As energy companies explore innovative ways to increase clean power production and gain public support for new projects, many solar firms are investing in developing dual-purpose operations that utilise agricultural land for solar farms. A common criticism of solar farms is that installing panels on arable land for the sole purpose of energy production restricts land use for other purposes. However, installing solar panels on agricultural land, where farming practices can still take place, could provide a solution to the problem. Many solar projects…

Soft power, in the form of scientific cooperation, is helping to drive an expansion of China’s economic influence in Central Asia. Uzbekistan and China, for example, recently launched the joint hyperspectral satellite, Samarkand-2028, which will support applications in agriculture, environmental monitoring, water resource management and natural disaster response. The satellite also features an Uzbek-developed AI module for onboard data processing, reducing the volume of data transmitted to ground stations while increasing the speed and efficiency…

The Trump administration will put oil and gas leases covering more than 81 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico up for auction on Wednesday, August 12, in the third of 30 Gulf lease sales mandated under President Donald Trump’s 2025 tax and spending law. Wednesday’s auction is also the second Gulf lease sale since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began in February, disrupting Middle East crude supplies and sending oil prices to four-year highs. Brent crude was trading above $89 per barrel on Wednesday. The Interior Department will offer…

The Trump administration will put oil and gas leases covering more than 81 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico up for auction on Wednesday, August 12, in the third of 30 Gulf lease sales mandated under President Donald Trump’s 2025 tax and spending law. Wednesday’s auction is also the second Gulf lease sale since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began in February, disrupting Middle East crude supplies and sending oil prices to four-year highs. Brent crude was trading above $89 per barrel on Wednesday. The Interior Department will offer…

Crude oil inventories in the United States saw a massive increase of 17.4 million barrels during the week ending August 7, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 424.4 million barrels, according to government data, which are now just 2% below the five-year average for this time of year. The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories had risen by a hefty 9.072…

The Ukrainian forces have reportedly suspended drone attacks on oil tankers at the port of Novorossiysk following a request by U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, the Financial Times wrote today, citing unnamed Ukrainian officials. The request was prompted by concern that the drone attacks that shut down the Caspian Pipeline Consortium twice over the last two months were additionally destabilizing an already destabilized global oil market. The Ukraine has also targeted tankers docked at the port of Novorossiysk with drones. CPC operates the pipeline…

The Ukrainian forces have reportedly suspended drone attacks on oil tankers at the port of Novorossiysk following a request by U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, the Financial Times wrote today, citing unnamed Ukrainian officials. The request was prompted by concern that the drone attacks that shut down the Caspian Pipeline Consortium twice over the last two months were additionally destabilizing an already destabilized global oil market. The Ukraine has also targeted tankers docked at the port of Novorossiysk with drones. CPC operates the pipeline…

Norwegian aluminum producer Norsk Hydro's Alunorte plant in Brazil, one of the world's largest alumina refineries, reduced output by 50% following disruptions to natural gas availability. Bloomberg reports that disruptions to NatGas availability at Alunorte forced a 50% reduction in output and sent aluminum prices in London to a seven-week high. Hydro said production would return to full capacity once gas supplies normalize. Aluminum rose nearly 2% in London and traded at $3,373 a metric ton. Alumina futures gained 1% in Shanghai. NatGas is critical…

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's decision to formalize six senior military and security postings within 48 hours is less a personnel story than the closing chapter of a five-month improvisation. Read together, the appointments announced on August 10 show a new supreme leader moving to convert an emergency wartime chain of command, cobbled together after Israeli and US strikes killed much of Iran's senior military leadership, into a permanent structure built around his own circle of trust. Rebuilding From The Top Down, Twice The scale of…

Indian state-controlled oil refiners continue to search the market for spot crude supply as term deliveries are constrained by the ongoing crisis in the Middle East and its key oil chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) are looking to buy a combined 6 million barrels of crude oil via spot tenders, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing tender documents it has seen. HPCL is seeking up to 4 million barrels of crude for delivery in September and October.…

