Geopolitical developments have moved oil prices in both directions in recent days. Yet, the movements up or down were short-lived and smaller than they would have been if the market were tight or balanced.   But the feared oversupply is already here, manifested in the largest volume of oil in floating storage accumulated since the 2020 pandemic year, when the crash in demand led to a major stock surge both on land and on tankers at sea. The well-supplied market with Brent crude prices barely hanging on to the $60 per barrel handle has kept…

Everyone seems to be in agreement: global oil supply is greater than the demand for the fuel. The consensus stands despite the fact that some of the world’s biggest storage hubs are far from overflowing. Now, many forecast even more production coming into this oversupplied market. It would only hasten the inevitable rebalancing. Kpler reported earlier this month that the amount of oil on tankers had gone up to the highest since 2020, reaching 1.3 billion barrels. But storage hubs in the Caribbean and South Africa are sitting half-empty, and…

The prospect of a peace deal in Ukraine has been gaining momentum in the global oil market over the past few days, stripping away part of the geopolitical risk premium that has kept prices elevated since Russia’s invasion on 24 February 2022. Following meetings last week in Berlin with Ukrainian and European officials, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner stated that consensus was reached on around 90% of the issues within a 20-point peace plan. Ukraine has indicated that it may drop its NATO membership bid in exchange for legally…

America’s $30.6 trillion economy is greater than China, Germany, and Japan combined, with real GDP set to rise 2% this year. In comparison, India’s economy is projected to grow 6.6%, among the fastest rates across the world’s largest economies. It is only surpassed by Ireland, as frontloading of exports is expected to expand GDP by a striking 9.1% in 2025. This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows the state of the world economy in 2025, based on projections from the IMF’s latest World Economic…

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (NYSE:DJT) have surged nearly 70% after the company agreed to merge with fusion startup TAE Technologies in a $6 billion deal. Under the terms of the deal, shareholders of each company will own roughly half of the combined entity on a fully diluted equity basis. Trump Media, majority owned by U.S. President Donald Trump, will now become the holding company for TAE Power Solutions and TAE Life Sciences alongside current holdings Truth Social, Truth+ and Truth.Fi.  Founded in 1998, TAE Technologies…

The marketing deck for the next decade of energy storage has a favorite protagonist: Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP).  It’s the "sensible" chemistry. No cobalt, no nickel, no ethical hand-wringing over mines in the DRC, and…crucially...no thermal runaway that turns an electric SUV into a roadside bonfire. This isn't just a story about a safer battery…t’s a story about the strategic surrender of the West’s "premium" battery lead to China’s industrial floor... In 2024, LFP had already captured nearly half of…

Shell and INEOS Energy have struck oil at a deepwater exploration well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, confirming a new discovery in the high-pressure Norphlet formation. Shell and INEOS Energy said the Nashville exploration well encountered high-quality oil more than 26,000 feet below the seabed, according to industry reporting The well was drilled in deepwater acreage targeting the Norphlet play, a technically demanding formation associated with extreme pressure and temperature conditions that require advanced well design, specialized drilling fluids,…

Shell and INEOS Energy have struck oil at a deepwater exploration well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, confirming a new discovery in the high-pressure Norphlet formation. Shell and INEOS Energy said the Nashville exploration well encountered high-quality oil more than 26,000 feet below the seabed, according to industry reporting The well was drilled in deepwater acreage targeting the Norphlet play, a technically demanding formation associated with extreme pressure and temperature conditions that require advanced well design, specialized drilling fluids,…

With the supposed need for vast new electricity generation to fuel the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, AI companies are pushing nuclear power as one solution to provide that power for the many data centers they plan to build. (Count me skeptical of the boom and therefore of the need for vast new electricity generation capacity. See here, here, here, here, and here.) AI boosters usually talk about expanding existing nuclear power technologies, that is, fission reactors that run on uranium and (more dangerously)…

Global commodities trader Glencore has acquired a majority stake in Dutch fuel supplier FincoEnergies, the Dutch company revealed on Monday, with industry sources noting that the trader intends to use the acquisition to expand its Northwest European footprint in fuel markets. FincoEnergies is a leading independent supplier of sustainable fuels and decarbonization services, helping transport companies cut emissions with ready-to-use solutions like GoodFuels biofuels, GoodShipping programs, and FuelEU Pooling, enabling them to meet sustainability…

