Oil prices slipped in early Asian trade on Thursday as markets digested renewed hope for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal and braced for a key OPEC+ meeting scheduled to take place on Sunday.  At the time of writing, front-month West Texas Intermediate had dipped by about 0.55% to $58.33 per barrel: Similarly, Brent Crude had fallen by 0.48% and was trading around $62.83: The recent softness follows a slight gain in Wednesday's session when prices bounced off one-month lows, but analysts warned that those upticks were likely driven by short covering…

Australian space company Fleet Space has used a satellite-enabled exploration platform to uncover a large lithium deposit in Quebec, demonstrating how these space vehicles can be used to expedite and streamline the mineral exploration process. According to Fleet Space, its latest findings indicate that the lithium deposit could be much larger than earlier thought, with the company estimating the prospective resource at 329 million metric tonnes of lithium oxide. Discovering mineral resources has traditionally been a slow, uncertain, and expensive…

Vaalco Energy (NYSE:EGY) is small cap, Houston, Texas-based producer of oil and gas. Its original focus was offshore in the African country of Gabon, but a few years ago it diversified through a beneficial merger that expanded its global footprint. The company delivered a strong Q-4, 2023 earnings report that included news of its further diversification and entry into Côte d'Ivoire. The stock rallied to nearly $8.00 per share following the release of that report. A mixed report for Q-2 that year took the wind out of the company's sails, and…

Drivers in half of U.S. states are enjoying average gasoline prices below $3 per gallon this Thanksgiving holiday, and prices at the pump are set to further decline going into Christmas. Lower crude oil prices, cheaper winter blends, weaker seasonal demand despite the bump in Thanksgiving travel, and refineries completing autumn maintenance have converged to push the national average down to $3.055 per gallon of regular gasoline on November 25, just as millions of Americans are hitting or preparing to hit the road. The national average price of…

Bolivia’s hydrocarbons sector began the 21st century from a position of strength. Major discoveries, steady foreign investment, and robust exports underpinned national development. However, the 2006 nationalization fundamentally changed sector dynamics. While the state captured a larger share of revenues, the policy environment gradually discouraged upstream investment. Exploration waned, reserves declined, and production began to fall just as regional markets became more competitive. Bolivia still has meaningful geological potential, but…

Shale drillers are finding new and exciting ways to boost production in the Permian and elsewhere. This can make the industry more resilient to international price swings—but never fully resilient and never for very long. The pain from the prolonged price depression is beginning to bite in. Back in October, Kpler warned that U.S. oil production could shed 700,000 barrels daily if international oil prices slid lower than $60 per barrel. The analytics firm cited drilled but uncompleted well data showing the inventory of these wells had shrunk…

The Serbian government is preparing an amendment to the country’s budget law that will allow it to nationalize the Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) refinery, majority owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, if no third party offers quickly emerge. Last week, NIS submitted a request to the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to continue operations until negotiations for an ownership change conclude. "One of the amendments that will be submitted will be the one that will foresee the circumstance that at some…

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell sharply this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Wednesday ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. The total rig count in the US fell by 10 to 544 this week, according to Baker Hughes, down 38 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs saw a big dip in the reporting period, according to the data, falling by 12 rigs and reaching 407. Year over year, this represents a 70-rig decline. The number of gas rigs rose by 3 to 130, which…

Lebanon and Cyprus have signed a maritime demarcation deal, paving the way for energy cooperation between the two countries, including exploration of offshore gas fields in the Mediterranean. The deal was signed at Lebanon's presidential palace on Wednesday, with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides telling reporters it signals deeper cooperation between the two countries and the broader EU.  Lebanon and Cyprus had agreed to a preliminary mapping deal in 2007, but did not advance on the matter due to delays in its ratification by the Lebanese…

U.S. and European oil and gas majors are back to doing business in Libya, a decade after pulling out as civil war engulfed one of the top oil producers and the biggest oil resource holder in Africa.   Amid a relatively calm security situation this year, Libya launched its first bid round for oil and gas exploration in 18 years. The previous such bid round was held in 2007, four years before the toppling of Muammar Ghaddafi in 2011, which led to a protracted civil war in the country with various factions and tribal interests vying for control…

