Chinese demand for natural gas is set to jump by more than 50% by 2040, from 400 billion cubic meters (bcm) now to more than 600 bcm, according to an executive at the top U.S. LNG exporter, Cheniere Energy. “There’s no doubt that gas demand growth in China, in absolute terms, is substantially driven by energy demand, policies like coal-to-gas-switch as well as a huge infrastructure build-up,” Yingying Zhou, director LNG origination at Cheniere, said at the Asia Gas Markets conference on Tuesday, as carried by Reuters. Cheniere…

Oil prices are on the rise, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at $71.78 per barrel and Brent crude at $75.53 on Tuesday morning. Both key benchmarks gained more than 1.5% on the day, helped by economic optimism out of China and lingering concerns about potential disruptions from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. On Tuesday, China's commerce ministry said that the country would lift its total crude oil import quota for private importers for 2025 by 6%—to 5.14 million bpd, per Reuters calculations. This would see 257 million metric…

Oil prices are on the rise again, this time driven by renewed optimism over Chinese crude demand.- Europe is considering its options to tighten sanctions vis-à-vis Russian LNG imports into Europe, having banned LNG transshipment operations from 2025 onwards, whilst gas importers keep on buying more.- Thanks to higher utilization rates and the recent (surreptitious) launch of Arctic LNG 2, Russia increased its total LNG exports by 5% year-over-year in January-September 2024, to 24.4 million tonnes.- The share of Russian LNG in the European…

China shipped in September the second-highest number of electric vehicles to the European Union on record, as the EU prepares to slap hefty import tariffs on Chinese EVs due to unfair subsidizing. Last month, the EU imported a total of 60,517 EVs from China, the second-highest number on record, following the October 2023 record-high of 67,455 Chinese EVs imported into the EU, right after the block announced it would investigate China’s subsidies, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing customs data. Early this month, the European Commission…

China shipped in September the second-highest number of electric vehicles to the European Union on record, as the EU prepares to slap hefty import tariffs on Chinese EVs due to unfair subsidizing. Last month, the EU imported a total of 60,517 EVs from China, the second-highest number on record, following the October 2023 record-high of 67,455 Chinese EVs imported into the EU, right after the block announced it would investigate China’s subsidies, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing customs data. Early this month, the European Commission…

China shipped in September the second-highest number of electric vehicles to the European Union on record, as the EU prepares to slap hefty import tariffs on Chinese EVs due to unfair subsidizing. Last month, the EU imported a total of 60,517 EVs from China, the second-highest number on record, following the October 2023 record-high of 67,455 Chinese EVs imported into the EU, right after the block announced it would investigate China’s subsidies, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing customs data. Early this month, the European Commission…

Mild weather across the Lower 48 has capped natural gas demand, keeping futures locked in a bearish sideways trend, unable to breach the $3 per million British thermal units level. Goldman's Thomas Evans published a note on Monday about the US NatGas market, pointing out that October's unusually warm weather in the Lower 48 has led to the third-lowest Heating Degree Days (HDDs) for October since 1963. "The big picture since the start of last week is that not much has changed except that we've rolled one week forward with warmer forecasts for start…

China has raised by 6% the total import quota for private importers for next year, to about 5.14 million barrels per day (bpd), the commerce ministry of the world’s top crude oil importer said on Tuesday. The combined import quota for non-state-owned companies was raised to 257 million metric tons, or 5.14 million bpd per Reuters calculations, from 243 million tons in quotas allocated to private refiners for this year. Private refiners in China need to be granted crude import quotas to be able to import oil to process at their refineries.…

China has raised by 6% the total import quota for private importers for next year, to about 5.14 million barrels per day (bpd), the commerce ministry of the world’s top crude oil importer said on Tuesday. The combined import quota for non-state-owned companies was raised to 257 million metric tons, or 5.14 million bpd per Reuters calculations, from 243 million tons in quotas allocated to private refiners for this year. Private refiners in China need to be granted crude import quotas to be able to import oil to process at their refineries.…

Russian LNG accounted for 20% of the EU’s liquefied natural gas imports in the first nine months of 2024, compared to 14% for the same period last year, amid markedly lower EU imports of the super-chilled fuel, a new report by the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) showed on Tuesday. While the Russian LNG share of the EU’s total LNG imports grew, it was a share of a smaller pie. In the third quarter of 2024 alone, EU imports of LNG slumped by 23% compared to a year earlier, ACER, the EU regulator, said in the…