Global commodities trader Glencore has acquired a majority stake in Dutch fuel supplier FincoEnergies, the Dutch company revealed on Monday, with industry sources noting that the trader intends to use the acquisition to expand its Northwest European footprint in fuel markets. FincoEnergies is a leading independent supplier of sustainable fuels and decarbonization services, helping transport companies cut emissions with ready-to-use solutions like GoodFuels biofuels, GoodShipping programs, and FuelEU Pooling, enabling them to meet sustainability…

Global commodities trader Glencore has acquired a majority stake in Dutch fuel supplier FincoEnergies, the Dutch company revealed on Monday, with industry sources noting that the trader intends to use the acquisition to expand its Northwest European footprint in fuel markets. FincoEnergies is a leading independent supplier of sustainable fuels and decarbonization services, helping transport companies cut emissions with ready-to-use solutions like GoodFuels biofuels, GoodShipping programs, and FuelEU Pooling, enabling them to meet sustainability…

The midstream sector is currently undergoing a quiet, expensive transformation. We are moving from the era of "dig it up and see" to a regime of permanent, high-fidelity surveillance. According to a new report, the oil and gas non-destructive testing (NDT) and inspection market is set to climb from $4.06 billion in 2025 to $6.20 billion by 2030. That is an 8.8% compound annual growth rate. On paper, it looks like a boom in high-tech services. In reality, it is a desperate attempt to manage the physical decay of an aging industrial empire. The surge…

An LNG tanker has loaded fuel from a sanctioned Russian export project on the Baltic Sea, vessel-tracking data showed on Monday, as Russia and China are boosting their mutually beneficial LNG trade unfazed by the Western sanctions. The Kunpeng tanker, which is not blacklisted, has loaded LNG from Portovaya, a small export plant on the Baltic Sea run by Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, and departed with the cargo on December 21, according to ship-tracking data from analytics firm Kpler and from LSEG cited by Reuters. Portovaya, Gazprom’s…

The Kremlin maintained its hard line on a Ukraine peace deal, rejecting undisclosed changes proposed by Kyiv and its European allies, as separate US-Russia and US-Ukraine talks wrapped up in Florida. The remarks on December 21 came on the same day that Ukraine accused Russia of abducting civilians from a village in Ukraine's Sumy region and taking about 50 of them across the border into Russia. The situation in the Sumy region remained unclear and details could not immediately be confirmed. In Florida, all sides continued to characterize the various…

The U.S. Department of the Interior is pausing leases for five offshore wind projects, due to national security concerns, Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, said on Monday. Due to national security concerns identified by the Department of War, the Department of the Interior “is PAUSING leases for 5 expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms!” Secretary Burgum posted on X today. “ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED.  @POTUS is bringing common sense back to energy…

The U.S. Department of the Interior is pausing leases for five offshore wind projects, due to national security concerns, Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, said on Monday. Due to national security concerns identified by the Department of War, the Department of the Interior “is PAUSING leases for 5 expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms!” Secretary Burgum posted on X today. “ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED.  @POTUS is bringing common sense back to energy…

The U.S. Department of the Interior is pausing leases for five offshore wind projects, due to national security concerns, Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, said on Monday. Due to national security concerns identified by the Department of War, the Department of the Interior “is PAUSING leases for 5 expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms!” Secretary Burgum posted on X today. “ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED.  @POTUS is bringing common sense back to energy…

The U.S. Department of the Interior is pausing leases for five offshore wind projects, due to national security concerns, Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, said on Monday. Due to national security concerns identified by the Department of War, the Department of the Interior “is PAUSING leases for 5 expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms!” Secretary Burgum posted on X today. “ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED.  @POTUS is bringing common sense back to energy…

The Maritime province of Nova Scotia is known for its lighthouses, lobster, Celtic/Acadian vibe, and Canadian history like the UNESCO heritage site of Old Town Lunenburg. Now it could be put on the map for an entirely different reason: low-carbon, sustainable jet fuel. CBC News reported this week that a proposal for an industrial plant on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore has passed its first regulatory hurdle: environmental approval from the province. The proponent, Nova Sustainable Fuels, backed by European energy giant Octopus Energy, plans…