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…

Vessel traffic at the Strait of Hormuz continues to decline as last week’s hopes of negotiations of a U.S.-Iran deal began to fade, yet again. As OilPrice notes, on Monday, only six commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz in either direction, down from 11 ships in the latest 10-day average, according to shipping data from Kpler cited by Reuters on Tuesday. Four commodity vessels moved inbound into the Persian Gulf via the Strait and two others exited outbound, the data showed. Bloomberg data reveal a similar picture,…

One year after the signing of a provisional peace deal in Washington, DC, American, Armenian, and Azerbaijani officials continue to exude optimism about the potential for stability and prosperity in the South Caucasus. But movement toward implementing the joint declaration has been halting.  On August 8, the one-year anniversary of the declaration’s signing by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement reaffirming Washington’s commitment…

Iran said Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed unless the United States ends the war and meets Tehran’s conditions, raising the bar for a deal that would restore more oil traffic through the key waterway. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Washington must end the conflict and unfreeze Iranian funds held overseas before Tehran will agree to reopen the strait. Iran has also delivered additional conditions to the United States through mediators, Rezaei said in comments carried by…

Iran said Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed unless the United States ends the war and meets Tehran’s conditions, raising the bar for a deal that would restore more oil traffic through the key waterway. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Washington must end the conflict and unfreeze Iranian funds held overseas before Tehran will agree to reopen the strait. Iran has also delivered additional conditions to the United States through mediators, Rezaei said in comments carried by…

As nations race to cut import exposure to geopolitical tensions, China is building the world’s only large-scale coal-to-gas (CTG) industry as a strategic buffer against supply shocks. No other country has developed synthetic gas from coal at any meaningful scale. China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, covering 2026 to 2030, strengthens CTG’s role in its domestic supply architecture, signaling a move from consideration to active execution. Rystad Energy estimates China’s CTG capacity is on track to reach 9.4 billion cubic meters (Bcm)…

Gold pushed toward $4,450 an ounce Tuesday, its best level in about two months, as a stalled U.S.-Iran deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz kept oil elevated and traders braced for a Wednesday inflation report that could decide whether a September Fed rate hike is really off the table. Silver pushed above $65 for a second straight session, extending its climb to a seven-week high. The rally traces back to Friday's jobs report, which showed the U.S. economy shed 23,000 positions in July. That knocked the market's odds of a September hike down to…

Russia’s seaborne crude exports fell to their lowest level since May as recovering refinery runs pulled barrels back into domestic processing and attacks disrupted loading at key ports. Russia shipped 3.71 million barrels per day in the four weeks through August 9, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Shipments averaged just 3.25 million bpd in the latest week, down from 3.5 million bpd a week earlier. The drop comes just days after industry sources said Russian crude and condensate production rose by roughly 100,000 bpd…

Five months after the U.S. and Israel opened a war with Iran, global fuel markets still haven't settled down, and the latest IEA data prove it. The IEA's monthly end-use price tracker, updated Aug. 7 and covering prices through July, shows the average per-liter cost of automotive diesel across the countries it tracks sitting near $1.94 in U.S. dollar terms. That's roughly 14% above where it stood in February, before the war started, and it's actually higher than June, even as crude oil kept sliding through most of the summer. Gasoline tells a similar…

The new heatwave in France is curbing nuclear power generation in Europe's biggest nuclear electricity supplier and leading to spiking day-ahead power prices. France's day-ahead power prices soared by as much as 21.8% to $164.39 (142.5 euros) per megawatt hour (MWh) on Tuesday morning local time, per LSEG data cited by Reuters, as nuclear power generation is expected to be curbed at the mid-day peak on Wednesday. Data by nuclear power plants operator EDF showed that France would see its nuclear generation cut by 7.3 gigawatts (GW) on Wednesday,…

The new heatwave in France is curbing nuclear power generation in Europe's biggest nuclear electricity supplier and leading to spiking day-ahead power prices. France's day-ahead power prices soared by as much as 21.8% to $164.39 (142.5 euros) per megawatt hour (MWh) on Tuesday morning local time, per LSEG data cited by Reuters, as nuclear power generation is expected to be curbed at the mid-day peak on Wednesday. Data by nuclear power plants operator EDF showed that France would see its nuclear generation cut by 7.3 gigawatts (GW) on Wednesday,…

