News
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…
A race for critical minerals is redefining global geopolitics as world powers rush to shore up supply chains of the finite materials that power the energy and tech sectors. Demand for rare earth metals and other critical minerals has seen a meteoric rise in recent years as the world increasingly electrifies and the tech sector becomes ever more robust and omnipresent. Due to the central role of these ingredients in global and national economies, competition for these supply chains is far more than just a commercial concern – it’s become…
The UK on Wednesday awarded a record-breaking 8.4 gigawatts (GW) capacity of offshore wind in its latest auction round, which puts Britain “firmly on track to achieve its clean power mission by 2030,” the government said. The Contracts for Difference AR7 auction secured offshore wind capacity capable of generating enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of 12 million UK homes. “The results deliver the biggest single procurement of offshore wind energy in British and European history - confounding…
