India’s economic growth for the 2026/2027 fiscal year could be lower than previously expected amid higher oil prices with the re-escalation of the Middle East war and the El Nino weather phenomenon, a senior official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told Reuters. “The downside risks are probably twofold,” Ranil Salgado, the IMF’s resident representative for India and Bhutan, told Reuters in an interview published on Tuesday. “One is that the war is already starting to expand again, and that has implications…

Renewed fighting between the United States and Iran entered its second week early Tuesday, with U.S. Central Command confirming a 10th consecutive night of strikes on Iranian command centers, missile sites and air defenses. The broader war, now in its fifth month since fighting first broke out in late February, has hit oil markets hard: Brent crude is trading near $89 a barrel and gasoline sits just above $4 a gallon nationally, as the list of threats to supply kept growing overnight. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said early Tuesday it had destroyed…

Ryanair shed more than a third of its profit as rising jet fuel prices triggered by the Iran war began to take effect.  The budget airline had previously insulated itself from rising fuel prices by fixing its energy costs on hedged contracts.  But Ryanair said the cost of the 20 per cent of its jet fuel that it had not hedged more than doubled in the first quarter of this year, to $150 per barrel. As a result, the firm’s operating costs jumped 11 per cent to €3.8bn in the three months to June and its pre-tax profit slumped…

A Kuwait-owned oil products tanker was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman as tensions escalate around the key shipping lanes of the Middle East, sending Brent back above $90 per barrel.  The Kaifan tanker, owned by Kuwait Oil Tanker Co. S.A.K., was the vessel hit by an unknown projectile in the Strait, per security consultancy EOS Risk Group cited by Bloomberg. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations UKMTO said early on Tuesday that it had received a report of an incident 8 nautical miles northeast of Limah, Oman.…

Oil prices have been on a climb for over a week now as hostilities in the Middle East continue, and despite recent talk of a glut, the physical market is flashing signs of tightness—and higher oil for longer. Earlier this month, analysts were quick to start warning of an oil glut looming over the world as traffic via the Strait of Hormuz recovered in leaps and bounds amid the U.S.-Iran ceasefire. That was one shaky ceasefire, however, and it broke down soon enough to the apparent surprise of most oil forecasters. Traffic via Hormuz is once…

Even before the 30-day mark was reached in the 60-day negotiating process that would see the 14-point memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreed between Washington and Tehran crystallise into a full and final peace deal, the starting point for the whole process has been broken by both sides. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and President Donald Trump stated that Iran had violated the MOU by firing on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, enforcing pre-approved shipping routes, and threatening to collect transit tolls. In response, the U.S. military…

Last year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed that sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) production represents only 0.6% of total jet fuel consumption, well below the 65% target by the global aviation industry to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. SAF currently costs two to five times more than conventional jet fuels, with the hefty price premium creating a significant economic barrier for airlines that operate on razor-thin margins.  Additionally, there is not enough global refining capacity or raw materials such…

The global oil market is much more exposed to the latest re-escalation in the Middle East, as most of the buffers that cushioned the initial shock of the Iran war are wearing thin and unable to prevent the next oil price spike. For weeks, market participants were too complacent that the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the oil flows would recover steadily by the end of the third quarter. The reality dawned on the oil market last week, when the re-escalation all but closed the Strait of Hormuz, again, and…

Many European Union diplomats thought that it would become easier to approve sanctions on Russia after the departure of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in May, after 16 years in power. Seen as the most Kremlin-friendly leader in the bloc, other European politicians and diplomats had often lamented that Budapest had watered down both the blacklisting of key Russian individuals and measures aimed at weakening Moscow’s economic and military prowess. So, expectations were high when the European Commission’s proposal for a 21st…

There is an old Yiddish expression that translates literally as “stop beating the teapot” which we would freely translate as, “We’ve heard this before, so why don’t you just stop?” Well, as new numbers come out and our great leaders keep coming up with new solutions to whatever they think ails the energy sector, we just can’t resist. So here they are, the latest yearly average of miles of high-voltage transmission added to the grid since 2010: Transmission lines of under 345KV are largely used for local…

