Iraq has been facing a critical oil export crisis since tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz largely seized up. About a month ago, Iraq reached a temporary agreement with Iran to allow its ships to sail through the waterway; however, additional war risk premiums for Persian Gulf transits have increased dramatically, rendering transport through the route uneconomical. Unlike Iran, which relies heavily on a shadow fleet of tankers to transport its oil, Iraq lacks a large national fleet, forcing it to rely on third parties. Lack of shipping…

Peak demand in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) territory could more than quadruple to 367,790 MW by 2032, driven primarily by data centers as well as other large load customers, the grid operator said in a preliminary forecast published Wednesday and noted by Utility Dive. ERCOT, which serves most of Texas, set its current peak demand record of 85,508 MW in August 2023.  The forecast is based on ERCOT’s economic forecasts as well as information provided by utilities working with medium…

Seven weeks after the war in the Middle East began, the world has already lost 500 million barrels of oil supply, equal to around $50 billion at an average price of $100 per barrel, around which futures prices have been hovering since February 28. The losses are enormous and continue to pile up as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20 million barrels per day of oil supply moved before the war, remains severely restricted, and tensions in the region escalated again. Even if traffic were restored today at full capacity, oil and LNG supply…

Pakistan has been at the center of media coverage of the Middle East war as the country that took up the initiative to moderate peace talks. It also happens to be the country arguably most hurt by the war without being directly involved in the hostilities. Pakistan is a big importer of liquefied natural gas from Qatar. With QatarEnergy suspending production following Iranian strikes on its LNG infrastructure, Pakistan has been in a race with many others to secure deliveries from alternative sources. Yet Pakistan is among the poorest nations in…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 4.4 million barrels in the week ending April 17. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories rose by 6.10 million barrels. Analysts had expected a 1 million barrel draw. Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) continue to draw down to alleviate the pressure on prices. For week ending April 17, 4.2 million barrels left the SPR, bringing the new total to 405 million barrels. This is 320.5 million barrels shy of maximum capacity.…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 4.4 million barrels in the week ending April 17. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories rose by 6.10 million barrels. Analysts had expected a 1 million barrel draw. Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) continue to draw down to alleviate the pressure on prices. For week ending April 17, 4.2 million barrels left the SPR, bringing the new total to 405 million barrels. This is 320.5 million barrels shy of maximum capacity.…

The world is on the verge of a geothermal revolution. Until recently, the clean energy technology was only viable in very specific geological areas where the heat from the Earth’s core naturally reached the surface of the planet, as in Iceland’s geysers and volcanoes, but now, with improved drilling technologies, advanced geothermal energy systems could very soon be feasible and affordable virtually anywhere on Earth. And while the sector is nascent, it has some critical advantages over other energy forms, meaning that it could revolutionize…

Last week, Goldman analysts led by Mark Delaney laid out a detailed roadmap for clients on how autonomous vehicles could reshape America’s highways through the 2030s, with a particular focus on “the impact of AI on profit pools.” In a separate report, Goldman analysts led by Allen Chang covered the rapid expansion of China’s robotaxi fleet, highlighting how both superpowers now appear to be locked in a race to automate roads and highways. “We expect a strong ramp up of robotaxis in China, with the robotaxi fleet in…

China is likely to return to buying large volumes of oil within weeks after selling down inventories during the peak of the Iran supply disruption, according to Mercuria. Marco Dunand, chief executive of the trading house, said at the FT Commodities Summit that China has been drawing from commercial stocks accumulated ahead of the crisis, effectively stepping back from the market as prices surged and Middle East flows tightened. That sell-off is a critical and possibly underappreciated part of the recent balance. China entered 2026 with a sizable…

Western mining companies and investors continue to flock to Kazakhstan in search of deals, drawn by the country’s abundance of minerals and its comparatively well-developed legal framework. But Astana, buoyed by Washington’s and Brussels’ increasing interest in critical minerals, has begun tinkering with the mining sector’s legal framework, making incremental edits to increase the state’s role and ensure the government gets a larger cut of the profits. Changes to the tax code and sub-soil use law enacted over the last…