Indian state-controlled oil refiners continue to search the market for spot crude supply as term deliveries are constrained by the ongoing crisis in the Middle East and its key oil chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) are looking to buy a combined 6 million barrels of crude oil via spot tenders, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing tender documents it has seen. HPCL is seeking up to 4 million barrels of crude for delivery in September and October.…

Indian state-controlled oil refiners continue to search the market for spot crude supply as term deliveries are constrained by the ongoing crisis in the Middle East and its key oil chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) are looking to buy a combined 6 million barrels of crude oil via spot tenders, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing tender documents it has seen. HPCL is seeking up to 4 million barrels of crude for delivery in September and October.…

The IEA has slashed its 2026 global oil supply forecast, with output now expected to plunge 4.3 million barrels per day this year as the failure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz pushes the market deeper into deficit. The latest forecast is considerably worse than the 3.7-million-bpd decline the agency projected just last month and would leave global supply at 102.02 million bpd, its lowest forecast for 2026 yet. Supply is now expected to fall 1.27 million bpd short of demand for the year, compared with an 860,000-bpd deficit implied by the IEA’s…

Brent Crude oil prices rose above $89 per barrel in early trade in Europe on Wednesday as Iran and the United States offered contrasting claims about who controls the Strait of Hormuz. Brent Crude prices were up by 0.64% at $89.60 in the morning in Europe, and WTI Crude was rising by 0.94% at $83.90, amid persistent supply concerns and risks despite claims from the U.S. that traffic at Hormuz had normalized. Iran, for its part, said on Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed unless the United States ends the war and meets Tehran’s…

Oil flows from the Middle East have normalized, with Sunday traffic alone above pre-conflict averages, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said on Tuesday in a claim that appears not to be backed by ship-tracking data. On Tuesday, Secretary Wright posted on X that “Thanks to the coordinated efforts of the U.S. military and our gulf allies, the seven-day average for oil leaving the Strait of Hormuz is currently up to almost 9 million barrels per day.” He went on to add that “When combined with the additional 5-7 million barrels…

Whatever officially occurs next in the on-again/off-again negotiations towards a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran, unofficially Tehran knows that it has established de facto control over both the world’s two key maritime energy transit routes -- the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait -- for at least as long as the Islamic regime remains in place in Iran. Washington, London, Brussels, Beijing, and Moscow know it too. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively controlled by vast Iranian forces down its full eastern stretch, precluding…

Two years ago, Alaska LNG was struggling to secure the private financing needed to move forward, with high Arctic construction costs, logistical complexities and massive upfront property tax burdens making lenders and potential Asian buyers hesitant to commit. But since then, the outlook for the $55-billion megaproject has improved considerably. The proposed 800-mile pipeline and LNG export project has gained strong backing from the Trump administration, with President Trump pushing Japan and South Korea in particular to invest in the project and…

Batteries have been a hot topic for years amid the energy transition rush of many governments, but now, it has become even hotter as the search for alternatives to traditional energy becomes frantic. While lithium continues to dominate in both EVs and storage, rivals are emerging, and one of these is, essentially table salt. Earlier this month, Chinese media reported that the first truck with a sodium-ion battery had been delivered to the mine where it will be used. The battery has a capacity of 676 kWh, a report by Car News China said, and an…

The Middle East conflict and the heightened threats to shipping in the Red Sea have prompted China to boost the use of the Arctic to move containers from the Chinese east coast to Europe. The fast-melting Arctic ice offers an alternative shipping route in the summer as the Houthi threats to shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait make cargo operators more cautious in transiting the key chokepoints in the Middle East. Shipping through the Arctic is not something new, but this time around – driven by melting ice caps and more dangerous…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 9.072 million barrels in the week ending August 7, compared to analyst expectations for a 500,000-barrel draw. In the week prior, U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 2.69 million barrels. The larger-than-expected build was driven in part by higher crude imports relative to exports during the week. Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost just over 49 million barrels over the last seventeen weeks, with US crude inventories…