Saudi Arabia’s energy giant Aramco is best known for its energy investments, but the company is also busy diversifying across industries. Right now, Aramco is building a presence in artificial intelligence development via its venture capital division, eyeing not just returns but possibly nurturing a local AI industry in Saudi Arabia. Aramco Ventures has $7.5 billion in assets under management and is putting a lot of that into “deep technology startups” founded on “solid science and engineering”, according to the venture…

The government’s borrowing costs have risen to their joint highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, after a sharp jump in the oil price prompted a sell-off in UK debt because of concerns over inflation. The yield on the 10-year gilt – the main benchmark for any government’s long-term ability to borrow – climbed back above five per cent for only the third time since the Iran war broke out on Tuesday, laying bare the extent to which Britain is almost uniquely exposed to the ongoing energy shock. The UK’s government…

Germany is hunting for solutions to reroute crude oil supplies to the PCK Schwedt refinery after Russia said it would halt Kazakh oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline starting May 1, with roughly 43,000 barrels per day (bpd) now at risk. Berlin is now in talks with Poland over moving replacement barrels through the port of Gdansk, with potential deliveries flowing onward to Schwedt, the refinery that supplies much of eastern Germany, including Berlin, with fuels. The plant has become a recurring pressure point since Germany moved away from…

China’s top refiner posted a strong first quarter as higher crude prices lifted inventory values and stable domestic fuel sales helped to offset pressure from disrupted Middle East supply. China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) reported first-quarter net income of 17 billion yuan ($2.49 billion), up 28% from a year earlier, according to a Shanghai exchange filing. The results land as major oil companies begin showing how the Iran-driven supply shock is feeding through earnings. Throughput at Sinopec slipped 0.2% year over year…

Trump's blockade is having a predictable effect on Iran's economy and oil industry, with reports that the regime is scrambling to repurpose old and rusty tankers as floating storage.  Kharg Island is hitting capacity and the results could lead to disaster for Iran's oil wells.  The regime is reportedly moving to expand crude storage at the island, where around 90% of their energy exports are processed, by reactivating a 30-year-old crude carrier called M/T Nasha.  It's a bad sign for Iran, indicating that the country’s main…

Active lawsuits in Michigan and Wisconsin are targeting sections of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline over environmental concerns in a complex and ever-expanding legal fight. Michigan has an active state-court lawsuit against Enbridge, while in Wisconsin, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and environmental groups are challenging the pipeline in federal and state court. In April, the United States Supreme Court sided with Michigan that a ruling over a section of an ageing pipeline beneath a Great Lakes channel must stay in state court.…

The European Union would prefer Southeast Asian countries to diversify their oil supply by buying oil from producers other than Russia, the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday during meetings of representatives with ASEAN countries. Southeast Asian economies such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam were the first to feel fuel shortages after the blocked Strait of Hormuz cut off most of their regular crude and fuel supply from the Middle East. The Philippines, which sourced 98% of all its oil from the Middle…

China is on course to nearly double its data center capacity within five years, with 28 gigawatts (GW) of new projects expected to come online by 2030, adding to the 32 GW already installed as of the end of last year, according to new analysis from Rystad Energy. Based on currently announced projects, with additional capacity likely to follow, this expansion is expected to lift data center power consumption to 289 terawatt-hours (TWh) by 2030. That is more than double levels seen last year and would account for around 2.3% of China’s total…

The European Union would prefer Southeast Asian countries to diversify their oil supply by buying oil from producers other than Russia, the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday during meetings of representatives with ASEAN countries. Southeast Asian economies such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam were the first to feel fuel shortages after the blocked Strait of Hormuz cut off most of their regular crude and fuel supply from the Middle East. The Philippines, which sourced 98% of all its oil from the Middle…

Brent surges above $110 as fears grow that the U.S.-Iran war could drag into a prolonged conflict, while the UAE’s shock OPEC exit raises questions over a broader Middle East energy realignment. Oil Boom, Currency Zoom: Energy Winners Surge as Importers Feel the Burn- The US-Iran conflict has propelled currencies from energy-exporting countries into the limelight, with windfall profits from exports of oil, gas and metals helping them to outperform the US dollar.- Strategists from JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank have singled out the Norwegian…