Primary oil processing at Rosneft’s Novokuibyshevsk refinery has been halted. The outage, which began on April 18 after a Ukrainian drone strike, encompasses the first stage of crude processing at one of Russia’s refineries in the Samara region, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday. The outage follows attacks reported on Saturday by Samara region governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, who said the Novokuibyshevsk and Syzran refineries had been targeted. The Novokuibyshevsk plant is operated by Rosneft and processed 5.74 million metric tons…

While diplomatic efforts struggle to stabilize access to the Strait of Hormuz amid tensions between the United States and Iran, Eurasian trade is increasingly being redirected toward overland alternatives, with the Trans-Caspian Transport Route, also known as the Middle Corridor, emerging as a key diversification route in Eurasian logistics. The World Bank described the Middle Corridor back in 2023 as a strategically important but structurally constrained route. While geopolitical fragmentation, driven in part by Russia's war in Ukraine, has increased…

Primary oil processing at Rosneft’s Novokuibyshevsk refinery has been halted. The outage, which began on April 18 after a Ukrainian drone strike, encompasses the first stage of crude processing at one of Russia’s refineries in the Samara region, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday. The outage follows attacks reported on Saturday by Samara region governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, who said the Novokuibyshevsk and Syzran refineries had been targeted. The Novokuibyshevsk plant is operated by Rosneft and processed 5.74 million metric tons…

Norway kept petroleum production near peak levels in March 2026—but the more important signal for oil markets is that the country is now operating with virtually no spare capacity. At a time when global supply remains highly sensitive to geopolitical disruptions, one of the world’s most reliable non-OPEC producers has little left to give. According to preliminary figures from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, total liquids production averaged around 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, including crude oil, NGLs, and condensate.…

Norway kept petroleum production near peak levels in March 2026—but the more important signal for oil markets is that the country is now operating with virtually no spare capacity. At a time when global supply remains highly sensitive to geopolitical disruptions, one of the world’s most reliable non-OPEC producers has little left to give. According to preliminary figures from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, total liquids production averaged around 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, including crude oil, NGLs, and condensate.…

Norway kept petroleum production near peak levels in March 2026—but the more important signal for oil markets is that the country is now operating with virtually no spare capacity. At a time when global supply remains highly sensitive to geopolitical disruptions, one of the world’s most reliable non-OPEC producers has little left to give. According to preliminary figures from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, total liquids production averaged around 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, including crude oil, NGLs, and condensate.…

U.S. intervention in Venezuela, with illegitimate President Nicolas Maduro snatched in a daring January 2026 night raid, opened the country's oil industry to foreign investment. While President Donald Trump is aggressively pushing for Big Oil to invest in Venezuela, energy majors are taking a more sober approach. Venezuela's heavily corroded oil infrastructure, responsible for a nationwide environmental catastrophe, will require tens of billions of dollars to remediate before production will rise significantly. This, along with an ecological crisis…

Oil markets are on edge as delayed U.S.-Iran talks and Trump’s warning on the ceasefire raise the risk of renewed conflict, with Brent crude potentially spiking back toward $100 per barrel. Oil Whiplash, Gas Freefall: LNG Shrugs Off Hormuz Chaos - Crude oil prices have spent most of March-April seesawing up and down, reacting to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts. Global LNG prices have been declining for the past four weeks, defying upward swings in other commodities. - Northeast Asia’s…

Environmental activists on Tuesday launched a new lawsuit against Shell in the Netherlands, demanding that the supermajor stop bringing new oil and gas fields on stream to avoid additional emissions. Friends of the Earth – the Netherlands, or Milieudefensie, delivered the summons to Shell on Tuesday, in the second such case against the oil and gas major in the country. In 2024, a Dutch court of appeal handed a victory to Shell in the first landmark climate case, overturning a lower court ruling that had obliged the supermajor to slash its…

A sustained $100-per-barrel oil price could unlock up to 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of additional crude supply across South America by the mid-2030s, according to new analysis by Rystad Energy. The finding comes as the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced a sharp upward revision in our forecasted average 2026 oil price, from $60 Brent per barrel in January to $89 per barrel today. At current production levels, government revenues across South America are expected to rise by approximately $43 billion this year alone relative…