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This week, Tesla North America and Elon Musk announced that the largest and most advanced lithium refinery in the United States is now operational. The Tesla Lithium Refinery just outside of Corpus Christi, Texas, is another step toward the U.S. goal of having domestic refined lithium resources to counter China’s market dominance. “Our Lithium Refinery ushers in energy independence for North America,” Tesla North America said in the caption of a video announcing that the plant is operational, just two years after breaking ground.…
Crude oil prices are in retreat after rising on the possibility of U.S. strikes on Iran. Before the retreat, however, Brent crude and WTI had jumped to the highest in months, countering bearish forecasts for the year—and tearing traders between geopolitics and fundamentals. In fundamentals, the majority of observers and forecasters are unanimous that the supply of crude oil is substantially higher than demand. In fact, Goldman Sachs recently revised its price predictions for 2026, saying it now expected Brent crude to go even lower after…
In the second installment of a three-part series focused on South American pipeline infrastructure, we head to Brazil. The country faces the challenge of reinforcing its pipeline network to absorb growing pre-salt gas while managing declining imports from Bolivia. Although higher volumes of Argentine gas are expected to reach Brazil via Bolivia over the medium to long term, network upgrades will be required to ensure security of supply during the transition. TAG is the gas transmission operator responsible for the main transport corridor connecting…
Russia’s oil-and-gas budget suffered a painful blow in 2025. Revenues from the sector fell 24% to 8.48 trillion roubles, the weakest showing since 2020. That matters because oil and gas still bankroll roughly a quarter of the federal budget, and that budget is being chewed up by defense and security spending at a pace hard to ignore. This is not because Russia pumped less crude. Oil prices fell more than 18% last year. That is the sharpest annual drop since the pandemic crash. On top of that, the rouble strengthened—bad timing. When…
Oil prices fell sharply in early Asian trade on Thursday, with both major crude benchmarks retreating by around 3 percent as markets reacted to comments from U.S. President Donald Trump that appeared to lessen the likelihood of an imminent U.S. military strike on Iran. At the time of writing, WTI crude was down $1.86, or 3.00 percent, at $60.16 per barrel, while Brent crude stood at $64.57, down $1.95, or 2.93 percent on the day. This drop in prices represents a significant reversal from earlier in the week when geopolitical risk sent prices climbing…