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan may soon have to rethink their plans to develop nuclear energy. Rosatom, the Russian nuclear entity that has agreements to build nuclear plants in both Central Asian nations, is experiencing major financial difficulties. Alexei Likhachev, Rosatom’s boss, has announced the entity is cutting its investment program by nearly 50 percent this year due to “poor economic conditions.” Likhachev also said Rosatom would strive to slash operating costs by 10 percent within the next 18 months. "We immediately…

Small oil and gas companies are vying to secure exploration permits offshore New Zealand in the coming months before a potential reinstatement of the drilling ban in the country. Last year, New Zealand reopened for oil and gas exploration, ready to receive applications for exploration projects after a seven-year pause, following the lifting of a ban on such activity installed by the previous government. The upstream policy reversal has not led to new drilling contracts so far. But some of the oil and gas firms willing to secure permits…

Nigeria is set to ramp up crude oil production to 3 million barrels per day by 2030, according to the country’s upstream regulator, which says reforms aimed at accelerating investment and reducing project delays are beginning to reverse years of declining output. The target would nearly double the country’s current crude production and mark the highest level in Nigeria’s history, according to Bloomberg.  The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said the government’s objective remains achievable…

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis declared an immediate naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday, Reuters reported, bringing the U.S.-Iran war officially to the southern entrance of the Red Sea and threatening an export route used by Riyadh to bypass disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.  The group said the “maritime embargo” was retaliation for what it described as a Saudi siege of Yemen, Reuters reported. Saudi Arabia had not responded to the announcement as of the time of writing. Iran had previously instructed the Houthis to…

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis declared an immediate naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday, Reuters reported, bringing the U.S.-Iran war officially to the southern entrance of the Red Sea and threatening an export route used by Riyadh to bypass disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.  The group said the “maritime embargo” was retaliation for what it described as a Saudi siege of Yemen, Reuters reported. Saudi Arabia had not responded to the announcement as of the time of writing. Iran had previously instructed the Houthis to…

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis declared an immediate naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday, Reuters reported, bringing the U.S.-Iran war officially to the southern entrance of the Red Sea and threatening an export route used by Riyadh to bypass disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.  The group said the “maritime embargo” was retaliation for what it described as a Saudi siege of Yemen, Reuters reported. Saudi Arabia had not responded to the announcement as of the time of writing. Iran had previously instructed the Houthis to…

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis declared an immediate naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday, Reuters reported, bringing the U.S.-Iran war officially to the southern entrance of the Red Sea and threatening an export route used by Riyadh to bypass disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.  The group said the “maritime embargo” was retaliation for what it described as a Saudi siege of Yemen, Reuters reported. Saudi Arabia had not responded to the announcement as of the time of writing. Iran had previously instructed the Houthis to…

Incoming prime minister Andy Burnham is set to announce new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea within days of taking office as part of a policy blitz, according to reports. Burnham’s team has asked the civil service to draw up plans to approve drilling projects at the Jackdaw gas field and Rosebank oil field off the coast of Scotland, alongside an expansion of ‘tie-backs’ which allow further drilling near existing fields, Bloomberg reported. The fields are owned and operated by Adura, a joint venture launched by energy…

A drone struck a tanker loading crude oil at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) Black Sea export terminal on Monday, according to regional media reports, forcing the suspension of exports for the second time in less than 24 hours.  The CPC said the tanker NELSA was loading at Single Point Mooring 1 (SPM-1) when the drone hit the vessel’s starboard aft section, igniting a fire on deck and in compartments between the accommodation block and engine room. Emergency crews extinguished the fire within hours; the tanker remained…

A drone struck a tanker loading crude oil at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) Black Sea export terminal on Monday, according to regional media reports, forcing the suspension of exports for the second time in less than 24 hours.  The CPC said the tanker NELSA was loading at Single Point Mooring 1 (SPM-1) when the drone hit the vessel’s starboard aft section, igniting a fire on deck and in compartments between the accommodation block and engine room. Emergency crews extinguished the fire within hours; the tanker remained…