years ago with ExxonMobil’s withdrawal from the crucial Common Seawater Supply Project (CSSP). ExxonMobil itself is currently in discussions with Iraq’s…

Lithium-ion batteries power the world around us. Their prevalence in our daily life is growing steadily, to the extent that lithium-ion batteries now power a whopping 70 percent of all rechargeable devices. From electric vehicles to smartphones to utility-scale energy storage, lithium-ion batteries are increasingly forming the building blocks of innumerable sectors. But despite its dominance in battery technologies, there are some serious issues with lithium supply chains that make it a less-than-ideal model upon which to base our world. Not only…

China boasts leadership in the global push toward clean energy—and rightly so. Its electric vehicle sales are surging and already outselling conventional cars, while no country is close to the massive Chinese investment in renewable energy and storage, and the record-setting additions of solar and wind power capacity. Renewables, EVs, and related supply-chain industries have been contributing a record share of China’s economic growth in recent years. But the green energy boom has led to such overcapacity, fierce price wars, and a race…