The world’s top crude exporter, Saudi Arabia, is expected to slash its official selling prices (OSPs) for crude loading for Asia in June from the record-highs for May as the premiums of the Middle Eastern benchmarks eased this month. Saudi oil giant Aramco is widely expected to announce in early May a reduction of the OSP of the flagship Arab Light crude by between $5 and $12 per barrel compared to the Oman/Dubai average, off which Middle Eastern producers price their crude going to Asia, a Reuters survey of industry sources showed on Tuesday.…

The world’s top crude exporter, Saudi Arabia, is expected to slash its official selling prices (OSPs) for crude loading for Asia in June from the record-highs for May as the premiums of the Middle Eastern benchmarks eased this month. Saudi oil giant Aramco is widely expected to announce in early May a reduction of the OSP of the flagship Arab Light crude by between $5 and $12 per barrel compared to the Oman/Dubai average, off which Middle Eastern producers price their crude going to Asia, a Reuters survey of industry sources showed on Tuesday.…

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday that Iran had "informed" his administration it was in a "state of collapse" and urgently wanted the Strait of Hormuz reopened.  "Iran has just informed us that they are in a 'State of Collapse.' They want us to 'Open the Hormuz Strait,' as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation (Which I believe they will be able to do!)," Trump wrote. He did not say who in or from Iran conveyed the message or what exactly it entailed, and Iran's own messaging told a different…

Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced strong support for Tehran in its conflict with the United States and Israel as he greeted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi for talks in St. Petersburg on April 27. Meeting nearly two months after US and Israeli air strikes on Iran started a war that sent shock waves around the world, both Putin and Araqchi underlined the strength of ties between their countries. "We see how bravely and heroically the Iranian people are fighting for their independence, for their sovereignty," Putin said after meeting…

Wall Street is starting to price who can actually deliver rare earth supply inside the United States, not just extract it from the ground, initiating coverage on REalloys as it moves to expand the first commercial-scale rare earths metallization facility in North America. Most rare earth material still runs through China before it reaches the end user, but in fewer than nine months, these China-origin materials will be fully banned from use in U.S. defense systems. That shrinks the supply base overnight. Very few companies are even trying to build…

Record-high U.S. LNG exports have managed to mitigate so far the shock supply loss from Qatar, but American exporters are unlikely to continue running facilities at full capacity for all of this year as maintenance and hurricane season are likely to curtail some supply in the coming months. Qatar’s LNG is offline, and so are the UAE exports, due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, where no LNG tanker has transited since the war began at the end of February. Buyers are now looking at much more expensive LNG supply as the de facto closure…

Warnings are multiplying that the oil supply shock caused by the war in the Middle East is going to cause permanent changes in demand patterns. The longer the war continues, the higher the chances are of those changes materializing as lost barrels pile up. There is up to 1 billion barrels of oil in lost supply, “all but guaranteed”, Bloomberg reported last week, noting that demand is already being destroyed in Asia. Yet the destruction is spreading across the world slowly and quietly, but surely, as governments are about to run out…

Previously, we reported that Oil & Gas stocks are on track to outperform the broader market by its widest margin on record, driven by Middle East conflict, rising demand from the AI boom, and a continued rotation away from expensive technology and growth stocks. The Energy Sector has netted a 26.6% return in the year-to-date compared to 4.7% rise by the S&P 500, the best sector performance and nearly double the 14.1% gain by second-placed Materials Sector. Oil prices were rallying again on Monday, with Brent crude for June delivery up 2.92%…

I believe the global financial markets are now in what I would call a Wile E. Coyote moment, frequently depicted in the old Warner Bros. animated series called "The Road Runner Show." In this cartoon series, a coyote, while pursuing a roadrunner, would inevitably end up running off a cliff and be suspended in mid-air until he looked down and hurtled to the bottom. I say this because, in case you didn't notice, last week we had the first public admission that fear is starting to grip monetary officials as a result of the Iran conflict. The United…

As nuclear fusion technologies move towards commercialization, the industry will need hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars of new capital, either from public or private sources,  in order to grow. Two nuclear fusion companies have chosen to access the public capital markets via special purpose acquisition corporations. (SPACs).which are often referred to as “blank check companies” because investors give money to a sponsor, typically an investment bank, to find a good business to invest in, without knowing in advance…