Over the past two decades, the shale revolution largely pushed aside interest in the exploration and development of offshore hydrocarbons. The combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling enabled the United States to significantly increase its production of oil and natural gas from tight oil formations, with the Shale Patch accounting for 36% of total U.S. crude oil production. However, there are growing signs that the U.S. shale boom could be close to a peak. Whereas overall output is close to record levels, the amount of oil recovered…

Soaring U.S. oil exports have made Corpus Christi the world’s third-largest crude export terminal as ports in the U.S. Gulf Coast are shipping growing volumes of American energy to the international markets, including crude oil, fuels, and LNG.   The Port of Corpus Christi has just announced record-high volumes moved through the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, thanks to rising shipments of crude oil. The port currently handles more than half of all U.S. crude oil exports and is also the top LNG point of export. Corpus Christi is expanding…

Ten days ago, the Biden administration expanded sanctions on Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical sectors in response to Iran’s October 1 attack on Israel, its second direct attack on Israel this year. According to the White House, Iran’s oil exports are enabled by a network of illicit shipping facilitators in multiple jurisdictions which, through obfuscation and deception, load and transport Iranian oil for sale to buyers in Asia, China in particular. The new measures essentially mean the U.S. can target any part of Iran’s…

On October 16, 2024, the refiner Phillips 66 announced that it will cease operations at its Los Angeles-area refinery in the fourth quarter of 2025. This announcement came a few days after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law placing additional regulations on refineries. The closure will affect approximately 600 employees and 300 contractors that currently work at the Los Angeles-area refinery. Politico reported that this closure would also impact 8% of the state’s already tight gasoline production. Although Phillips 66 spokesperson…

Putin will drive that message home in Kazan from October 22-24 as he positions the BRICS grouping of countries as a counterweight to the West in global politics and trade through a newly expanded version of the bloc sometimes referred to as BRICS+ that includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as previous members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. "BRICS once again has fresh air coming into its lungs, in part because the Western-led order and its organizations are experiencing disarray," Carlos Solar, a…

Oil markets have kicked off the new week on a strong footing with oil prices climbing after Chinese banks adopted extra stimulus measures in a bid to spur economic growth. Brent crude for December delivery gained 2.01% to trade at $74.53 per barrel at 13.53 pm ET, while WTI crude for November delivery was up 2.61% to trade at $71.03 per barrel.  Last month, the PBOC cut banks' reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points and the benchmark seven-day reverse repo rate by 20 basis points, the most aggressive stimulus since the pandemic. …

Authored by Malcom Davis via RealClearDefense, SpaceX took a big step towards full reusability of space launchers on 13 October, a step towards a transformation in accessing space far more cheaply, frequently and with big payloads. The remarkably successful fifth test flight of the Starship launcher on that day saw a spectacular recovery of the rocket’s 300-ton first stage, Super Heavy, into the arms of the launch pad gantry. The second stage, also called Starship, meanwhile climbed and accelerated to almost orbital velocity and splashed…

The European Union has kicked off the process of choosing between eight bidders that supply its 9-million-euro joint purchasing platform for critical minerals and energy, Reuters has reported. The bloc mooted the idea of pooling together buying orders in a bid to achieve more favorable deals and prices for critical minerals shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The EU aims to finalize a contract by the end of the year, following which it will develop sections of the platform for individual products early next year. It’s not yet clear…

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Javier Blas has predicted that oil markets will be oversupplied in 2025 thanks to unwinding OPEC production cuts as well as increased non-OPEC supply led by the United States, Canada and Guyana, among other regions.  Blas has acknowledged that oil demand is not as weak as oil prices are implying, pointing out that demand growth is still clocking in at ~1 million barrels per day despite the rapid adoption of electric vehicles coupled with improving energy efficiency of consumer appliances. However, he has warned…

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Javier Blas has predicted that oil markets will be oversupplied in 2025 thanks to unwinding OPEC production cuts as well as increased non-OPEC supply led by the United States, Canada and Guyana, among other regions.  Blas has acknowledged that oil demand is not as weak as oil prices are implying, pointing out that demand growth is still clocking in at ~1 million barrels per day despite the rapid adoption of electric vehicles coupled with improving energy efficiency of consumer appliances. However, he has warned…