Hormuz tensions are flaring again as Iranian exports collapse, pushing Brent toward $87 and raising the risk of another run toward $100. China’s Crude Drawdown Puts Iranian Barrels Back in Demand - Shrinking crude inventories in China might spur a buying spree over the upcoming weeks, particularly for Russian and Iranian crude, buoyed by a record-high July stock draw in Shandong.    - Chinese teapots are expected to boost their purchases of Iranian oil in the upcoming days as stockpiles in the northeastern Shandong province…

Ukraine’s military claimed another drone attack on an oil refinery in Russia in the early hours on Tuesday as Ukrainian forces continue to target Russia’s energy producing and exporting infrastructure in an escalation of drone attacks at key oil refining hubs. The Ukrainian military on Tuesday said it had struck the Orsknefteorgsintez oil refinery in Orsk, in the Orenburg region. Orsk is about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from the frontline. “Fire was recorded. Damages are being ascertained,” the Ukrainian military said…

Ukraine’s military claimed another drone attack on an oil refinery in Russia in the early hours on Tuesday as Ukrainian forces continue to target Russia’s energy producing and exporting infrastructure in an escalation of drone attacks at key oil refining hubs. The Ukrainian military on Tuesday said it had struck the Orsknefteorgsintez oil refinery in Orsk, in the Orenburg region. Orsk is about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from the frontline. “Fire was recorded. Damages are being ascertained,” the Ukrainian military said…

The US House of Representatives moved to advance a sweeping Russia and Iran sanctions package on August 10, just days after the Senate approved it by an overwhelming 86-11 vote, opening the next phase of a congressional push to squeeze Moscow’s war economy and give President Donald Trump additional leverage to force Russia toward negotiations with Ukraine. The move came unusually quickly -- while the House is in its August recess -- with Republican Representatives Michael McCaul of Texas, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Democratic Congressman…

The national oil company of the United Arab Emirates has issued its eighth spot tender since June, trade sources told Reuters on Tuesday, as the Gulf producer that has just left OPEC pushes to sell increased crude volumes to international markets. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is offering in the latest spot tender cargoes of the Upper Zakum, Umm Lulu, and Das crude grades for loading in October and November, according to Reuters’ sources. These crudes are produced within the Persian Gulf but ADNOC offers buyers the optionality to…

The national oil company of the United Arab Emirates has issued its eighth spot tender since June, trade sources told Reuters on Tuesday, as the Gulf producer that has just left OPEC pushes to sell increased crude volumes to international markets. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is offering in the latest spot tender cargoes of the Upper Zakum, Umm Lulu, and Das crude grades for loading in October and November, according to Reuters’ sources. These crudes are produced within the Persian Gulf but ADNOC offers buyers the optionality to…

The latest Bloomberg data show that shipping transits through the Strait of Hormuz remained largely disrupted Monday morning, even as Iran and Oman reportedly moved closer to a deal. Brent crude futures traded near $85 a barrel as markets priced in the possibility that a deal to reopen the maritime chokepoint could be imminent. Yet global supply-chain stress remains near its highest level since the pandemic, and any normalization could take months, even if shipping traffic resumes. UBS senior international economist Pierre Lafourcade highlighted…

Over the past couple of years, Colombia’s clean energy transition has shifted into overdrive under President Gustavo Petro’s "Just Energy Transition" agenda, with the country pivoting away from fossil fuels towards wind and solar energy. Petro, Colombia’s first ever left-wing president, instituted a strict ban on signing new oil, gas and coal exploration contracts while securing multi-billion-dollar international funding partnerships for clean energy projects. This strategy helped Colombia’s renewable energy capacity to…

As peace in the Persian Gulf remains elusive and Ukrainian drones keep raining on Russian refineries, a global fuel crisis is looming larger by the day as demand is set to increase in the coming months, especially for diesel. Shortages are already reality in some parts of the world. In Southeast Asia, Reuters reported last week, palm oil farmers are seeing diesel supply shortages and spiking prices. In the United States, diesel fuel exports hit an all-time high in the first week of August, running at an average daily rate of 1.9 million barrels.…