Pakistan is undergoing an energy revolution fuelled by a sharp rise in solar-plus-battery systems. This rapid evolution and decentralization of power grids is helping to shore up the nation’s energy security and meet international decarbonization pledges. However, while the solar boom is helping to keep the lights on for many Pakistanis, it is also hurting the poorest citizens. Pakistan has long struggled with rolling blackouts, power shortages, and crippling energy costs, and – like many emerging economies around the world –…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell this week, dropping by 974,000 barrels in the week ending August 15. Analysts had expected a larger 1.7-million-barrel draw. So far this year, crude oil inventories are up 6.8 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) rose by 800,000 barrels to 404.2 million barrels in the week ending August 22. At…

Simple answers are easy, but often wrong. The real ones take context, and a little more work. Below I provide the context for the question in the title, if you put in the work to read and understand. I was recently forwarded a link to a story at an NBC affiliate in Montana–’Drill, baby, drill’: Gas prices might drop below $3 by end of 2025–that purports to connect the recent drop in gasoline prices with President Trump’s pro-energy policies.  The first line of the article states: “There has recently been…

The Turkish government is moving quickly to capitalize on new economic opportunities created by US President Donald Trump‘s peace plan for Armenia and Azerbaijan.  Turkish officials held a groundbreaking ceremony on August 22 for a new 224-km rail line stretching from the eastern Turkish hub of Kars to Dilucu at the frontier with Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave. The Kars-Dilucu rail line is envisioned as the largest section of a new transit corridor that is the centerpiece of the Trump peace plan. The new route would be initially…

Russia’s fuel oil shipments went mostly to Saudi Arabia and India in July as Asia and the Middle East remain the key outlets for Moscow’s fuel oil and vacuum gasoil (VGO) amid import bans and embargoes in the West. Russia’s oil products have been banned in the EU and other Western countries since 2023, so Moscow has redirected most of the shipments to Asia and the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, which runs fuel oil in power plants to meet soaring air-conditioning demand in the desert summer, and India, whose refiners run fuel oil as…

Via Metal Miner China’s decision to file a complaint in the World Trade Organization against Canadian tariffs and the steel tariff rate quota has re-focused the spotlight on what many have dubbed an “already-strained trade relationship” between the two countries.  A few years ago, both nations resorted to tit-for-tat measures, including tariffs on everything from canola to electric vehicles. As it has with other countries, China has accused Canada of discriminatory trade practices. The move by China’s Ministry of Commerce…

PetroChina has agreed to buy three natural gas storage facilities from its state-owned parent CNPC for ¥40 billion (US$5.59 billion), adding nearly 11 billion cubic meters of working capacity to its portfolio. It’s a deal that looks less like housekeeping between affiliates and more like a signal of where China’s biggest oil and gas firm sees the energy market heading. The company’s timing is no accident. PetroChina reported first-half 2025 profit of US$11.75 billion, down 5.4% year-on-year as weaker crude prices and slumping…

PetroChina has agreed to buy three natural gas storage facilities from its state-owned parent CNPC for ¥40 billion (US$5.59 billion), adding nearly 11 billion cubic meters of working capacity to its portfolio. It’s a deal that looks less like housekeeping between affiliates and more like a signal of where China’s biggest oil and gas firm sees the energy market heading. The company’s timing is no accident. PetroChina reported first-half 2025 profit of US$11.75 billion, down 5.4% year-on-year as weaker crude prices and slumping…

PetroChina has agreed to buy three natural gas storage facilities from its state-owned parent CNPC for ¥40 billion (US$5.59 billion), adding nearly 11 billion cubic meters of working capacity to its portfolio. It’s a deal that looks less like housekeeping between affiliates and more like a signal of where China’s biggest oil and gas firm sees the energy market heading. The company’s timing is no accident. PetroChina reported first-half 2025 profit of US$11.75 billion, down 5.4% year-on-year as weaker crude prices and slumping…

The U.S. government is overhauling undersea cable rules for the first time since 2001, tightening restrictions to keep companies linked to adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran out of the supply chain, according to Nikkei Asia. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved proposed rules that bar adversary-based firms from working on U.S.-owned undersea cables or supplying related equipment. Approved companies will need cybersecurity plans and must certify their supply chains are free of such entities. To encourage investment, the…