Unprofitable coal-fired power plants and uncertainty about electricity and natural gas prices and the cost of carbon emission allowances have forced Czech energy firm Sev.en to decide to close three coal plants by March 2027 at the latest. Sev.en, owned by Czech energy investor and billionaire Pavel Tykac, on Wednesday said it would close its coal-fired power plants at Pocerady, Chvaletice, and Kladno at the earliest possible legal deadline, December 2026, or in March 2027 at the latest. The closure of the three major coal plants will remove 2.4…

Unprofitable coal-fired power plants and uncertainty about electricity and natural gas prices and the cost of carbon emission allowances have forced Czech energy firm Sev.en to decide to close three coal plants by March 2027 at the latest. Sev.en, owned by Czech energy investor and billionaire Pavel Tykac, on Wednesday said it would close its coal-fired power plants at Pocerady, Chvaletice, and Kladno at the earliest possible legal deadline, December 2026, or in March 2027 at the latest. The closure of the three major coal plants will remove 2.4…

Unprofitable coal-fired power plants and uncertainty about electricity and natural gas prices and the cost of carbon emission allowances have forced Czech energy firm Sev.en to decide to close three coal plants by March 2027 at the latest. Sev.en, owned by Czech energy investor and billionaire Pavel Tykac, on Wednesday said it would close its coal-fired power plants at Pocerady, Chvaletice, and Kladno at the earliest possible legal deadline, December 2026, or in March 2027 at the latest. The closure of the three major coal plants will remove 2.4…

White House envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow next week, the Kremlin said, amid accelerating efforts to cement a US-backed peace proposal that many Ukrainians -- and European leaders -- are wary of.The meeting in Moscow, confirmed by foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov on November 26, came hours after US President Donald Trump suggested Witkoff, and possibly Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, would fly to the Russian capital.Witkoff, a real estate developer with no diplomatic background whom Trump has charged with leading efforts to find…

Abu Dhabi-based energy firm Global South Utilities (GSU) will implement solar, wind, and distribution networks expansion projects in Yemen worth $1 billion as the United Arab Emirates continues to fund energy projects in the war-torn country. “This one-billion-dollar portfolio expands an energy system capable of supporting a larger economy and a more active market in Yemen,” GSU’s chief executive Ali Al Shimmari said in a statement carried by Reuters. Global South Utilities (GSU) was founded with a mission to deliver sustainable,…

Abu Dhabi-based energy firm Global South Utilities (GSU) will implement solar, wind, and distribution networks expansion projects in Yemen worth $1 billion as the United Arab Emirates continues to fund energy projects in the war-torn country. “This one-billion-dollar portfolio expands an energy system capable of supporting a larger economy and a more active market in Yemen,” GSU’s chief executive Ali Al Shimmari said in a statement carried by Reuters. Global South Utilities (GSU) was founded with a mission to deliver sustainable,…

Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 2.8 million barrels during the week ending November 21, after losing 3.4 million barrels in the week prior, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 426.9 million barrels according to government data, which is 4% below the five-year average for this time of year. The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which suggested that crude oil inventories…

European traders and fuel importers are currently steering clear of diesel from the Dangote refinery in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest and newest, because the current fuel samples contain sulfur and other components exceeding the European winter fuel specifications, traders and market sources tell Argus. Despite the tight fuel market in the European region, buyers are avoiding diesel from the Dangote refinery because of elevated sulfur and cetane numbers.   The current lack of exports from Nigeria to Europe is due to diesel not meeting…

The Labour government is set to hold fire on pushing through sweeping reforms to nuclear energy due to a legal adviser’s concerns over the “UK’s environmental, trade and human rights obligations”, it has been reported.  The Innovate UK member John Fingleton published a damning report on red tape blocking the expansion of the country’s nuclear industry on Monday. His extensive report prompted calls from across the political spectrum for Rachel Reeves to accept recommendations easing planning rules and lowering…

Oil prices recovered slightly in early Asian trading on Wednesday after falling to one-month lows in Tuesday's session. Sentiment in markets remains bearish, with traders focused on a potential peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at around $62.72 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate was changing hands at $58.17 - both up by 0.38%. Against a backdrop of increasingly bearish signals, the American Petroleum Institute provided a rare piece of positive news for oil prices, with U.S. inventories falling…