India is dusting off its idle gas-fired power plants, not because they’re suddenly cheap, but because peak demand in the blistering months of May and June may leave the grid gasping. An adviser to the power ministry said this week the government is weighing a plan to run the costly plants only as seasonal back-up. Gas has become the ugly duckling of India’s power mix. Once good for 3% of generation in 2020, its share has shriveled to about 1.5% thanks to prices bouncing between $8 and $18 per million British thermal units. Coal—far…

India is dusting off its idle gas-fired power plants, not because they’re suddenly cheap, but because peak demand in the blistering months of May and June may leave the grid gasping. An adviser to the power ministry said this week the government is weighing a plan to run the costly plants only as seasonal back-up. Gas has become the ugly duckling of India’s power mix. Once good for 3% of generation in 2020, its share has shriveled to about 1.5% thanks to prices bouncing between $8 and $18 per million British thermal units. Coal—far…

India is dusting off its idle gas-fired power plants, not because they’re suddenly cheap, but because peak demand in the blistering months of May and June may leave the grid gasping. An adviser to the power ministry said this week the government is weighing a plan to run the costly plants only as seasonal back-up. Gas has become the ugly duckling of India’s power mix. Once good for 3% of generation in 2020, its share has shriveled to about 1.5% thanks to prices bouncing between $8 and $18 per million British thermal units. Coal—far…

Every few months, the noise from across the Atlantic starts up again: drill baby drill. Burn what you’ve got. Reopen the rigs. Don’t let the transition ruin a good oil boom. And now, the suggestion is that Europe should follow suit, start drilling in the North Sea like it’s 1973, maybe even get Groningen going again and pretend this is a real strategy. Let’s be fair. This message comes from a place of deep ideological and economic alignment with fossil fuel producers. It’s understandable if you’re financially,…

PetroChina, the largest oil and gas producer in China, reported on Tuesday a 5.4% decline in first-half profit as oil prices fell from a year earlier and domestic fuel demand continued to be pressured by the rise in new-energy vehicle sales.  PetroChina booked $11.75 billion (84 billion Chinese yuan) in profit for the first half of the year, down by 5.4% from the record-high profit for same period last year.  Amid lower benchmark oil prices, PetroChina’s average realized crude oil price was $66.21 per barrel between January and…

PetroChina, the largest oil and gas producer in China, reported on Tuesday a 5.4% decline in first-half profit as oil prices fell from a year earlier and domestic fuel demand continued to be pressured by the rise in new-energy vehicle sales.  PetroChina booked $11.75 billion (84 billion Chinese yuan) in profit for the first half of the year, down by 5.4% from the record-high profit for same period last year.  Amid lower benchmark oil prices, PetroChina’s average realized crude oil price was $66.21 per barrel between January and…

PetroChina, the largest oil and gas producer in China, reported on Tuesday a 5.4% decline in first-half profit as oil prices fell from a year earlier and domestic fuel demand continued to be pressured by the rise in new-energy vehicle sales.  PetroChina booked $11.75 billion (84 billion Chinese yuan) in profit for the first half of the year, down by 5.4% from the record-high profit for same period last year.  Amid lower benchmark oil prices, PetroChina’s average realized crude oil price was $66.21 per barrel between January and…

In this week’s newsletter, we will take a quick look at some of the critical figures and data in the energy markets this week.  We will then look at some of the key market movers early this week before providing you with the latest analysis of the top news events taking place in the global energy complex over the past few days. We hope you enjoy. Seoul Mates in Energy: U.S. Powers Up South Korea - The official visit of South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung to the US marked one of the highlights of Trump’s tariff deals as…

Crude oil trade has started to see the effect of a recent ban by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on cargoes originating from Sudan, after the two countries severed ties earlier this year.    In May this year, Sudan severed ties with the UAE, having repeatedly accused it of backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group which took up arms against the Sudanese army in the latest conflict in Sudan that erupted in April 2023.  Sudan accused the Gulf state and key OPEC oil producer of “ongoing aggression”…

When a swarm of 39 Russian drones attacked a compressor station in southern Ukraine this month, it was a sign of how Russia has shifted the focus of its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The attack came less than two weeks after Ukraine signed a deal to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan for the first time. The target was critical for importing the fuel from southern Europe along the Trans-Balkan corridor and into the country. It was the latest in a series of attacks on Ukraine’s natural gas infrastructure this year, a sharp…